the leitmotif of mid-autumn is deception. a heavy dew that looks like hoarfrost but doesn't kill. roadsides littered with heaps of trash that turn out to be apples. animals that scurry in front of your car's tires that are really flocks of brown leaves or, sometimes, vice versa. sound travels oddly. walking from the top … Continue reading lies
for some reason , fall is the time when deer are most active on my property. i like to think they're smart enough to know that i'm a bleeding-heart sapsucker with quiet woods and zero tolerance for projectile weapons around my livestock, but it's probably less intellectual than that. they're probably just moving from the … Continue reading eyeshine
this autumn season has been a series of tiny vignettes, none of them poignant or significant enough to get me writing about them. there was the hour i spent being a human chickadee feeder, standing with my arms out, palms full of seed, and letting the little wonders take feed from my hands. that was … Continue reading personal
we break into the forest, some dogs and i. we are a pack, one organism with loll-eared, slaver-jawed parts. our paws smash crunching leaves, our feet crush brittle twigs. we charge into the fray, our hunting grins feral our eyes focused miles away, ready to bay, to howl, to laugh. we are a pack.
i was born in september; it's my time. we who live in temperate climates have an almost primal tie to the cycles: to the the holding up of light against the darkness, to bonfires, to harvest, to the dying land. there's a thrum in the blood, a return to the hunt, something fierce and violent, but right on … Continue reading on the edge of the bliss
the gumboot gumshoe has become a dog-blogger, but this too shall pass. i have a texas a&m quail on the farm now (just one) and it's time to batten down the hatches for winter, with associated fencing and running-of-electrical-cords and i will get to all that, but today is about willow, who, YES, is still … Continue reading october night (willow)
edward, the most horrible goat in the world, is an incredible escape artist. he breaks chains, plows through fences, drags concrete blocks for miles, and breaks down doors. at only about 100 pounds, he's not a very big goat, but he's as wide as he is long and too stubborn to let mere physics get … Continue reading and fall fell
the gumboot gumshoe 