My childhood was idylic. I began along a big river, fished, hiked, swam, rode rowboats and dodged the game warden with fish caught with a bent pin on a bamboo pole. When I was 9, my family moved to the Vineyard. Vineyard is a census-designated place in Sacramento County,
California, United States. It is part of the
Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area.
It is made of hills and bottomland. It is prairie. I made new friends. It has a creek, which all my friends named after themselves --but we collectively called it "The Creek" and
possessed ourselves in humor and patience.We left. Over the next 40-50 years, several of my friends and I moved back --retired from jobs in the big world. Dave, Floyd --yes Floyd, we never pretended to be anything but hicks--and me. This is what we see:
Big machines carving drainage for upland developments. The Grand Cat's ass is pointed spang in the middle of our woody end. Wildlife is fleeing: it is Exodus. Exhibit A:
Wild turkey, tall--
--to keep tabs on her kids:
Norma has piled thickets for wildlife to feel safe in. She is preserving some respite for creatures to conduct their lives in least fear. She knows where the huge machines will tear the earth and wild things trust her. Every day we get new
émigrés.
Yes, we have a yard so rustic it was turned down by editors of the Sierra Club Calendar, but it lets wild things live out their lives. I have interviewed wild things and asked what what they like least about getting older. They answer, "Well, it's time-consuming!" We all laugh, and go on living.
Huge thanks to Norma and you. We all need thickets (real AND metaphoric) to feel safe in. And people to trust.
ReplyDeleteThanks, EC. It's Norma's doing --her nature is consistent with Nature and we wild things sense it.
DeleteWildlife definitely needs a respite from the intrusion of "progress". Norma's positive efforts are noble and obviously successful.
ReplyDeleteI still see a lot of wild turkeys here around my TN property. But I'm noticing a decrease in deer and other creatures since I first moved here ( three and a half years ago). The loggers and hunters are annoyingly abundant.
Jon, this area once supported Elk! We are very considerate of the creatures that remain. 50 years ago I detected that consideration in her.
DeleteWell done Norma!
ReplyDeleteCompliment conveyed and appreciated, Tom.
DeleteGetting older isn't a problem....it's when you stop getting older...now THAT'S a problem. Good for Norma providing a place of sanctuary.
ReplyDeleteI just read your comment to Norma. She thanks you and so do I. Some of us just don't do well in captivity.
DeleteI too lived an idyllic childhood. It is the best way to grow up. Your present environment looks pretty idyllic to me. Lucky you.
ReplyDeleteWe have been lucky, Emma --moved away from the city to raise the kids and thought we might have 10 years without developers catching up. We had 3 times that long but,by that time, the kids had grown and scattered across the country.
DeleteWow! Very nice. The encroachment is a true shame, but it is great what you and Norma do.
ReplyDeletePipeTobacco
Thanks, Prof. We must remember we're all Earthlings --although Norma isn't sure about me.
DeleteYour childhood could spring from a scenario I loved as a kid in the midwest growing up, reading in old neighborhood houses or in new suburban developments, thinking the adventure of the west was something quite special.
ReplyDeleteSorry to see wild spaces invaded. You and Norma are doing wonderful work; healing, caring and tending to life in the transition.
Development does not cherish memory.
There are always new frontiers, Tom. It's up to us to bring balance and stability --to make them safe for all creatures. We'll get better at it. We have to.
DeleteIt is painful to watch wildlife displaced because of human intrusion; I'm so thankful Norma is doing what she can to help. Our yard is probably considered untidy by the neighbours but considering our whole neighbourhood used to be wild only thirty years ago, it seems the least we can do to try to provide an oasis in the middle.
ReplyDeleteO_Jenny, it's absolutely necessary to provide an oasis. At least half the creatures who need it never show themselves but they are there.
DeleteKudos to you and Norma for providing some safe habit for animals being displaced by development. I feel for you both for what is happening to your neighborhood. Every scrap of land in our area is disappearing as earth movers chew it up. Literally thousands of homes are going up. Monster homes, of course. We won't survive in a world without wildlife and the habitat that sustains it. We have rabbits living under our front doorstep. Take care!
