On Human Nature


Apparently I live too far from the peace tower to participate in the Christmas bird count (or census or whatever it's called). I really didn't want to participate until I found out I wasn't allowed to. Now I feel kind of cheated. I see all kinds of birds...are my birds not good enough for them? Are these birds somehow substandard birds?

Contemplation on an early November morning


I was up early today. There was a thick killing frost on the grass, and on the shingles for that matter. The world glittered, white, like somebody had taken it in his head to sprinkle sea salt over everything. I stepped out into the cold (the radio informed me, when my alarm clock went off, that it was -1 this morning. My slippers left indentations in the frozen grass, and the tale end of an orange sunrise on the horizon made the trees in the distance strange, glittering shadows. The migration of geese was going full swing overhead. They flew high over me, flock after flock, honking as if they had something really important to say, and needed to say it quickly. There were even a few seagulls, though nothing like the huge flocks I've seen during the summer monthes. The world was uncharacteristically silent and still around me, and I enjoyed it. under such circumstances, a man can be alone with himself, and with his thoughts.
It seemed to me as though the land, much like the city, was asleep. The garden has more or less been put to bed...where there was a mass of colour, there is now empty, bare dirt. Those few brave flowers and weeds I mentioned earlier have gone, with the exception of some pansies by the driveway, which will probably never die. I know now why, in some cultures, storytelling was reserved for winter.


Then I heard a door open, and barking. Apparently the dogs took offence at my being outside without them. So ended the morning's contemplation...one cannot introspect properly with a West Highland White Terrier sharing his opions on life. Suffice it to say, though, that it was beautiful.

Change of the Seasons



I've mentioned the season changing before, but I feel like devoting a post to it now. The trees are all but bare. The frogs appear to have left us.....burrowed into the mud for another winter, and hardly any birds are coming around now....in the summer, the feeder is alive, now it's customers are getting fewer and fewer. Cardinals, always cardinals of course, as well as chickadees. I've seen nuthatches, and I imagine there are woodpeckers as well, though I've not seen them. They're always around somewhere. This may sound like a wide variety of birds, but it really isn't, not compared to the whirl of colour you see in the summer. I haven't seen a groundhog in quite some time, for that matter. most of the flowering plants have quit on me too, although there are still some pansies in the garden that are hanging on. The grass in the fields is brown, and the milkweed looks ragged. Thankfully, the poison ivy has gone as well....it is occasionally nice to be able to walk unrestricted. Of course, it's too cold for sandals anyhow.


There is a point to all this. I can't help feeling like the land is going to sleep. this is an old thought, of course, but a true one, I think. Although, now that I consider it, the land isn't really hibernating. It's more like a bear....entering torpor. Sleeping, but possibly waking up long before you expect it.

On nature, puzzles and the duality of human thought


I went for another walk around that same long trail today....It is really, really long, let me tell you. Incidentally, hiking in cowboy boots is not a particularly bright idea. in my defense, I was only planning on a short walk when I left. My plans expanded without consulting me.

I only have one encounter I want to report, then I'm getting philosophical, I'm afraid. I've mentioned the migrating geese before, and today was no exception. I was passing behind a farm when a flock of them went overhead, honking. Apparently that farm keeps some poultry, because a rooster crowed at them as they did so....a stirring example of interspecies communication if ever there was one.

Now, I went along the same trail as I walked on thursday. This time, though, I went along it in the opposite direction....one of the advantages of taking a trail that is, essentially, a big loop. However, from that angle, it seemed like a completely new, and different trail. I discovered this as I missed a particular turn off that I would almost certainly have seen had I come round the other way. It occured to me that this strongly resembles a problem solving technique that people really ought to use more often.....if you approach a problem from a different angle it seems new, entirely different, and is probably more easily solved. I am now faced with a question....does this count as pathetic fallacy? I just don't know/