home/away

snowstorm warning...
long duration:  15 to 35 cm

/

ocean
mountains
light rain

more and more teeny tiny crowns

numbers of monarch butterflies wintering in central Mexico
were up 144% this year
not yet certain if that trend will continue
but for now good news!
keep those wee wings
flapping

-9 degrees sonic

no snow today
but sounds like someone is using a blower
or maybe a chainsaw
or an outboard motor in the middle of the city

not loud enough though
to drown out the woodpecker
happily going at it
on the side of the house

a little industrious energy
busy busy busy
the waning days of january
and we're all doing it here
one way or another
in this frozen prairie town

a small one

today a baby bird on a branch
magpie?
bluejay?
hard to tell
fluffed up
not quite ready to fly
bobbing up and down
spreading wings
one day

frequencies

some guitar sounds
are very much
like cat's meows

dressed for success

busy typing in fingerless woollen gloves
like a character in a Dickens novel

Monday Rx

turmeric honey in tea...

super blood wolf moon

eclipse on Sunday
eyes to the skies
bella luna

late afternoon on the 53rd parallel

just after 5pm
and still a bit of light in the sky
deep winter
but slowly headed
the other way

schlumbergera

we think the christmas cactus
must be around thirty years old
have managed to tend it for several seasons now
not many blooms the past few years
but now on one tendril
bright vibrant pink
full on flowering
a little gift
that keeps on
giving

needles and pins

a magpie nest outside the window of the acupuncturist
on the second floor
little whoors and coos as the heatlamp warms my feet

on the bus
mandarin orange peels
a free daily
and an unopened pack of Trident gum
no thanks but maybe for some other lucky rider

a few Christmas tree needles on the driveway from the Fraser fir
the front room seems empty without it

all the more space to let the light in
as the days---each day---get just a little bit longer

outdoorigans

three scampering blue jays
on branches around the dogwood
woodpecker
squirrel
hare tracks in the snow

chilled after waiting 15+minutes for the bus
not as swaddled as some

in passing

George, of the land snails
Achatinella apexfulva
died on New Year’s Day, 2019.
Approximately 14 years old,
s/he (George was both)
was raised in a laboratory
at the University of Hawaiʻi.
The last of a kind.

Aloha George.

2019 first findings

'To Don

From Josie & Ray

with Hugs & Love'

the things you come across in a rented Kona...