autumn chronology: early october, sunset on the sturgeon river

looking downriver on the sturgeon at sunset

early goose formations

two ducks and a muskrat

duck silhouettes in the shallows

early october sunset, looking upriver on the sturgeon

So i let ache ache in me, so that i do not lose you

from my eyes, let you

penetrate my seeing so gentle so i may seize you

in orbit, as sky...

Erin Mouré, from Doubled Elegy, Ethical (in O Resplandor, 2010)

autumn chronology: early october, riverlot

these were asters

little red sprout-families of moss

shriveling white campion

harvest at the edge of the earth

someone's nest

there was such a gathering of robins that day i could hear them warbling 1/2 a km away...

young cedar waxwing, still in his brown feathers

little sticks of fluff

highbush drooping

through the grasses, tipis at the nechi centre

geese gathering too

nest like a hanging basket

magpie's nest in the aspens

autumn chronology: late september, north saskatchewan river valley, edmonton

through the woods, aspen-carpeted

so do i.

roots and the path

tansy, thistle fluff, still-green sedge

nest of this summer's wasps

perhaps this one's home?

thistle fluffs

looking upriver from the swallow-hollowed banks

dried seed flakes of the amaranth

the last yellowing of the tansy/bitter buttons

and the sap-tipped twig waits for spring.

interlude: saturation

acreage sunset, mid-september 2011.

* * *

It is an art; it is better than an art, it is a solar phenomenon in which the artist collaborates with the sun.

--Alphonse Lamartine, regarding photography (1860)

autumn chronology: mid-september, acreage west of edmonton, part 2

tomato plants in the garden

mourning cloak wing

mourning cloak on sage

into the fields (not yet harvested)

autumn chronology: mid-september, acreage west of edmonton, part 1

that old car again-- the datsun-aspen hybrid --in the 5th year of its documentation.

autumn chronology: mid-september, north saskatchewan river

fire-rim tortoiseshell butterfly on the sand cliffs

flowers on the receding slope

gull + reflection

the leaning pines and firs

lichens on the limbs in the caragana

remnants of keillor road, looking southwest

looking northwest from the point

through the fence at the point, leaning trees at the ridge

autumn chronology: early september, riverlot

grove along the back fence

elusive haystack creature

luminous thistles, early evening

hay rolls in the big field

grasses and webs

wheat just before the harvest

dried cow parsnip

blue button (or field scabious)

sunset and the harvested hay