Leonardo Da Vinci & Leafy Spurge

What’s that lovely chartreuse-coloured flower that is now blooming near the Oldman river and smells like honey? It’s Leafy Spurge – a nasty, invasive weed species.

James and I did our Poetry in the Park fourteener guided hike this morning in Alexander Wilderness Park (a beautiful nature reserve in Lethbridge, Alberta). There’s so much Leafy Spurge in that nature reserve (and Leafy Spurge does not belong there). Leafy Spurge is displacing many beautiful native flowering plants that should be protected in that park.

There’s still a lot of native beauty in Alexander Wilderness Park, in spite of all the Leafy Spurge. I have uploaded a few videos that I recorded when visiting Alexander Wilderness Park. In the videos, I showed some of the flowers that I was planning to guide others to see. I hope you’ll enjoy seeing them in my videos (though they’re better to see in person).

I was most delighted to see the Shining Penstemon in bloom on top of the coulees along the Lost Soul Ultra trail. There is a large patch of Shining Penstemon that grows right along the road into the park. It isn’t in bloom yet. I expect it will be later this week. It doesn’t last too long so it’s worth showing up often for the next while (so you don’t miss it).

If you do happen to miss the Shining Penstemon at Alexander Wilderness Park in Lethbridge, we will see it later on in Waterton while on one of our scheduled Poetry in the Park hikes there. Every single one of our hikes is worth showing up for. There are a lot of beautiful flowers blooming in the Lethbridge coulees right now. Why wait for Waterton’s Poetry in the Park free guided hikes?

Our next hike takes us just south of the Lethbridge Country Club on May 19, 2024. We will be meeting at a park in suburbia at 9 AM. This subdivision (Chinook Heights) is located near Scenic Drive, south. If you drive south on Scenic, from downtown, you will find it on the right hand side. There is only one park within Chinook Heights and it’s easy to find.

James and I will introduce a type of Fourteener (called Ballad Meter) to interested budding poets while we hike down to check out the budding flowers along the coulee trail which winds down to the Oldman River. We also expect to see a number of birds (as this is one of the best places in Lethbridge for bird-watching).

I have provided an example of a poem written in Ballad Meter below. I wrote this poem on May 14, 2024 after having watched a documentary about Leonardo Da Vinci. James and I will be discussing Leonardo Da Vinci and other Italian Renaissance artists on videos attached to my next blog post.

Observing Da Vinci

Observing Mona Lisa’s smile

is something we all do.

Most tend to linger for a while

so, likely you will, too.

I’ve lingered there, just wondering

what other people see.

The critics say this “perfect” thing

 is all high art should be.

I like the painting but don’t see

it as the best I’ve seen.

And, for its time, it wouldn’t be

the best there’d ever been.

So why the rep? Do critics see

the artist, not the art?

Da Vinci’s “genius” meant that he

could pull the world apart

to understand, then engineer

a better world design.

But he fell short of this, I fear.

And yet, he did just fine.

He’s been renowned for centuries –

all humans know his name,

but is this man the whole world sees

observed by all the same?

I like his artwork – paintings and

his “engineering” plans

because he tried to understand

the world amongst its fans.

But is it genius just to see

the world with hopes to learn?

A genius is, it seems to me,

a title one must earn

by not just seeing with some wit,

but doing something new.

His plans fell short and so he bit

off more than he could chew.

He hoped to fly, as most men do,

but was it worth the fuss?

High aims accomplished nothing new

since fallen Icarus.

If he had spent his time instead

just painting everyday,

would he be famed, amongst the dead,

a “genius” anyway?

Though mastering his art technique

did win him some acclaim,

his mastering of his mystique

without it built his fame.

Leonardo Da Vinci could’ve made a comfortable living making art exclusively. Would his art have more value if he’d churned out a huge number of pieces over his lifetime? No. Rarity and impermanence makes things more valuable. His Last Supper is likely more valuable because it has been disappearing over the centuries. The fact that his 24 foot tall horse sculpture was destroyed makes us value what little remains all the more.

Perhaps, even though Da Vinci realized that he was a skilled artist, he realized that there really were more important things for him and everyone else at the time to put one’s energy and time into than art. Perhaps the fact that he branched out into engineering makes us value him more – as not just an artist but a “genius”.

Leonardo Da Vinci had proved himself as an artist. Did this make us all take his other endeavors more seriously? Were his engineering plans really original? Ahead of their time? This is worth discussing further.

Nature as Inspiration for Art

Inspiration

In summer, I go hiking every day

in nature – up in Waterton and here –

in coulees, where the plants were left to stay.

It’s March. Although I know the spring is near,

and coulee plants will bloom to lure the bees,

it’s winter. When one’s hiking, all one sees

is snow and ice, below the naked trees.

In March, I live – reviewing memories.

I paint remembered life indoors instead

of going out to face the deep March snow.

What I remember helps me plan ahead

for many hikes I’ll take before I go.

The summer hikes I take inspire my art,

and art inspires my summer hikes, in part.

When it’s too cold to actually get out into nature, you can bring nature into your home to inspire your art. There are many nature DVDs available at your local public library. There are also a lot of art instruction resources (including DVDs, which I prefer over art books).

