Tags
- Alaska
- animal rights
- animals
- art
- backpacking
- beaver
- birds
- blogging
- books
- buffalo
- Carmen
- climate change
- collies
- Defenders of Wildlife
- dogs
- earth
- Earth Day
- East Troublesome fire
- Edward Abbey
- Endangered Species Act
- evolution
- Firehole River
- geysers
- Grandchildren
- Grand Tetons
- Green River
- grizzlies
- Heart Lake
- humor
- hunting
- Idaho Department of Fish and Game
- leadership
- loss
- Marie Dressler
- marriage
- Mars
- mental health
- Mergansers
- Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks
- moon
- moose
- movies
- music
- national parks
- nature
- NRDC
- opera
- poems
- poetry
- politics
- ravens
- science
- sculpture
- solar system
- the Bible
- The Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- the holocaust
- Turner Classic Movies
- U.S. Department of the Interior
- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
- W.O.L.F. Sanctuary
- whales
- wilderness
- wildfire
- wildlife
- wild wolf encounters
- wolf hunting
- Wolf Lake
- wolf management
- wolves
- women
- World War II
- Wyoming Game and Fish Department
- Yellowstone
- yoga
Wild Wolf Encounters
Read or Download in pdf
Songs for a Beloved Friend
Read or Download in pdf
-
Recent Posts
Inspiration and Dedication
- Keystone Conservation
- W.O.L.F.
- Ellicott Wildlife Rehabilitation Center
- EarthSky
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology Macaulay Library
- Defenders of Wildlife
- Wild Earth Guardians
- Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Wild B.I.R.D. (Bird Information and Rehabilitation of Denver)
- National Mill Dog Rescue
- Rocky Mountain Collie and Sheltie Rescue
-
Join 234 other subscribers
Come to the Fire
Ancient ways, bygone days
Your speed, my bow
Over the years we lose our fear
One More Face — Lily, Puppy Mill Rescue
This is Lily, and here is her story.
Puppy Mills
Cruelty thrives in dark places
smelling foul in confined spaces
secrets kept with our consent
living creatures we do torment.
Through the mill they’re forced each day
crushing and grinding their lives away
expelled when breeding life is done
mechanized profits dearly won.
Puppy mills sound benign. But here’s what a mill is and does:
to mill (v): to subject to some operation or process; to shape or finish; to crush or grind; to hull; to stamp; to pass through a roller; to beat with the fists; to thrash; to pulverize;
mill (n): a machine that manufactures by the continuous repetition of an action; an institution that turns out products in the manner of a factory or machine; an experience or process that has a marked effect (as of hardening, disciplining, or disillusioning) on the character or personality, usually used in the phrase through the mill.
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary
“Puppy mills” conceal horrific reality. These mills disgrace our laws and notions of human decency. Let’s outlaw them.
Posted in Dogs, politics, rescue
Tagged dog rescue, mill dogs, National Mill Dog Rescue, outlaw puppy mills, puppy mills
Leave a comment
Sometimes Rescuers Need Rescuing
I’m posting a communication from Ellicott Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. It includes before and shortly-after pictures of an owl being rehabilitated after hitting a window at high speed.
Ellicott is an all-volunteer non-profit 501(c)(3) organization rescuing birds and other wildlife since 2002. They do wonderful work. Now they need help to continue. I’m also posting their appeal letter. The staff is dedicated and effective and gives their all. If any of you can give a little, it would be a fine thing.
There are so many amazing non-profit organizations, and some are dear to your hearts. Blessings to all of them and to you – to all rescuers.
Posted in Birds, blogging, Colorado, Nature, rescue
Tagged birds, Ellicott Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, nature, non-profit organization, rescue, wildlife, wildlife rescue
Leave a comment
Dying for Java
Keurig cups make a pretty chain
circling the globe ten times, and again
Drink your fill, enjoy your brew,
marine mammals just have more to chew
Don’t think twice
‘cause soon we’ll find
We’re all made of plastic –
the K-cup kind.
Wikipedia, public domain photo
Posted in earth, ecology, Poems
Tagged coffee brewing, K-cups, Keurig, plastic waste, poetry
8 Comments
January Planetary Quintets
Quintet in Moon Rising
Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mars
cavort early morning with fading stars
play with moon rising a bright quintet
her part’s the biggest, most brilliant yet
First among equals, she anchors the arc,
modulates phase in the fleeting dark
regulates rhythm, sets the tone
perfect timing tells night has flown
Mercury hurries –
too pale and too late –
No place for six
in this play date.
early January, courtesy EarthSky.org
Mercury catches up tonight, and five planets will play a moon-less quintet in the pre-dawn sky. 
Posted in moon, music, Nature, planets, Poems, solar system
Tagged earthsky.org, moon, music, planets, poetry, solar system
6 Comments
Happy Snowbow to You (What?)
Snowbow or snow bow? It’s so rare, nobody (no body?) knows how to spell it. 
I’ve been in lots of snow and seen lots of sunrises (sun rises?), and have never seen one before. A Happy New Year surprise.
WELCOMING 2016
Sun sets on the passing year
cycle of life recurring
hopes for tomorrow we hold dear
twenty sixteen is stirring
HAPPY NEW YEAR, dear Bloggers!!
photo courtesy of Nick C.
Dead Tree Breathing
Sound of Dead Tree Breathing
Wind-driven bellows
empty and fill
cavity vibrates with rasping breath
wistful music of standing death
On the DeLacy Creek trail to Shoshone Lake in Yellowstone National Park, we heard this tree filling its tree lungs. You could see and feel the tree moving in and out.
Posted in music, national parks, Poems, wilderness, Yellowstone
Tagged national parks, pine trees, poetry, Yellowstone
8 Comments
A Different Kind of Space Shot
from The Washington Post, September 8, 2015, by Rachel Feltman
After three years maturing in space, Ardbeg Distillery’s malt whiskey 
has returned to earth.
The BBC reports significant differences in taste between earth whiskey and the International Space Station’s aged variety. Space whiskey’s intense and “unique flavor profile” contains “hints of antiseptic smoke, rubber, and smoked fish … a meaty aroma … focused with smoked fruits … earthy peat smoke … and ham. The long aftertaste “hints of … antiseptic lozenges and rubbery smoke”. (Gargle 1 oz. for a sore throat before swallowing.)
Earth-matured whiskey is somewhat more palatable, with distant fruit shining through, “charcoal and antiseptic notes” with a “lingering aftertaste … of gentle … tar.”
Read the entire inebriatingly-delicious description here.
photo compliments of jarmoluk at Pixabay
Posted in humor, solar system
Tagged Ardbeg Distillery, humor, International Space Station, science, solar system, whiskey
4 Comments
Highlights of Yellowstone in August, front and backcountry
Lone Star Geyser erupting just as we approached
having a warm bath in Shoshone Creek near a hot spring
seeing Shoshone Lake, one of my favorite places on earth, from many perspectives and in many different lights, and waking up our first morning on its south shore to two sets of bear prints, one large, with long claws, and the other small
watching bald eagles and pelicans by the lake
touring the Shoshone Geyser Basin, 
which we haven’t seen since we skied there years ago
cooking lunch on a thermal feature when our fuel ran out the last day (not my idea!)
the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
is right off one of the main roads through the park –
and more
Sweet Planet Poems 