My thoughts & walking wander
Sometimes in conjunction
& sometimes on different paths.
The wheezy red-winged blackbird
Calls out time on this quiet Sunday morning.
An hour’s worth of nature should do me today.
Enough to rejuvenate, calm down, re-fill with some contentment.
A dove’s hooo hooooo
A songbird’s chirrups
The hawk’s plaintive cry.
A united triumvirate causes the hawk to flee
As it appears to clutch a prize in its claws;
The flight is too fast to decipher its capture.
Nesting & fledging season continues, so the grackles’ vigilance is warranted.
As a vulture descends
Circling downward over my head, I wonder
What does s/he know that I don’t?
Or the grasshopper?
The Nez Perce people said: “Every animal knows more than you do.”
Lichen-covered and veined stones and rocks jut up from the dirt path.
My feet seek purchase since
An injured leg needs no more distress.
A silver-spotted skipper alights on spiky purple thistle
Beautiful white patch on velvety brown.
On another day the summer azures caught my eye.
So small with details of their beauty escaping the naked eye.
The wonders of technology bring them closer.
Someone else has been walking here, too,
Where wetlands waters once flowed.
The five-lined skink and Carolina anole
Are not coming out today.
The beaver pond is placid
The dragons dip and rise
Turtles break surface and sink
Frogs give a cry of alarm, jumping high-pitched into the depths.
A pair of kingfishers
Fly to and fro,
Practicing their observation skills
As they wait for their permanent colors to come in.
Leaves are trembling
Branches and twigs waving
The slightest of breezes beckons
And helps the cattails sway a bit.
It’s hot
Clothing damp and sticking.
Even the honeybee is not staying around long.
The brown thrasher, on the other hand,
Is enjoying a dust bath and sunbathing in the glaring light…
Until I surprise her/him from behind. Sorry!!
A three-way Japanese beetle gathering
Is staying put for a while
Eating up the leaves on which they rest.
A bright American goldfinch stops by.
I do not think of them as sad
Regardless of the name they were given.
Their brief presence makes me happy.
Two hours, 20 minutes…
Passed while admiring an eyed click beetle
And acknowledging deceptions in the natural world.
Two not-so-common looking buckeyes delight.
One a little tattered, showing age.
I can sympathize from experience.
The life-filled ground, plants, water and air
Enthrall.
An hour should do me?
An hour is enough?
It could suffice in some circumstances.
But the one greed I have, which I do not regret,
Is the desire for much more time among the non-human beings in nature.
The trails beckon.
Who’s waiting around the bend?
My beautiful world 