Sometimes the most profound lessons come from our feathered friends.
Animal teachers
Wild goose summer
A whistling, whooshing sound sometimes punctuates our early mornings these days. It means the wildfowl population control people are doing their job, setting off sound bombs to scare nesting geese and ducks into abandoning their nests. It’s one of the sad things about living in a city, our insistence that the previous occupants must...
Turkey liberation front
How this city woman ended up shoveling manure and birthing sheep is still a mystery to me. I have a hunch it’s one of those “nevers” I can’t seem to stop swearing to. You know what I mean. “I will NEVER…” . At any rate, back...
Heroism in a small, fierce package
Earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan. Floods in Australia. Battles in Libya. Rising food and fuel prices. The sobering news never ends. Our brief human history is rife with human and natural disasters. So how best to live? One of my role models was a small, fierce chicken. The chicken had nothing more to...
Participating in a miracle
Farming was never on my bucket list, not when I was child, not when I was a young wife, and not when a second marriage set me down on a small acreage on Vancouver Island, with no prior knowledge of agricultural pursuits. However, sheep have no use for bucket lists. When a pregnant ewe...
Hanging around with a bat
Yesterday I read a story about a real “bat out of hell”. The creature terrorized Patti Digh for three days before she could get it out of her house. She kept having to dive under an ironing board when it swooped down on her. Her story got me to thinking about bats and how...
Tribute to crow and cat friendship
Catching Courage readers may remember a post I wrote about a crow trying to communicate with me about a dying friend (Compassion of crows). I included a link to a video about a kitten and crow, two orphans who became great friends. The National Geographic Channel has a four-minute video that updates the story...
Do you want her back or shall I shoot her?
Tires crunched on the driveway leading to our ranch house. A red van drove up to the house and stopped. I came outside to greet the visitor. I recognized the man who emerged from the van. He was the father of the young family who had purchased an Akbash pup from us nine months...
Wildhaven rising from the ashes
High temperatures. Hot winds. When they combine, as they did in Australia on February 7, 2009, whole forests of eucalyptus explode. As humans move further into bushland, they become witnesses and participants in a landscape where many cannot outrun the fires. On Black Saturday, as the fires soon came to be called, my partner...
Compassion of crows
My daily walk starts along the small lagoon that lies between my condominium and a lakeside beach. Whatever the weather, the watery border brightens my day. At the very least, reflections dance on the water, but usually there are also ducks. Migrations bring flocks of wigeons whose distinct coloring adds a bright spot to...
Dreams and lessons
Crossroads readers will know that Carol Mason is a new friend. Our introduction is a lovely triangle. I live in British Columbia, Canada. She lives in New South Wales, Australia. A mutual friend in Western Australia introduced us. In this guest post you’ll see why we clicked. Recently a 16 year old Australian girl,...
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