Posts Tagged ‘animal tracks’
new layer of snow
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Snow is gradually building on every horizontal surface. I love the contrast between umber bark and bright snow. If this layer of snow will only stay, the temperatures will seem warmer and the walking less slippery. And the movements of small creatures in our woods will be less ephemeral, better understood.
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tracks in the snow
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
a moment of beautiful – tracks in the snow
the space: new fallen snow
the beautiful: a Red Squirrel’s tracks
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An expanse of new fallen snow is like an unwritten page. When you find something written there, it is a message of beauty.
In our driveway, after the last snow, a Red Squirrel was the first to write on the ‘page’. The prints were delicate, traced in blue shadows.
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Our Red Squirrels are certainly not afraid of the snow.
digging for sunflower seeds
red squirrel with snow accumulating on his head
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a love letter, unsigned
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the meadow in winter
a sheet of paper
folded
where the stream
flows under the ice
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the sky
an envelope
lined in blue
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tracks on the snow
cautious
afraid
words
pressed to the page
~
erased
(erased)
by melting
or a dusting
of new snow
~
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Published as: ‘a love letter, unsigned’, 1999, Green’s Magazine XXVII (2): 44.
Copyright Jane Tims 1999
a moment of beautiful – trees and shadows
space: edge of the St. John River in winter
beautiful: mature silver maple trees and their shadows on the snow
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We went for a drive last weekend, along the St. John River. Above the ice, the river is covered in snow, a broad white plain edged by very old and very rugged silver maple trees.
In spite of a harsh environment, these trees endure. Each spring and fall, they are flooded. They are scoured by ice and subject to the eroding forces of the river. They are always at risk from people searching for a supply of firewood. A friend tells me these huge trees are usually suckers, grown from the base after the original tree was harvested.
And yet they grow old, a part of the hardwood floodplain forest. On a sunny day, they lean over the snow-covered river and spread their shadows across its surface. They have the beauty of their symmetry, solidity, grace, and fortitude.
~
the line of animal tracks crossing the snow are probably from a Red Fox
Copyright Jane Tims 2012
drive at dusk
Saturday evening we took a drive along Sunpoke Lake, a low part of the landscape where you can see, simultaneously, the marsh of Sunpoke Lake, the Lake itself, and the Oromocto River.
Along the road were tracks of moose and bear, and the very smelly carcass of a bear. In each of the tracks, there was a fair sprinkling of seeds, so we surmised the bear tracks were those of the dead bear.
notice the seeds in the tracks... the bear travelled by quite a while ago
The tracks gave us a hint at the drama that must have played out along the road, probably on a night earlier in the week.
The moose tracks were also full of seeds. I like to think of it, ambling along the road.
At the turn of the road where it runs along the Oromocto River, we stopped to take some photos of the moon and its reflection.
And on the opposite side of the road, I caught the sunset at its peak, and the silhouette of a very spooky tree.
Fears
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I saw a light in the woods tonight
low, through tangled branches of spruce
and crowded stems of fir
~
white in the dark
a gleam where only black should stir
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like the lamp of a stranger
lost
~
but the glow was steady and still
and in less than the catch of a breath I knew
all I saw was the rising moon
beyond the hill
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I heard a cry in the woods tonight
soft and low through the tangle of spruce
and the thicket of fir
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a moan in the dark
a sob where only wind should stir
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like frightened tears of a child
alone
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but the cries held no human word
and in less than the catch of a breath I knew
the wail of a wildcat on the prowl
was all that I heard
~
© Jane Tims 1992
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