Tag Archives: photographs

COWGIRL-UP

Posted on April 3, 2014 by John | 2 comments

                                                       To cowgirl-up is just
                                                       one more day to ride
                                                       to build another loop.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014

Tagged Alie McKee, branding, haiku, photographs, poetry

Between Rains

Posted on April 2, 2014 by John | 5 comments

Clear and crisp yesterday afternoon, I took a short walk down the driveway with the big lens towards the Prickly Pear cactus where the Roadrunners are nesting, wanting also to show you how the Filaree has come back in a week’s time after 1.38″ of rain. Growing again, it’s amazing feed! (Click to enlarge the thumbnails below.)

March 25, 2014

April 1, 2014

The Roadrunners share their Prickly Pear home with about a dozen Cottontail rabbits who delight in waiting until the last moment before moving to avoid a vehicle coming or leaving the house. They’re fairly tame, but it’s a rare Bobcat or Coyote that can catch one.

Back at the house, the pair of Roadrunners were hunting snails in Robbin’s Irises.

A beautiful day for fools, we never left home with plenty to see and do between rains.

5 Comments

Posted in Photographs

Tagged filaree, photographs, rain, roadrunner, weather

ANNIVERSARY

Posted on April 1, 2014 by John | 2 comments

April fools making
promises on a pillow kept
for nineteen years.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014

Tagged haiku, photographs, poetry

GOING HOME

Posted on April 1, 2014 by John | 2 comments

They know the way—
only need a cowboy to
open and close the gates.

(After weaning, July 28, 2012. Enlarge to see the silhouette of a cowboy in the dust.)

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014

Tagged haiku, photographs, poetry

ON GOOD HORSES

Posted on March 30, 2014 by John | 1 comment

Looking between their ears
watching the business
on the ground stretched

and rolled for needles, knife
and iron, the mesmerizing
dance of humans ‘round

a calf to be turned back
into a jungle of Poison
Oak and Manzanita,

the impassable wilds
of Woolly Canyon
it took four days to gather—

all done in an instant.
Little progress here,
but no less futile

than punching a clock
where time is money
and the earth is flat.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2014

Tagged branding, Douglas Thomason, photographs, poetry

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