Double Vision: Haul-Out

Harbor seals, here; kayakers, there.

Geese and pelicans intermingling too.

Crossley-Holland: "Comfort"

COMFORT

Who said anything about comfort?
Those syllables do not rhyme
with zinc slakes or ice-bright sky.
The sea is grinding her spears.
Up creeks and gullies, over groynes
the black tide surges
and the hag wind rides her.
In the bleak forest on the staithe
rigging clacks and chitters.

Little but memory for company,
wild geese, swans whooping,
but no urbanity no
gossip prejudice bitterness sham.
In London I dream of these harsh folds,
the sea's slam, the light's eagle eye,
and here again I draw
this place -- hair-shirt, dear cloak --
around such infirmities.

--Kevin Crossley-Holland

I Like Geese

Old shot: March 2011.

You can see my kayak, Sofia, in the distance.

Duck, Duck, Goose . . . .

On the way to morning coffee.

A year ago, I was kayaking in the Bay off Berkeley, but this is quite fine too.

Thanksgiving, 2010.

Take A Gander

Cross-step; lunge!

Forward lunge! Note the blur of the beak.

One watches, and one feeds.

Mild August day at Lover's Point on the Monterey Peninsula.

Quartet: Feathers and Salt

I've never seen geese crop the grass right here, next to the parked cars and the divers getting ready. Those are divers, not birds, in the water in the background. Note here the watchers; I love that about geese. That's how the Roman Republic was saved from the invading Celts back in . . . oh, that's another story for another time.

Now, here, just respect this foursome and how they make the space.