Not just for the birds
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 …
This post might seem off-track to some readers, and for that I apologize. But one of the reasons I changed the name of this blog earlier this year is because I wanted it to be more about the culture surrounding my favorite pastime than solely about chasing chukar. Where we live, our "setting," is a …
Continue reading "A Little Culture: Let My Horse Bring Me Home"
Look what Santa brought me!
I'm lucky enough to be able to teach in a small school nestled here at Galliformes Ground Zero. One of my classes, a group of six 11th- and 12th-grade young men, each with a passion for hunting, has been reading A Hunter's Heart: Honest Essays on Blood Sport (1997; a fantastic collection if you haven't …
When the season consumes you, you don't worry about much else. When it's over, you worry about everything else. Filling up that worry with good things to carry it away like water helps. Yesterday was one of those good days between seasons. We collected a painting we commissioned and hung it up. It is …
It's not at all "just" for the birds. It's not "just" for any one thing. It's for Angus, whose rapturous pursuit of birds expresses the epitome of equivocal desire: his instincts draw him toward birds, but he knows I'm also interested and - because he checks on where I am, even when he's birdy - …
So I'm playing my bagpipes at the Tilted Kilt the other night, and it's nutty and people are shoving $1 bills in my arm garter, and this fetching woman comes up and puts some cash in there, looks me in the eye and says, "I prefer metric shot." There's only one other person on earth …
What an ungodly time to post anything about chukar. Right now, all here is mud. Now is the time to focus on the losing battles of keeping your house as clean as you in no way can. Now is the time to ignore dirt drying on carpet if at all possible. Now is the time …
We all have things in life that mess us up. Some result in really bad stuff happening. Others are less severe. I like to think my problem with birds lies in the latter category. But I guess that's actually relative. Nevertheless, I regretfully and proudly would like to make the formal announcement of my (with …
It hit me like a D-minor 7th substituted for an F major chord: when Angus points, I hold the gun in the ready position like a guitar. I don't play the guitar, but my favorite musician does, and I've been wondering for years why, on a good day in the hills, I feel like I'm …