Kathy and I stopped as we passed through Brocket Alberta which is between Fort Macleod and Pincher Creek on the way to Spokane. I took these pictures with the camera on my PDA. Brocket is the home to the Pikani First Nation or the Peigan Nation.
Mountains,sky, clouds
A backdrop
Winged machines
March across the prairie
Product of human hand
Point us towards
A river
Seemingly without pattern, yet poetic
Finding its way, as planned
By unseen hands
Of A Creator.
There was an image here and some of you responded. I appreciated your comments and left them in place. Apparently, I infringed on a copyright of a group that sells the postcard I posted. I leave you with this.
What advice can I give?
Stand firmly rooted to the Earth.
Reach and touch the sky.
Take risks.
Trust those closest to you.
Love those closest to you.
Find your voice.
Speak right.
Act right.
Apologize sincerely when it is right do so.
And wonder in awe when it is time do so.
About the rights of nature and humans.
Take care.
I humbly apologize for using an image posted in various other places. I meant no harm … Here is what I am legally obliged to present for making a human error:
The Advice from a Tree image and words previously posted were an infringement of the copyrights of Ilan Shamir and Your True Nature and has been shared around the Internet. I am reposting the correct version of this and encourage you to visit the Advice from Nature website at http://www.yourtruenature.com for Advice from a Tree and over 100 other advice bookmarks, posters, journals, tshirts and other eco products. copyright 1993-2012 YTN
Again, enjoy.
Each year, we learn about Haiku in our classroom. I was fortunate this year. We began the process during the fall when the Harvest Moon was in full glory. Driving to work in the morning, the Moon would be sitting above the horizon or in the evening it appeared as a rich, orange orb almost asking me to reach and touch it. I also drove through the Rockies just before the school year began and Mount Robson was in full majesty with a tiny wisp of cloud.
It had been several years since I heard a student say, “Poetry is stupid. My dad says it is a waste of time” or words to that effect. This year I heard it. I even had one parent tell me it was a waste of time. I calmly pointed out writing out poetry, in general, is the practice of choosing the right word and Haiku takes this one step further, at least I think it does. What I left unsaid, but is worthy of saying, poetry is always present, is part of being mindful, and being in the world.
Those mornings and evenings I observed the moon I found words pressing forward and asked to be shared. I wrote these on the whiteboard as an exercise of being mindful and present.
Majestically,
Touching endless sky above
Roots firmly grounded.
Greetings and adieu
Sun and Moon sharing the sky
Guides my morning drive.
Enjoy Saturday.
Nothing worth its salt comes easy. I enjoy Wendell Berry and his reminders that the world is a better place if we live in it fully in the moment and mindful of this very moment and place.
If we will have the wisdom to survive,
to stand like slow-growing trees
on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it,
if we make our seasons welcome here,
asking not too much of earth or heaven,
then a long time after we are dead
the lives our lives prepare will live
here, their houses strongly placed
upon the valley sides, fields and gardens
rich in the windows. The river will run
clear, as we will never know it,
and over it, birdsong like a canopy.
On the levels of the hills will be
green meadows, stock bells in noon shade.
On the steeps where greed and ignorance
cut down
the old forest, an old forest will stand,
its rich leaf-fall drifting its roots.
The veins of forgotten springs will have
opened..
Families will be singing in their fields.
In the voices they will hear a music
risen out of the ground. They will take
nothing from the ground they will not
return,
whatever the grief at parting. Memory,
native to this valley, will spread over it
like a grove, and memory will grow
into a legend, legend into song, song
into sacrament. The abundance of this
place,
the songs of its people and its birds,
will be health and wisdom and indwelling
light. This is no paradisal dream.
Its hardship is its possibilities.
─Wendell Berry
When we discussed this poem, students understood that success is not always an easy journey. Some important aspects are the hard work and disappointments along the way. The word and phrase that caught their attention was “This is no paradisal dream. Its hardship is its possibilities.
insignificant
countless gathering form one
majestic power
This is a winter picture of La Chute (waterfall in English) Montmorency just outside Quebec City. At the base of the falls, around the open water, fly fishermen will be out during the summer. What you see a the top is a walkway across the falls and there is a tram just to the right of this picture. The St. Lawrence River is only a few hundred metres from the base of the falls.
Here is a second picture of the falls. When Kathy and I were determined to see these falls. The pictures do not do them justice, but, as you can tell even in winter, they are spectacular. While driving across Le Pont Pierre-Laporte my fear of heights kicked in when I realized how far above the St. Lawrence we were. I needed to be in the right lane, but there was no way I was getting that close to the edge and it took creative driving on the far side of the bridge to get to the falls.
This is Athabasca Falls in Jasper National Park. You can see the Athabasca River in the background. Even in the park, it is a wide river at this point and it narrows quickly to shoot through the gorge. Kathy took this picture from the small wooden bridge that goes over the falls. You can just see the railing in the foreground. When you cross the bridge, you can walk up-stream along the river for several kilometres.
