Deer Friends

deer III

My woodland friends stop by every day for a snack, and I hope to have them feeding out of my hand before long. They seem like such timid, gentle creatures, and yet they can be quite mean to each other.

I made this feeder out of snow for them with two troughs and a partition between them because the “bully” of the group wouldn’t let the others eat. As you can see, it didn’t work.

I just thought I’d share a typical winter morning here in northern Minnesota, deer included. Ya, you betcha. Living up here in the sticks has its drawbacks, but we sure have deer friends.

 

–Photo by me

Creation Celebration

natures beauty

In trying to write a poem, I paused

To peer out in joyous wonderment

At God’s resplendent panorama of

A beauty far beyond man’s poetry.

This breathtaking extravaganza of

Sights and sounds and sensations

Overwhelmed me so completely,

I wept over the sublime splendor

Written into every blade of grass.

I don’t think I can write that poem

Anymore — wait, I think I just did!

A Windblown Leif

leiferiksonday06

The planks and oarsmen

Groaned as one,

The wind began to blow,

And at the bow Leif Erikson’s

Unease began to grow.

He’d put his trust in Jesus now,

And sailed to serve the Lord —

Yet Odin’s raven mocked him

As the longboat left the fjord.

Soon blown off course,

He pulled aside a slave

In his distress, and said,

“Bring me your mistress, thrall,

Bring me your prophetess!”

The witch came forth,

Her robe bedecked with

Skulls and precious stones,

And calling on the Alfather,

She cast her ancient bones.

“What is is?” Leif called out to her,

“What do your old bones say?”

“They say a man should trust

his gods to guide him on his way.”

And so he prayed to his new god,

And soon a land was found

Where food and game were plentiful,

And “wheat and grapes abound.”

 

(originally 11-16)