drycrikjournal

McKee Branding – Woolly Canyon

Posted on March 30, 2014 by John | 1 comment

WPC – Signs of Street Life Non-sense

Posted on March 29, 2014 by John | 11 comments

Not a good sign for us that our asphalt connection to the outside world has received more attention during this past year with more non-sense emanating from town, reflective reminders, spaced every tenth of a mile, that nothing ever stays the same.

Shortly thereafter, Dry Creek Road got its first double-yellow line for its initial eight miles to where the pavement becomes too narrow to accommodate a vehicle either side of it, false hope for tourists taking the backway to Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park towing fifth-wheels with no place to turn around. The most recent signage also suggests sharing the road with bicyclists. Tricky business when the latest fine for crossing over the double-yellow line was $350.

Then a white fog line painted on and off the dirt. Thank you Tulare County government, dollars well spent!

Weekly Photo Challenge

11 Comments

Posted in Photographs

Tagged Dry Creek Road, photographs, weekly-photo-challenge

Image

Dawn

Last to see the light
in the shadow of mountains
rise both day and night.

1 Comment

Posted on March 28, 2014 by John in Photographs, Poems 2014

Tagged haiku, photographs, poetry

AFTER RAIN

Posted on March 27, 2014 by John | 5 comments

With native grass
we cling like clouds of steam
to hillsides after a rain.

5 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014

Tagged haiku, photographs, poetry, rain, weather

EYE

Posted on March 27, 2014 by John | Leave a comment

                        I know for a while again
                        the health of self forgetfulness,
                                – Wendell Berry (“Sabbaths 2000, V”)

Call it ‘eye’, if you will,
that desperate search for notches
and niches apart from the self

that beckon, and sometimes beg—
but often ambush us with awe
to behold, to become so small

that we forget what we have created
within this heavy flesh just
to consume and survive our appetites

for a short time. Only the desperate
have it, the lucky ones looking
beyond man’s crude creations

our children must learn to live with.
I die a little each time I’m overtaken
to let the mind go at these thresholds

and somehow think that I can
preserve and frame the moment
in a photograph or poem.

for Wendell Berry

Sabbaths 2000, V

SHADE

Posted on March 26, 2014 by John | 3 comments

Comfortable in shadows
no one rises
when I enter their room.

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014

Tagged haiku, photographs, poetry

WIND UNDER MY SKIN

Posted on March 26, 2014 by John | 2 comments

I stumble on Bukowski early in the dark
morning, pleased to hear him voice
basic town stuff from the other side

of the page, but glad he’s not been
riding shotgun through this drought,
cussing everyone including God.

We hung a little hope on the gray
rolling in, gathering on the ridges—
on gusts stirring up, then down canyon

and grinned like foolish children
who still believed in weathermen
and Santa Claus. We dreamed

of how much rain it would take
to fill all the new cracks in clay
where the thin grass fades—

of an errant thunderstorm
that could fill the dirt tanks
and let the creek run

enough to meander and pool
under canopies of sycamores and oaks
for the Wood Ducks, cattle and us.

Through the black screen door,
wind under my skin,
I hear it begin to rain.

2 Comments

Posted in Poems 2014

Tagged Bukowski, Drought, poetry, rain, weather

Mosaic – Ranch Update 3

Posted on March 25, 2014 by John | 2 comments

Ever-hopeful and in anticipation of tomorrow’s rain, I took a few photos of today’s feed conditions, intending to concentrate on the filaree, having turned red a week or so ago in places, then purple and brown. A miraculous and extremely strong non-native cattle feed, it is the predominant species in dry years. With good moisture, it can come back to life and turn green again. With less than 4” of rain and only about 30 days left in our rainy season that averages about 16” annually, the grasses never really germinated completely, resulting in a mosaic pattern almost everywhere today.

Just through the fence that separates our driveway from the pasture, I wanted a good shot of where the filaree had turned a purplish brown, only to draw one of the Roadrunners nesting in some nearby Prickly Pear cactus, closer.