Nature

3 Haiku for a Bighorn Sheep

~ Kim of Glover Gardens ~ Leave a comment

Beautiful bighorn sheep were grazing alongside Highway 285 near Bailey, Colorado last Sunday.

A brave bighorn grazing alongside Colorado State Highway 285 south of Bailey, CO

I had my camera with me and The Grill-Meister was happy to pull the car over. One of the sheep let me get very close, and it seemed that he was either mildly annoyed or mildly amused by me. He moved slowly, turning this way and that. Posing for me, I think. What visual riches! It was an awesome experience.

So I had to write a haiku or two. Or three. Serious and not-so-serious.

ancient memories,
yesterdays and tomorrows,
in your horns and fur

Magnificence radiates from his bighorn body

regal, princely stare –
you wondrous, animal, you!
thank you for posing

Giving me the eye – is he annoyed? amused? contemplative?

what are you thinking? 
“get back, lady with camera –
let me eat in peace!”

© 2018 Glover Gardens

Haiku: Magpie’s Blue Period

~ Kim of Glover Gardens ~ 6 Comments

In almost six years, we never saw a magpie at Little House in the Rockies.

And then on the Fall Colors 2018 Trek in late September, there they were at Tarryall Reservoir. With the blue on their wings, they are mag(pie)nificent!

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And over Thanksgiving, they finally came right up to our front porch to feed on the suet. Despite their chatty reputation, our maggies were a little shy, so I wasn’t able to get many photos of their tuxedo coloring with bright blue wingtips. However, the one below, which is accidentally dark, made me happy enough to haiku. Intensifying the blue made me even happier. So I give you, Magpie’s Blue Period:

blue-winged forager 
stopping at the suet bar
gorgeous in profile

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© 2018 Glover Gardens

Birdsong Haiku and Bird Appreciation 101

~ Kim of Glover Gardens ~ 2 Comments

First the haiku:

hoot, screech, squawk, chirp, cheep,
caw-caw, honk, quack, trill and peep –
backyard birdsong bliss

I really, really like birds.  Looking at and listening to them makes me feel calm and contented, as though I’m on the front row observing a fluttering and dynamic ecosystem in fluid motion.

I’m not a good bird-watcher yet – I don’t even think I rise to the level of amateur – but I think it is in my future.

Likewise, I’m not great at bird photography, either, but I like trying and learning from my efforts.

So here are some happy bird pictures, just because.

Robin on the lookout

© 2018 Glover Gardens

 

 

Haiku: Bees on a Mission

~ Kim of Glover Gardens ~ 2 Comments

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You have to look closely for the industrious bee on the middle flower, getting every last fragment of pollen

bees on a mission
devouring the last pollen
before winter comes

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These bees blend in, too, as they scour the flower of its potent pollen richness

There are lots of bees in Scotland, and they’re feasting.

© 2018 Glover Gardens

 

 

Gulls of Aberdeen Harbor (including haiku)

~ Kim of Glover Gardens ~ 1 Comment

I’m a gull watcher.

I like them. They remind me of where I grew up, in Gilchrist, Texas on the Bolivar Peninsula. Where nothing ever happened, and yet every day was interesting and different. We had lots of gulls.

Join me in gull-watching, in Aberdeen, mostly in the harbor. Just for a few minutes. Hear them squawking and cawing, and smell the sea air. Feel the peace seeping through your soul as the staccato screech of the gulls is accompanied by the soothing sounds of the waves. A gull haiku:

gulls soaring, screeching
pulling me home to the sea
you should come with me

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I’m a gull watcher.

© 2018 Glover Gardens

Peacefulness and Chipmunk Portraits

~ Kim of Glover Gardens ~ Leave a comment

Another Gorgeous Mountain ViewIMG_6381Little House in the Rockies is our tiny cabin retreat in Colorado.

We love it. It is sooooo very peaceful.

View from the back 40
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Always a beautiful sunset
Cute young buck on Boreas Pass
Yellow-bellied marmot

I can sit for hours and watch the birds and wildlife.

I was there recently, and pretty much just watched, and thought, and wrote, and photographed.

Of note were the chipmunks. They posed for me! When I looked at the photos later, they reminded me of high school senior pictures. You know, the incredibly attractive youth with the bright future posing in the sunlight for the professional photographer that Mom paid to get a great photo for the graduation announcements? What do you think?

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© 2018, Glover Gardens

Mountain Sunset Haiku and “Enviation”

~ Kim of Glover Gardens ~ 1 Comment

purple serenity
soothing summer evening sky
clouds that drift and sigh

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Photo credit: Nancy L.

My friends stayed at Little House in the Rockies last weekend, and one of them snapped this lovely picture.

We get their photos from social media and feel oh-so-happy for them. But we also feel a little jealous because they’re there and we’re not. I like to call that feeling “enviation,” a mixture of envy and appreciation.

Enviation. That’s how I feel right now. I’d like to be on that porch at Little House in the Rockies, looking at that sunset, feeling the mountain air, shivering just a little.

© 2018, Glover Gardens

Haiku: Wildlife and Wildfire

~ Kim of Glover Gardens ~ 8 Comments

Wildfires abound in Colorado right now. Nearest to us here at Little House in the Rockies (but not an imminent threat) is the Weston Pass fire southwest of FairPlay. It’s about 25 miles away, as the crow flies. We can see and smell the smoke. The photo below is waaay zoomed in, taken last night at sunset by The Girl Who is Always Hungry.

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Looking southeast at sunset; an unnatural light

There are fewer birds at our feeders than usual, and I keep seeing them look in the direction of the fire, as though they are planning when to evacuate. They’re probably better predictors of what’s going to happen than any of their human counterparts. A haiku for them:

birds on the lookout –
do they know? where’ll they go?
they’re my bellwethers

Brown-headed cowbird sentry
Robin on the lookout

 

This is the view from the back porch this morning, zooming in on the mountain range.

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This is how it normally looks, in a photo from late May.

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This is a vacation spot for us, and like the birds, we are free to leave at any time. Not so for the full-time residents all over Colorado who are watching multiple fires spread quickly in this hot, dry summer and worrying about their homes, land, pets, livestock and livelihoods. We pray for rain.

© 2018 Glover Gardens