landing in fog

without instruments ...

a puffin

he'll dig a burrow

three feet deep ...

his nest

Posted to NaHaiWriMo on 8/18/2012.

The photo was taken in Newfoundland near Ferryland on July 21, 2012.  Puffins nest underground in deep burrows.  Both birds dig the burrow about three feet long using the claws on their feet.  The male prepares a nest, and the female lays one egg.

school bus
mission boat
log scaler ...
hauled up and rotting


For the Norbur Sea. She was our boat for several happy years on the B.C. coast. We sold her, very cheap, to a young couple we hoped would fix her up and keep her running. The last I saw of her was in a news photo illustrating the closure of the last Vancouver shipyard.

With a bow to Stan Rogers for the last line, which he wrote in his song "Make and Break Harbour":

"In Make and Break Harbour the boats are so few
Too many are hauled up and rotten.
Most houses stand empty old nets hung to dry
Are blown away lost and forgotten."
 

Posted to NaHaiWriMo 8/17/2012.  Prompt was boats.

fierce lion, movie star
roars at tourists now
at the zoo

Posted to NaHaiWriMo on 8/17/2012.  Prompt was lion. 

We, a group of lifelong learners, visited a wildlife park.  The resident male lion sauntered over, looked at us through the bars of his enclosure, roared several times, and then returned to his nap.  We were told that he had had a gig as the MGM lion for some years.

peck, rest
   peck, rest
the whole long day
the shell falls away
ah, freedom


beak open wide
squawking ...
the struggle begins

Posted on NaHaiWriMo's FB page, 8/16/2012.  Prompt was birth.  I wanted the first one to emphasize the hard work involved in birth.  In the case of a bird, it must break out of the shell by its own labour.

I also considered posting the following, but did not.  Maybe some other day:  "baby's first cry / his struggle begins"

sparrow searching
for food ... ah
chili peppers

Found this online: "Although many humans have trouble eating spicy peppers, birds can definitely take the heat. It seems that our avian friends lack the taste receptors that pick up on a pepper's stinging bite, which makes them a favorite of birds around the world. "

Posted on NaHaiWriMo's FB page, 8/15/2012.  Prompt was chili peppers.

Pooh and Piglet tracking
woozles ... they discover
the tracks are Pooh's

Posted on NaHaiWriMo's FB page, 8/14/2012.  Prompt was enlightenment.

midsummer's day
herring, aquavit, boiled potatoes ...
sunshine too

Posted on NaHaiWriMo FB page on 8/12/2012.  The prompt was holiday activities

• • Annie Juhl: "ohh that sounds like a good Scandinavian lunch ;-)"
  • 
    

    Robert Franson: "One of my very small efforts to connect with my roots. My paternal grandparents emigrated from the Motala area of Sweden in 1867 & 68 with their two year old daughter. Like so many immigrants they decided that, as Americans, they would not speak Swedish or talk of the old country. My father, the fifth and last child knew nothing of his heritage. I did manage, thanks to the Swedish Church Books, to find where they came from, who their parents were, and what other children they had. All of their siblings emigrated, leaving behind their parents. I thought that very sad."

    
    

‎ watermelon days
sound explodes overhead
Blue Angel flying low

Posted on NaHaiWriMo 8/11/2012.  The prompt was watermelon.  We were attending a picnic to send off new Cornell students, and the Blue Angels were performing.  I was watching the show out over Lake Washington when this one Blue Angel snuck up on us.  It crested the hill behind us, and the house, and then its sound exploded on our ears.  I reflexively ducked (as if that would make any difference).