the returned expat
back in his native land
no longer home

she gushes
about the paintings ...
she's really here 
for the wine

deep silence

under indigo skies

the heron's cry

clouds billow above

sapphire blue tarns ...

so near, the sky

I'm thinking here of Twenty Lakes Basin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, just at the Lee Vining end of the Tioga Pass Road.  There is a good account of the area here:  http://www.hikingwalking.com/destinations/ca/ca_ses/lee_vining/20_lakes_basin

summer twilight...

the birds sing

their roosting songs

I love that time of night.  So peaceful, so right.

In Which Pooh and Piglet try to write a haiku

Pooh and Piglet were trying to write a haiku.

But they couldn't decide what it should be about.  

After awhile, Pooh said, "What about a little something?"  by which he meant some honey, of course.

"But we don't know what something to write about," said Piglet

"No, silly," said Pooh.  "I meant something to eat."

"Oh!" said Piglet

They got down the honey pot, and Pooh dove in.  

While Pooh ate, Piglet read the label

"in this pot

though rough of surface

a smooth gold liquid"

collecting flowers

for the table ... suddenly 

a small snake

 

columbine sway 

above the dark stream ...

I pause to drink

I haul buckets

of water to my plants ...

sparrows scold

Saving buckets of shower water, rinse water, and anything else I can capture has become a routine part of the California drought. 
 

dreaming 

of the Rialto Bridge ...

swirling snow 

 

 

the tule sway
in the gentle breeze ...
music of the spheres

a rusting reaper

and tumbled down barn ...

sunset

Daily Haiku

 

chirp ... chirp ... chirp
the song of the
dying smoke alarm

Iceland, Day 1, Slide 1

Iceland.  Where to begin?  Maybe the best place is with the little car that took us on our 1638 mile road trip around the island, and with a pleasant picture of some of the country side.  The car is the little blue one in this photo,  a Hyundai I30 -- serviceable and economic, but there were some gravel roads where I would have preferred a 4x4.  The photo is of a farm and waterfall along the south coast of the island. 

All along the south are cliffs from a former coastline, like the ones shown here.  The flat lands below the cliffs are good farming country, and all along the cliffs are waterfalls like the one shown here.  There are thousands of waterfalls in Iceland, so a photo with a waterfall seemed like a good place to start.  And sheep!  450,000 of them (the human population is about 300,000).   "The modern Icelandic Sheep is a direct descendant of the sheep brought to the island by the early Viking settlers, in the ninth and tenth century. ...  Genetically the Icelandic sheep is the same today as it was 1100 years ago. It is possibly the oldest and purest domesticated breed of sheep in the world today." [See http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/sheep/icelandic/]

rain

summer winds
the golden hills
wait for rain

Posted on Facebook's NaHaiWriMo page on 7/02/2013.  Prompt was 'rain'.

Canada Day 2013

neighbors

without a wall

Canada Day

Posted on Facebook's NaHaiWriMo page on 7/01/2013.  Prompt was 'wall'

shooting the rapids
of the Buckinghorse River~
crazy spaniel!

We were driving the Alaska Highway with our springer spaniel, Buddy. We camped one evening by the Buckinghorse River (an apt name) in northern British Columbia. Buddy wandered away from the camp. The next we saw of him was his head bobbing down through the rapids. We yelled and waved to no avail. A ways downstream he hauled himself out, came back to camp, shook himself vigorously, and then ran off up stream to do it again!

faded and well-worn
a gentleman's raincoat
yet ... the scent of lilac

Posted on Facebook's NaHaiWriMo page on 5/15/2013.  Prompt was odour.

hot and dry

from the palm a towhee scolds ~

empty bird bath

Posted on Facebook's NaHaiWriMo page on 5/14/2013.  Prompt was necessities.

lingering cold ~
the neighbor's cat
lounges in the sun

Originally posted on Facebook's NaHaiWriMo page on 2/10/2013. Prompt was garden.