I perform my song, The Life of the Party (at Cottonwood Park), in a video that was recorded at Cottonwood Park. I also included my poem, Lucid Life Dream, with videos placed between the stanzas of the poem. If the weather stays lovely, a walk in the park may be nice. Although Cottonwood Park won’t look like this for a few months, the lack of foliage would make spotting the owls easier at this time of year.
Lucid Life Dreams
We tell ourselves we live to love,
or learn, or grow
because we know
the truth of our existence – of
our birth; our life; the reason why
we’re here at all –
to rise; to fall.
We’re only born so we can die.
The truth may be too tough to bear
and so you find
some peace of mind
by loving someone who will share
your lucid loving, learning dream
and grow your lie
before you die
and wish things aren’t as they may seem.
But then you die to live again.
And that is why
all babies cry
when born. They’re born to die as men.
But, can you see the truth and be
content to live,
receive, and give?
They say the truth will set you free.
Perspective changes might just give
some peace of mind.
You might just find
it may be that we die to live.
When death is feared, then life’s feared, too.
And that’s not good.
Perhaps you should
live life as it’s a gift for you.
Now, if it happens that you are the type of person who thinks that “living life” means partying it up with alcohol or drugs around a fire you started in a Nature Reserve, you REALLY need a change of perspective. What you manifest in your environment reflects what you are manifesting in your own life. Are you manifesting death?
Live and let live. Observe other’s life with gratitude. I try to do so (even when I come across something like this fire damage while on a day hike through nature). I am very thankful that nature has a tendency to replenish itself after it has suffered losses. I likely won’t even see what was lost in Cottonwood Park when I hike there again this summer.
If you are looking to find native bee species in southern Alberta, late summer is an excellent time to find them. There isn’t much in bloom in the coulees around Lethbridge and further south this time of year. Therefore, what is in bloom is loaded with pollinator species. There are a lot of beetles on the goldenrod blooms and a lot of bees on the gumweed.
I recently found a type of Agapostemon Sweat Bee on Gumweed blooms. I had never seen them before and then saw hundreds in one day. Nature is fun that way. I found a picture of the bee at the top of a 14 Types of Bees Found in Alberta! (2023) article on-line. I didn’t see the name of it in the article itself (I included the address at the bottom of this post).
I think the bee was Agapostemon virescens. Even though I was really sweating, the Sweat bees were not interesting in me in the least. They were all too busy loving the Gumweed.
I found another interesting insect on the gumweed blooms in Cottonwood Park (in Lethbridge, Alberta). I have seen these little “bees” around southern Alberta frequently. I see them in Waterton Lakes National Park often when I hike there. I have tried to figure out what bee type they are to no avail. Then, by chance I happened upon a picture of a large bee-fly. The cute little mystery bee turned out to not be a bee at all. I don’t know if the one that I saw was Bombylius major. It could be a different type of bee-fly species for all I know.
The Lethbridge coulees really dry up by late summer. At first glance, everything appears dead. There is still plenty of life in the coulees, though, so take a closer look. It’s worth it!
If you enjoy seeing native bee species, you can include native plant species (that they love) in your garden. It’s nice to have nature right outside your door.
I have updated this post to include more useful resources (for identifying bees) and to include a poem that I wrote after having seen the lovely bee and bee-fly the other day. You will find my poem, Bee Taxonomy, below. I didn’t have videos to put between the stanzas, so it is a bit more of a struggle to get through (and it is a long one).
The following resources are great, but I can’t connect a link to their sites (or pdf files). You’ll have to copy and paste each address into a search bar. The birdwatching one has fun quizzes on their site. If you enjoy watching birds, you’ll likely enjoy their material.
I performed my song, Prickly Pear Cactus, at Cottonwood Park. This song was a part of a project that I’m working on the 2022 summer called “Sonnet Summer” (and it is a sonnet). Each song and poem that I created in the 2022 summer was a sonnet. Most of the sonnet forms that I’m using this summer are of my own creation so you may not recognize them as sonnets.
I am still singing songs to the nature that I love, but for the summer of 2023, I have taken to singing to birds as well as native plants. The Prickly Pear Cacti are not in bloom yet this year. They will be soon. In the meantime you can get out and enjoy many beautiful plants that are in bloom in the Lethbridge coulees right now.
This sonnet, like all of my sonnets, have a rhyme and rhythm pattern and are only fourteen lines long. The benefit of creating sonnet songs is that they are short. That is also a benefit to the listener, in many cases. I hope you’ll enjoy hearing my songs.
I am including a gardening poem, For The Love of Gardening, that I wrote in this post. It is a sonnet that I wrote on May 17, 2023. I’m not only writing sonnets this year. You’ll find it at the bottom of this post.
I just found out that the Lethbridge Public Library is hosting a home and garden show tomorrow, May 20, 2023. It seems funny to do a home and garden show on the May long weekend. That’s when gardeners are most busy. Perhaps some of Lethbridge’s gardeners will take a break from their gardens to come sit in the air-conditioning at the Library, though.
Update: I attended the Home and Garden Show at the Lethbridge Public Library and there were few people attending (besides the people working the booths). There were free garden seeds; a great door prize draw; and more.
More Free Stuff: I am putting out feelers to see if there is any interest in learning how to write plant poetry. I am a horticulturist who has been learning native plant identification for the past few years. I can identify hundreds of plants (which certainly helps me write flower poetry). I am interested in hiking with others to help them improve their poetry-writing skills and improve their plant identification skills. If you are interested, follow my blog for posts entitled Poetry in the Park (to find out the where and when).
I can never get close enough to the Meadow Larks to see them well (even by zooming in with my camera). I accidently wrote “morning lark” on the title of my picture below. I’m pretty sure that bird was a Meadow Lark. I hear a lot of them when hiking in Cottonwood Park.
I visited loved ones in early October (and still feel under-the-weather). I am very thankful for a lot of things in 2022. I am very thankful that I have loved ones. I am thankful that I am still alive and that I get to enjoy the bounty of Alberta’s awesome harvest. I am most thankful for all the beautiful scenery I got to be a part of this year.
2022 has been the most beautiful summer and fall that I have ever experienced in southern Alberta. There are still green plants around here and we haven’t had a frost yet. It’s amazing! I’m guessing that my family in the Peace country feel much the same as I do about this wonderful growing season since they haven’t had a killing frost yet either.
I have attached two videos of my song performances to this blog post. I performed my songs Love will Lift me, and Thanks for the Green (Thanksgiving in Alberta 2022). I attached both videos at the beginning of this post. I hope you’ll enjoy hearing my songs. I didn’t do too badly (in spite of feeling ill).
Life is so beautiful. Sometimes I don’t feel very “alive” or “beautiful” but it rarely gets me down too far as long as I get outdoors to experience the beautiful life in nature. Nature’s green is so healing.
I am so thankful to have so many opportunities to heal in natural areas near home. Southern Alberta has never been so beautiful as it has been in 2022. Every day is a gift.
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