It's the end of the world as we know it...(?)

RIP Ursula Le Guin

Ursula Le Guin 1929-2018

Deaths of famous people don't usually bother me much but I am saddened by the death of Ursula K. Le Guin today. She was a firey human who seemed to be on the right side of things. Her social critiques, veiled as fiction, were always right on and you could tell that she had a deep love for the Earth. Her essay A Very Warm Mountain is one of my favorite pieces of writing ever and really blew my mind when I first read it. She'll be missed. Rest in peace Ursula!

2017 Reading List

Ecotopia Emerging-Ernest Callenbach
The Buried Giant-Kazuo Ishiguro
The Course of Love-Alain de Botton
Steppenwolf-Herman Hesse
Resistance-Barry Lopez
Death in Spring-Merce Rodoreda
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen-Alan Gardner
The Moon of Gomrath-Alan Gardner
Boneland-Alan Gardner
The Holy-Daniel Quinn
The Dog Stars-Peter Heller
Riddley Walker-Russell Hoban
The World and Other Places-Jeanette Winterson
Black Sun-Edward Abbey
The Fifth Life of the Catwoman-Kathleen Dexter
The Woodwife-Terri Windling
The Chronology of Water-Lidia Yuknavitch
Biogea-Michel Serres
The Heart Goes Last-Margaret Atwood
The Ocean at the End of the Lane-Neil Gaiman
The Leftovers-Tom Perotta
Vic and Blood-Harlan Ellison
The Names of the Stars-Pete Fromm
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said-Phillip K. Dick
Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist-Paul Kingsnorth
The Hill-Jean Giono
Diane, Herself-Martha Beck
Jesus' Son-Denis Johnson
Bear-Marian Engel
Sweeney Astray-Seamus Heaney
Descent of Alette-Alice Notley
The Wild Robot-Peter Brown
A Single Man-Christopher Isherwood
Wild Comfort-Kathleen Dean Moore
The Wild Within-Paul Rezendes
Sleep, Death's Brother-Jesse Ball
A Grief Observed-C.S. Lewis
Meditations on Hunting-Jose Ortega y Gasset
Borne-Jeff VanderMeer

Happy Winter Solstice.

Sometimes a Place is a Poem 2 (more photographic evidence)

Photos from a wildlife tracking weekend in Vantage, Washington.

Coyote scat featuring the fruit of the Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia).

Frenchman Coulee (Courtesy of the Missoula Floods).

Basalt.

Falls.

Plant.

Uric acid=wood rat.

Woodrat latrine.

Woodrat scat.

Desert flower.

Mantis egg sack.

Frenchman Coulee.

Trackers.

A vantage in Vantage.

Hooves in the ash.

Hooves in the ash (#2).

Sunset.

The calm before the storm.

Geese at dusk.

Geese at dusk (#2)

At 2 AM I needed to pee.

The morning after.

Geese at dawn.

Tracking in snow.

Landscape.

Landscape (#2).

Tracking.

Elk scat.

Elk bed.

Elk tracks.

Trailing.

Elk tracks with dew claws registering.

There are elk in them hills! Can you see them?

Backtracking.

Wild turkey?

At the cliff's edge.

Bighorn.

Bighorn (#2)

Bighorn (#3)

Bighorn #4

Bighorn #5

Cozy.

Dear You (Two Fragments from Sappho)

Fragment 31

He seems to me equal to gods that man
whoever he is who opposite you
sits and listens close
            to your sweet speaking

and lovely laughing-oh it
puts the heart in my chest on wings
for when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking
            is left in me

no: tongue breaks and thin
fire is racing under skin
and in eyes no sight and drumming
            fills ears

and cold sweat holds me and shaking
grips me all, green than grass
I am and dead-or almost
            I seem to me.

But all is to be dared, because even a person of poverty

Fragment 38

                  you burn me






Translated by Anne Carson

Sometimes a Place is a Poem 1 (photographic evidence)

This is part one of what I plan on being two parts about the time I spent at the Oregon Dunes last weekend. For context, I am currently enrolled in ten month wildlife tracking intensive. These photos come from our second weekend session.

Lichen.

A horse with no name.

South Tree Island.

Just...

...a bunch of nerds...

...gettin' nerdy.

The PNW Scarab? Nope, a Golden Bupestrid (Cypriasis aurulenta).

PNW Desert Nomads 1.

PNW Nomads 2.

The endless sky.

Learning about gaits. 

Flower of the desert.

Frogs.

Coyote (and humans).

Domestic dog (larger) and coyote.

Just some worms being weird.

Domestic cat.

Sometimes life is dots and dashes.

Frog.

Porcupine.

Porcupine (this time with pad texture and hair marks).

Self Portrait 1

Raccoon.

Crow.

Tracks is stories.

Let them eat crow.

Dead crow.

When a dune gets hungry, it may eat a tree.

Proof.

More proof.

Tunnel of love (lost).

Under the boardwalk...

...people walkin' above.

Life's a beach and then you die.

October Sunburns (Self Portrait 2)

Tall (Shadow 1)

Taller (Shadow 2)

Tallest (Shadow 3)

The final blaze...

...before slumber.

Dawn.

First light. (PNW Nomads 3).

Porcupine.

Blurry killdeer.

Blurry frog.

Blurry blackbear.

Measuring coyotes.

Following coyotes.

Still following coyotes.

Coyote dig.

Dear coyote, stop and take a rest.