ReplyDeleteWe'll take the same care you're taking, Louise. It's more important than ever that we act as stewards and protectors of the tree frogs, rabbits (for whom you've furnished an excellent rabbitat), turkeys, pheasants, squirrels, bees --all creatures great and small. I draw the line at mosquitoes though. Thanks for the encouragement!
DeleteHi Geo., Is it my imagination or is there a decline of activity on Google Blogger? Judging by the decrease in comments, it would seem so. --Sven.
ReplyDeleteSven! Good to hear from you again and thanks for the email so I could open the gate. Yes, it is your imagination.
DeleteI love Norma! I should feel safe in that thicket too. This earth needs stewardship. There is a renewed upsurge in environmental action here - I'm impatient to get our own bit of land and make sanctuary spaces. I hope your visitors find homes xx
ReplyDeleteThank you, dear Lisa. Your message of compassionate individual industry relaxes me somewhat from the Washington Post article I should not have read before bed. An excerpt:"House Republicans released a proposal Tuesday that would balance the budget in nine years — but only by making large cuts to entitlement programs including Medicare." I should go to bed earlier.
DeleteGeo., please extend my compliments to Norma on her care of the displaced wildlife. We need to help them since we cause so much of their problems.
ReplyDeleteJust now conveyed your compliment to Norma, Bruce. She says thanks. The bulldozers, trucks and loaders reached our woods today and really upset a family of skunks. Lots of yelling out there and work stopped for 2 hours.
DeleteWhat a lovely post, dude. The things you enjoyed doing as a child sound suspiciously like the things I enjoyed. Trudging through the woods, slopping through the creeks and catching (and releasing) frogs, fishing, crabbing... (I still remember the horror in my grandmother's voice when my cousin Johnny and I returned to her house with the scent of skunk cabbage clinging to us after hours of playing in the marsh. In her lovely brogue, she yelled, "Oot! Oot of the hoose with ye!!!" We had to wash in the yard...)
ReplyDeleteWith the encroachment of progress on our old stomping grounds, today's children rarely get to enjoy those same things. What a pity... but what a blessing that there are still people like you and Norma working to preserve an area of safety for the critters who are chased from their habitats.
Susan, rural kids encounter marvels, excitements, odors and an understanding of the land as it teaches itself to them. You were fortunate to experience it.
DeleteTwo mornings ago, raining like a sunofabitch, seattle-like, I got up at the usual to take meds at use the loo at 6, there was a moose, a yearling, strolling up the alley in back, stopping to munch on the remaining lilacs. I raised my glass to him, went back to bed and listened to NPR listing trumps newest sins.
ReplyDeleteIt's 7:20 now, Geo, one of those idyllic summer evenings, sun still well up, for another near two hours. Still warm, 72 on the porch. Would that my kids, grands and there will be grands I'll never see, see this same, simple grandeur. The sunset hitting the western Rockies, a town were moose roam the alley, etc. I fear my, your, generation is the last.
Hope you're well. Emily is awaiting surgery based on an MRI in a little over a month.
Cheers, Pal. All the best.
Dear Mike, I'd love to see a moose in an alley! As I mentioned there used to be elk here (Elk Grove is only 10 miles away --hunted out by settlers) but I have followed their incomparable cry and found them along Point Reyes. I sat down 1/4 mile from them and just watched. Please convey all my best hopes to brave Emily. I have been cagey about my recent operation, but PET-CT says I'm not out of the woods yet. I can't have an MRI because all the steel bionics in me would try to come out and see what's the matter. You be brave too, my friend.
DeleteCommented on your blog before … but my comment and introduction simply miraculously disappeared … anyway … wishing you much luck, Love, cat.
ReplyDeleteKind Cat --doubly kind-- to send 2 comments. Don't know what became of the first message but sure appreciate you. I can use luck right now. Wish reciprocated.
DeleteGeo. I am so sorry to learn from your comments here and elsewhere that life is tough at the moment. Oceans of caring are flowing your way.
ReplyDeleteDear EC, It's early days yet and this summer will hopefully improve me. Strange thing for me to say because it gets so hot here, but oceans bring breezes and I believe I just now felt one. Thanks for that.
DeleteYour generation has seen so many changes. Physical, social, technological. It must feel like you're living in a different world.
ReplyDeleteThat much is certain. As we all navigate time together, there's always a new normal we've never been before.
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