The family that fishes together...

 As we headed home from a morning visit with the Granddaughter person, we slowed the Jeep and looked carefully into the gravel road’s ditch and the wetland behind it. Each was full of marsh marigolds in bloom, a major expansion from a couple of days ago. Yesterday a male Baltimore oriole was at the nectar feeder. Today’s forecast is thunderstorms this afternoon and tomorrow morning. As we’ve posted here before, we’ve jumped from spring almost directly into summer. Seasons, even in the North Country, are supposed to last more than a day or two, aren’t they?

Local farmers are in the fields preparing and planting. In emulation, the Better Half has more plants on order that are supposed to arrive over the next few days to supplement the ones she planted over the weekend. The freshly seeded front yard hasn’t yet experienced germination. I neglected to note if the bag of seed specified how long it might take but knowing that wouldn’t change anything except my expectations, would it? With the weather patterns this year, whatever conditions were the basis for a “normal” germination period aren’t likely to be experienced. Unaccustomed as we are, we’ll try the approach of just wait and see.

a page of flies from Down by the River

One of the reasons for this morning’s visit with the Granddaughter person is we wanted to read to her from a book we got for her (and her parents) that we hope she’ll enjoy more when she’s a little older. The book’s title is Down by the River. As we read, we took the liberty of changing the name of the protagonist to our Granddaughter’s name and the pronouns from he, him, his to she, her, hers. The Granddaughter person was singularly unimpressed. We’ll keep trying.

In yet another sign that spring has arrived and is rapidly departing, this afternoon we’ll go and pay the first half property taxes. Our county, in their august wisdom, informs property owners that our cancelled check is our receipt, failing to take into account that our bank / credit union hasn’t been mailing back cancelled checks for years and years. If we want to pay online, we get charged a processing fee in addition to the taxes. The list of unappealing features of living in Minnesota in the 21st century keeps growing.

Daybreak, Eagle Rock

by Gary Lark

From Canary Summer 2018

Morning arrives
with a cool whisper.
River slides from mountain belly
lucent and green.

I flip a fly into the current,
strip out line that curls
between rush water
and boiling eddy.

A steelhead rises in the dream
we share, rumors my shadow
and fins to the chert bed,
sun rising for us all.

The scent of river mixes
with fir, pine and moss
as I set off down the trail.
The creee of osprey turns above.

© Gary Lark

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