Not just for the birds
Chill and yellow “On longer evenings Light, chill and yellow, Bathes the serene Foreheads of houses.” -- Philip Larkin, "Coming" (excerpt) Lots of things coming. Coming up. Coming soon. Coming back. Coming too soon or too late. Just coming. Some things unexpected, like Peat yesterday triumphantly coming to us with a Canada goose egg in …
Once again, I'm seeking advice from my more erudite and experienced readers... Peat, and sometimes Angus, but always at least one of them wakes us about 4 a.m. wanting to be fed. This has been going on for more than two years. Peat's the ring-leader, and most aggressive. He'll start by pacing and softly whining, …
Great weekend around here. Friends spelled us from our default being together in our separatenesses, and they hunted with Leslie Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I thought I'd head up the old dirt road with them until they started climbing, and it was wonderful to get outside in the terrain I adore. Fog hung around …
WARNING: This has very little to do with chukar hunting. But it does have to do with people who read and comment on this blog. I went back to my classroom today for the first time since surgery 10 days ago, and saw some of what my students have been up to. Actually, I've been …
I am overwhelmed by the comments on Leslie's last post. It feels a little strange being so forthright about this spine surgery thing because it's really not that big a deal (he says, as he makes a big deal, as usual, about something that's not); as I write I'm aware of several friends living with …
Haris Papadopoulos, Molly, and some evidence of a good day's chukar hunting on Cyprus Haris Papadopoulos contacted me through another blog of mine about two years ago with some questions about our dogs and the Brittany breed in general. He lives in Cyprus. We've been in touch since then, and just a few days ago …
Not everyone sleeps with dogs. We do. One of the purest pleasures I know is, upon getting into bed, having Peat collapse himself onto my left side, pressing his back against my ribs and torpedoing his head across my armpit, his nose inches from my face, and his relaxed amber eyes peering into mine as …
A few years ago I posted something about what's in my vest, partly to seek advice and partly to offer it. I got lots of great ideas from the comments on what to include and what to jettison. I haven't learned much since (both good and bad, I guess), but thought I'd do a quick …
Our annual Christmas Day hunt this year was spectacular. Last year pissing rain forced us to abandon our Hells Canyon hunt and sully ourselves with a silly quail jaunt: it was a 5-minute hunt because I brought 3 shells, which I spent in the first two minutes and hit nothing. Peat was so disappointed that, …
Leslie traded her gun for the Nikon yesterday and caught a remarkable sequence on a chukar bust. She actually busted two birds behind me, and Angus went after the lead bird. The bird in the photos is the second bird. When I look at Angus in the third photo, it's hard to reconcile the fact …