Outstanding in their field...

We have a small heard of deer that like to hang out in our fields...Sometimes there's 5 or 6 but this morning it was just the 2 of them....

I like the fact that they feel safe here and even graze with the goats now and then..

...playing peek-a-boo amongst the apple trees....

Then they spot Griffin and decide to amble on.

Song for Friday....mothers song...

 This is what it's all about...

 ...years of scissors, glue, markers and crayons...

I am loved.

And I have known, and always will know love.

My reason?...

Why her of course!!

and her...my mom.

 and her...my grandma.

Happy Mothers Day.

How to stop a monster..

Look how beautiful this is...

 

Or how about this?

 

I cannot let another day go by without mentioning the environmental disaster which has struck the coast of the southern United States.

I won't show you any grim reminders of the Exxon Valdez disaster because we've all seen it too many times.

WE DON"T WANT TO SEE IT ANYMORE!

The Enbridge Company in Canada wants to build a pipeline from the tar sands in Alberta (another environmental massacre of the land) to the west coast of B.C.

The government wants to allow oil tankers to ply our coast carrying millions of barrels down this pristine landscape.

The people are saying NO.

One wrong move and......well you know the rest of the story.

Don't let this happen. This is our world regardless of borders.

Life depends on it.

Not just humans...especially everything other than humans.

They have no voice. No choice.

 notankers.ca

 Stop the madness.

May flower..

 I love love love lily of the valley.

I have been trying to get a patch of it going for a few years now and will have to find a better spot for them as they don't seem to like it where I have them.

My grandma used to have an enormous patch of it that ran the whole length of her house...when I would go there in the spring, she would give me a big bouquet which would fill my house with the most heavenly scent.

 I asked her once what her secret was, she just shrugged and giggled...

"I don't have one...they just grow there!"

 “The Song of the Lily of the Valley Fairy”

A poem and illustration by Cicely Mary Barker

 Gentle fairies, hush your singing;
Can you hear my white bells ringing,
Ringing as from far away?
Who can tell me what they say?

 Little snowy bells out-springing
From the stem and softly ringing—
Tell they of a country where
Everything is good and fair? 

Lovely, lovely things for L?
Lilac, Lavender as well;
And, more sweet than rhyming tells,
Lily-of-the-Valley’s bells.

 Happy May

A really BIG tree...

I imagine the names of those who came before me gently fluttering from this massive tree.

How far back can one go?

A journey into your roots is endless..

They run deep and long through time...

As I search for names and dates I ask the questions that will probably remain a mystery...

The little details about a life that isn't recorded in the books...

Her favorite time of year?

His reflection on the sunrise?

A lullaby sung to the new baby?

Did she feed the birds?

What common threads can run through the generations?

Will this blog give future family an idea of who I was?

I would love to know the thoughts and feelings of my great great great great great grandfather who walked the hills of Kilrush, Co.Clare in the 1700's...

Or the tune my great great great grandmother hummed whilst scrubbing clothes looking out into the Ottawa Valley in Ontario...

I suppose these things are just wisps of cloud on the breeze now, but with such an imagination as mine, I like to think I could possibly reinvent these unimportant events...

If you can...ask such things of elders...write them down...embrace the small moments...

Another thought...when did we stop naming our children after ancestors?
As I look at family history, I realize that around the end of the 30's, people weren't using the old names.
My dad and I thought it was from the influence of movies and music and I suppose you weren't obliged to use christian names for baptism like you did in the old days...

(photos: big tree by Mark Requidan. B&W tree by roco_eno on Flikr)

A walk through the woods....

There's a nice little walk up the road from us...just a little notch off the side of the road and if you're not looking for it, you won't see it.
I go up there with Griffin once in a while to have a look at the creek and the few big trees still left there.
On the way up the trail, the fiddle heads are unfurling as graceful as ever...

Then I find this old broken windshield from a car wreck many years ago...

Kind of a pretty mosaic disappearing back into the earth...

Not that I approve of garbage in the bush, on the contrary. It disgusts me to no end, but that's another story.

Look at this gorgeous fungus...
It's called turkey tail.

Then its up the trail, between what I call the gate. These 2 trees are but a few of the big ones left behind from logging 70 or 80 years ago.

I once heard someone say that when you're harvesting trees, you never cut down your biggest ones.
They are your strong lifelines with the good DNA.

The large horizontal cut mark at the bottom of this stump, was made from what was called a springboard.
Back in the day when logging was done by hand, notches were cut into the base of a tree where planks of wood were inserted for the loggers to stand on to work a crosscut saw and axes to cut the tree BY HAND.

For some reason, logging in those days seemed more honorable.
A real manly man job.

I mean, the conditions these men worked under, were rough and brutal.
No giant machinery to come in and plow down the forest in a week.
No sirree...these men would come in at the break of dawn with horse and oxen and work their fingers to the bone to cut down a few trees a day.

Death was a common side effect in the industry as well as life altering, disabling injuries.

...and none of this flying in and out of fancy camps by helicopter...conditions were wet, cold and primitive.
How about those ladies, cooking in camp with their long dresses and tiny pointy shoes!
Don't get me wrong...logging is still one of the most dangerous jobs around but with mechanization and technology, things became much easier.

The woods are quiet now and the undergrowth is lush and strong.
The echoes of the logger have long been silenced.
The creeks and the birdsong are the music of these forests now.

How do they do it?!

This time of year is probably the busiest time for the hummingbirds.

It's here, that I like to sit and patiently watch and catch them in action..

 Here she comes...at first a bit nervous..

But too concerned about eating to turn away...

Sometimes they try to chase each other away, but today they're in a sharing mood...

Even with the wind ruffling their feathers.

And now for a light show by the males!!

Just from the shape of those tiny feathers and the way the light reflects on them!

I think she's impressed!! Wouldn't you be?

And off she goes....