Not just for the birds
"The road to Neah Bay is serpentine, a thin twist of wet double-yellow-lined gray. It flirts for twenty miles with the edge of cliffs that seem to stand at the mercy of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and its wide swath of soon-to-be Pacific Ocean. Mapmakers mark it as scenic when it would be …
If one speaks it should only be to say, as well as one can, how wonderfully all this fits together, to indicate what a long, fierce peace can derive from this knowledge. -- Barry Lopez, "Children in the Woods"And then a Plank in Reason, broke... -- Emily Dickinson, from "I Felt a Funeral in My …
The quickest door to open in the woods for a child is the one that leads to the smallest room, by knowing the name each thing is called. The door that leads to the cathedral is marked by a hesitancy to speak at all, rather to encourage by example a sharpness of the senses. If …
I went elk hunting one day this October. A friend went with me. We got to the spot I'd planned to leave the truck, and -- nobody was there! With plenty of dark before dawn we set out for the short hike to the spot I wanted to glass. I'd hunted birds there several times …
"Her name is Rosie", the old man that was camped near us with Florida license plates told me as his dog walked over to me. Rosie, was an overweight black lab with gray on her face and eyes clouded over with glaucoma. "Come on Rosie, don't bother her," he yelled in her direction. I yelled …
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was carved by the world's great flood, and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by …
Leslie wouldn't dream of promoting herself, so I'm gonna. I'm doing this because, obviously, I'm proud of her, but also because some of you might find this interesting. Leslie's been making jewelry for a long time, but only recently began making her own silver charms, and only very recently set up an Etsy site to …
We all have our stories about how bringing a dog into our lives changed it, enriched it, or sometimes made it more complicated. We have our own tale going back to the beginning of Chukar Culture and where it all got started with this one particular Brittany named Angus who is now 12-years old. Looking …
I almost didn't go on a blind date with him but I ended up meeting him anyway and it was because of a bird dog. That was 18 years ago this month. Before agreeing to meet him in person for the first time, I saw a photograph of him kneeling next to his 6-month-old puppy. …
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 …