Monthly Archives: October 2015

YEAR OF THE BEAR

Posted on October 23, 2015 by John | 9 comments

Don’t care,
go anywhere,
eat anything—leave little

evidence behind, but
barefoot tracks,
whole berries in black scat.

Drought and fire,
slim pickin’s high,
bears lumber off the mountain,

hundreds in canyons
trying to make a living
on damn few acorns—

grubbing for bugs,
trashing trash cans
taking pets and an occasional calf.

Shaggy invaders
from the past
like science fiction.

Oso,
Ursus arctos
own the moonlit mountain town
on Halloween,
rummage door to door,
wait on the porch for more
of anything to eat.
Trick or treat.

9 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal

Tagged bears, Drought, Fire, Rough Fire

DARK LIGHT

Posted on October 22, 2015 by John | 2 comments

Errant gods return
to paint earth and sky, bring
dark light after dry.

2 Comments

Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged gods, Sulphur Peak

AFTER THE STORM

Posted on October 21, 2015 by John | 2 comments

The birds sleep later now,
new guests in boughs without nests,
overwintering—coyotes and bobcats

hunt late in the morning chill
as we wait for sun
to break the ridge line,

eager and easy into the day
now that it’s rained
enough to start the grass,

settle four years’ dust—
cotyledons claim puddle mud,
arms open to new light.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal

Tagged cotyledons, grass, rain, storm

Common Milkweed Bug?

Posted on October 20, 2015 by John | 2 comments

Thanks to all who’ve helped identify the above. After perusing Google photos of Milkweed Bugs and Box Elders, I am still unable to find an exact match. The closest is the Small or Common Milkweed Bug. None of the Google photos show the three little dots down the center of the back on about half of these bugs. They were still at the rain gauge yesterday, 1.65″, plenty to start the grass.

Thank you Sue St. Martin (Facebook) for the following link, a perfect match:

Scantius aegyptius (Hemiptera: Pyrrhocoridae)

Invasive species from Southern California, we can color in Tulare County on their map.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs

Tagged invasive species, Red Bug, Scantius aegyptius (Hemiptera: Pyrrhocoridae)

Ladybird (bug) Beetle?

Posted on October 19, 2015 by John | 2 comments

Behaving much like ladybugs exiting the ground around the post that holds our rain gauge at the corrals in Greasy last Saturday, I am assuming they are one of 5,000 species of Ladybird Beetles I wasn’t able to identify. No macro, using the point and shoot, click to enlarge the unusual patterns.

On Horehound, October 17, 2015

Feedback from Facebook identifies these as Box Elder bugs.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged Box Elder Bugs, entomology, ladybird beetles, Ladybugs

WRITING A STORM

Posted on October 18, 2015 by John | 6 comments

Metal roof
machine gun fire,
strobe lightening
and rolling thunder:

cracks rip black
with jagged light,
redbud silhouettes
dance with the dark

               like the Fillmore,
               like the Shrine—
               endless bass
               rocks the canyon,

canons bark with flame
and the war goes on and on.

               Moist breath,
               eager heart electrified
               not to be contained
               within old skin.

               On stage:
                              the Doors
                              Janis Joplin wild with
                              Jimi Hendrix crescendos.

Last flashes break with dawn.
Inch-seventeen all in the ground—
she hasn’t lost her touch
with how to make it rain.

6 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal

Tagged Fillmore, lightening, rain, Shrine Hall, storm, thunder

DAWN ON THE MOUNTAIN

Posted on October 17, 2015 by John | 2 comments

October slips away from the sun
sliding south down the ridgeline
after a quick rain clears
the air,
settles summer’s dust,
erases tracks
for a day:

                              another beginning
                              to another adventure—
                              nearly 25,000 now.

No calls from beyond
Sulphur Peak:
old friend
to generations waking
from dreams and restless sleep.

On top in the brush
a 2” x 2” surveyor’s pole,
a Challenge Butter buck
not quite in rut.
Spring poppy overlay of gold
winter cap of snow—
never naked,
always changing clothes.

Weekly Photo Challenge: “(Extra)ordinary”