June 20th, mainly, 2025

 #1
Coastal windswept home,
Pink spheres on slender stems sway,
Salt air, sun-drenched life.

 

 

Coastal 

 windswept home

 

Pink spheres on slender stems sway

 Salt air

 sun-drenched life

 

 WOB

6 more weeks of haikuing through Winter

 Panic Point Perry saw its shadow yesterday - 6 more weeks of Winter!

Wonderful.

And we have had 6 weeks approx since December 21. And there are approximately 13 weeks per season ( 4 X 13 = 52 weeks/year). so what is one week more or less from the expected?

 So my fevered frost-bitten water-on-the-brain splitting hairs
has lead me to write 3 Japanese style poems, haikus, of
3 lines with 5, 7, and 5 syllables. And I don't know what got
into me but I decided to give Goggle artificial intelligence
the same info and see whether it could come up with
anything. It did, resulting in 5 poems - can you tell who
wrote what? 

Actually, I wrote a couple of poems before giving "HAL" all the information that I had - Fair Isle, Sea Pinks, several birds that I had photographed, and then with "HAL"'s  2 poems I wrote some more.

That means to me that the poems are not all that different/independent.

The poems have been arranged alphabetically by 1st line.
 
#1
Coastal windswept home,
Pink spheres on slender stems sway,
Salt air, sun-drenched life.
 
#2
Rainbows on hill tops,
Puffins reigning supreme.
Glad am I for this.
 
#3
Sea Pinks along the cliffs
Nesting with Puffins, Fulmars,
Nature Lovers smile.
 
#4
Sea pinks on the rock,
Fair Isle coast in salty wind,
Pink cushions hold fast.
 
#5
Sea pinks shimmering -
Dewy droplets lovers shed.
Fragile strength embrace.

I intend to illustrate each poem  in its own entry in the coming days.

I hope you will enter the spirit and tell the world why you think a particular haiku poem was written by either AI, aka "HAL", or by me, aka WOB . I shall consider how I proceed at a later date. Have fun.

 

WOB 

Ruffed Grouse

 Rufous Grouse on high

 Fluffèd round by Arctic chill

 Silent observer

 

WOB

It is snowing and blowing here in Mariposa!

 Inspiration from old blogs - and the fear that the perspiration will freeze - Volker, als Angstschweiss!

 Can't find Mariposa? Why? Because  we are snowed under!

It is the season for angels sprouting wings  - I actually know a real

"angel" - he is called Dieter! And although I have known him for many

decades I do not have a photo to show of him. However, I did have the good fortune to see where an angel had been on Thursday January 7, 2016:

 

 It is a little difficult to see, Let me move a little further.

 For scale, the snowshoe tracks are about 40 - 45cm long. The bird, an owl, appears to have caught something. Unfortunately I cannot read the bar code.

 

 So I cannot track the parcel, either.

 

 I guess I am stumped.

 The case is cold.

 I guessed at the time that this might have been evidence for flying reindeer.

 

WOB 

It is raining here in Mariposa

 However, it has not always been so.

Just 6 hours East, on Sunday. less than 12Km from where we lived for

11 plus years:

 It started with - song

Kiss! never thought of cherry tree! 

Kirsch auf Deutsch . Rheinbach.

 

 

Latitude? Fifty

 Eifel - Ardenn - Winnipeg

Latitude . North Rome:

 A Haiku is a

style of poetry - 3 Lines 

5 - 7 - 5 sylls

A picture is worth a 1000 Words

 A blog (short for "weblog") is a regularly updated online journal or website where individuals or groups publish content, called posts, usually in reverse chronological order (newest first). Blogs feature informal, conversational writing and often include multimedia like photos or videos, allowing for reader interaction through comments, serving purposes from personal diaries to business marketing and expertise sharing.

 Bleak beak bird bill Bill!

 Visualization:

 

 

 

Christmas Bird Count Sunday December 14, 2025

WOB 

Maybe a "Swan" song"

Drove to the Narrows but the Narrows was completely covered over with at least snow and probably ice underneath.

So I drove to Quetton Street boat launch to launch my car but there too everything was covered with snow and probably ice beneath.  I got out and looked around. There on the marge of the entrance to the canal were some Trumpeter swans - maybe 20?

 In addition there were several groups flying:

 

 And some singles:

 No sign of water, no sign of food. I was not aware of any yellow labels but I did search for them.

 

I wonder if any are over at Port Severn where R08 has been in other seasons over the past 5 years or so?

 

 I think this will be rough winter for the birds without factoring in avian flu and the ice storm of Spring.

 

WOB 

What "May" December contain?

 It may contain snow!

 

 How do you get down from an elephant?

You don't, you get down from a duck!

Or in exceptional cases:

 And still the snow is deep -

 

 

And there was a late migrant,

 And snow makes its relentless "March" - WOB