This is a slightly different view of the falls. The force of the water passing through the gorge has created a new stream bed. The water cut through solid granite. Below, you see one of the many mountains along Highway 93 between Jasper and Banff.
This is a view of one of the many mountains along Highway 93 between Banff and Jasper and is not far from Athabasca Falls.
This is the Columbia Icefield looking back towards the source of the glacier and mountains. This is at the headwaters of the Athabasca River.
This is the Columbia River in Oregon. Although it is a spectacular view, I wonder what price we pay for progress:? Under that water, lies a spectacular river with rapids and waterfalls. Also hidden from view is a way of life of people who settled along this magnificent river. What a loss!
This was a small waterfall along the Continental Divide in Yellowstone.
These pictures were from a trip through parts of Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.
This is a small church along Highway 89. It seats about 10 or 12 people and it must get very warm inside on a hot summer day. My mother always reminds us the heat we feel here is a small sample of what we might get in the after life.
Here I am at the University of Portland at the convocation ceremony when I received my Master of Education degree. The cohort group I was part of and the unique delivery of this program by the University of Portland made this one of those events that I look back and treasure.
The white speck up the mountain side is the statue of Our Lady of the Rockies as you drive into Butte. It sits on the Continental Divide at more than 8000 ft. above sea level and it is about 90 feet tall. It looks the mountains and valleys traveled by First Nations’ people and explorers such as Lewis and Clark.
Kathy and I are avid golfers. This is a view from a Jack Nicklaus designed course in Anaconda MT called Old Works. The course was built on the site of an old copper mine and the black pile in the foreground is a slag heap from the mine. In the design of the course, the slag was used to fill bunkers instead of sand and several tee boxes were built on top of some of the piles. In the background, you can see the stack from the mine. The greens are unforgiving and difficult to read. I hit most of my fairways and reached the greens in regulation or one more shot yet struggled to break 95 in the rounds I played. Most of the greens I putted 3 or 4.
Here I am at one of the Lewis and Clark interpretive centres in Great Falls MT. We spend a fair amount of time in museums during our travels. I was auditioning for role, but apparently, the people were a bit smaller than I am.
This is a view of the dam at Great Falls MT from the Lewis and Clark interpretive centre.
This was a small creek we stopped beside as we made our first crossing of the Continental Divide.
Please enjoy.
We love to travel and these are from our trip to Yellowstone National Park in 2005.
I was able to get within 15-20 feet of this bull elk. There were several trees between him and I plus I believed I was faster than at least one other person down there with me.
This is Emerald Spring. The emerald colour is a product of the reflected blue colour from the pool and the yellow sulfur. Although it does not seem very deep, this spring is 27 feet deep.
This is Steamboat Geyser. When it erupts, it is capable of producing a column of 300-400 feet in height which is 2-3 times higher than that of Old Faithful. The difference and a reason Old Faithful is better known is it is predictable in its eruptions because Steamboat Geyser is not and its major eruptions occur four days to 50 years apart.
This is the Pearl Geyser area. I love mountains and it was that aspect of this picture which drew me. We lived in McBride, a small town in British Columbia, for two years and were surrounded by the mountains. We drive through McBride several times a year.
This is in the Cistern Spring area. Living algae and bacteria create the ‘living colours.’
Twig Geyser erupted for us.
This is a view across Yellowstone Lake to the mountains.
We do not get many swans in the Edmonton area. I enjoyed the single one on the river. There were other pictures, but this one had a stillness I found appealing.
Kathy took this picture. My morbid fear of heights forced me to hang out in the parking lot. She walked in to the overlook and this was the result.
Yes, I am pretty sure Kathy took this one, as well.
I started with the elk and will finish with a bison. He was seriously considering what I was doing. I took this one from about 10 feet away with the front of the van between him and me. He grunted at me a couple of times, but kept moving when I grunted back.
This is an amazing set of pictures. Even though this would be impossible for me to attempt, this blog brings it into my life. Thank you guys.
I took these pictures on the ferry ride from Bainbridge Island to Seattle on the Sunday I returned home from the retreat. I found it interesting that I could see such wonder and look across to see the human touch.
This is a picture of Mount Rainier. I love the mountains. We drive past Mount Robson regularly.
Here is Seattle and the Space Needle with the mountains framing the horizon.
Kathy liked this one with the sailboat and the mountains as I looked back towards Bainbridge.
Enjoy!
Here is a little nature delight for all of you out there. There is some amazing photography to bring the beauty of nature to us. What if we celebrated Earth Day everyday? What would that look like?
This Sunday, April 22nd will mark the 42nd observance of Earth Day. According to Earth Day Network, “More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.”
To inspire you to get in on this year’s celebration, here are eight amazing nature-related blogs on WordPress.com:
So, how will you celebrate Earth Day 2012? Maybe Picnic for the Planet, or plant a tree? Whatever you do, be sure to share it on your blog! And don’t forget to tag your post with Earth Day to make it easier for others to find.
For more cool nature blogs, check out our collection of Recommended Blogs, and add topics like Nature and Earth Day to follow in your Reader.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 