We all can use a little colour at the end of winter. It helps remind us of the colour to come. In March in southern Alberta, spring really is just around the corner.

When a chinook rolls in, get outdoors, get some sun, and bask in the warm feeling that the spring flowers will soon be blooming again. When the weather feels like March again (snow, snow, snow), stay in and paint pictures of the birds and spring flowers to come. The colour will help put a spring back in your step!

Prickly Pear Cactus

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.

For The Love of Gardening

I planted up my peat bale row.

I’m so exhausted and I ache.

I used to garden years ago

each day for hours, for goodness sake.

Now half a day just wipes me out.

But how I love to watch plants grow.

The joy I get, I have no doubt,

is very largely since I know

how hard I works to get them there.

Some others choose a different route –

they delegate their garden’s care

but I don’t know what that’s about.

The garden that I work to make

provides me love I’m glad to take.

The Silas Stories: part four

This post of Silas Stories features five of my songs: Frosty the Rainbow, Fink, The day Max got her flight feathers clipped, Green’s Ring, and Riverfront Aquariums. The video-links of each performance is found below. I have also typed up my poem, Christmas Candles, and included it at the end of this post. Christmas Candles is not a Silas Story. It’s a story of a part of my childhood (before I met Silas).

As with all of my Silas Stories, these poems that I sung are true stories. Silas loved being surrounded by animals of other species. Most animals enjoyed Silas’s company also. All of the critters mentioned in the songs attached in this post loved Silas very much.

It is healthy to enjoy the company of other species. Many of Silas’s pets were “exotic” so one would expect that they were wild. All of the pets mentioned in this post were very tame (even though they had scales or feathers, and not fur). Some of Silas’s exotic pets came to him wild but it didn’t tend to take long for the reptiles to tame to him.

Kindness is a universal language. Silas fed his reptiles and gave them beautiful trees to live in. Silas misted the leaves of the trees that his reptiles lived in several times each day with fresh water. The Knight anoles loved the showers. Silas also set up a basking lamp so that those reptiles could stay warmer than the rest of the room. Silas’s reptiles had a good home with him.

Christmas Candles

In winter, we’d visit my grandma Ouellet.

I was always afraid when we drove to her farm

because of the cold isolation up there –

north of Tangent. Our Datson’s mechanic was dad.

The car always functioned quite perfectly. Yet,

I was scared, though there never was cause for alarm.

My dad was responsible – always aware.

There were natural gas-flares like street-lights that had

been burning for years – an identical set

miles apart on the way. The flares really did harm

to no one. They made me feel safer. Their glare

gave me comfort. A light in the dark isn’t bad.

Their light had a warmth that extinguished the threat

of the darkness – a warmth that I’ll never forget.

Strep for Christmas

I have included a sonnet that I wrote recently called Strep for
Christmas. I wrote it when I heard about the children in the UK and
Montreal who recently died from Strep. It’s heartbreaking that families lost
their little ones just before Christmas.

I performed my song, Spread Smiles (not Covid), to an audience of Meadow Larks at Cottonwood Park in Lethbridge, Alberta on July 6, 2022. I think they might have enjoyed hearing me sing as much as I enjoy hearing them sing. You will find the video of my performance attached below. I also included a video link to another song of mine, Birds Choose, in this post. I sung that one to chickadees in December.

When I was ill as a child, my dad would sit by my bed and keep a cold, wet
cloth on my forehead. He’d keep ringing out the cloth to cool it in a bucket of
water beside my bed. My dad cared for me so well. Because of his love, I have
good memories of being sick.

Had I died from an illness as a child, my dad would have been devastated. It
is sad that the children who died from strep won’t get to have Christmas with
their families. It is even sadder for the families, though.

People often seem offended that I wear a mask in public. They seem to think
that I am making a statement – that I see them as diseased. I am trying to
protect them as much as I am trying to protect myself. I am most concerned for
my husband’s health. He has no immunity due to his cancer and treatment.

Recently a friend told him that she understood why he wore a mask and then
looked over at me, as if to say that she couldn’t understand why I do. I didn’t
bother to explain that if I catch Covid-19, I may not even have symptoms, but
James would likely catch it from me. I’m not willing to gamble on James’ life.
He’s already had one stroke since the pandemic began. I shouldn’t have to
explain why I wear a mask during a pandemic.

This pandemic has been a real eye-opener. I know a lot of people enjoy
taking risks. If they risk their own health, it really isn’t anyone’s business
but their own, I suppose. I am surprised to see how many people are eager to
risk the health of other people, especially children.

We cannot give the children who died from strep recently anything for Christmas. We cannot do anything for them any longer. We can do something for other children, though. We can wear a mask, social distance, and try to stay as healthy as possible (including getting vaccinated prior to being anywhere near anyone else). If we stay healthy, the children are more likely to stay healthy as well.

Strep for Christmas

This week, two kids had strep in Montreal

and twelve kids had strep throat in the U.K.

These kids won’t have each Christmas wish fulfilled.

How many innocents will have to fall

before we all agree to find a way

to kill this plague before our kids are killed?

This Covid plague has weakened everyone.

Kids respiratory systems are impaired

so, many kids will catch their death this year.

Do folks think this pandemic’s really done?

Since the beginning, many haven’t cared.

Instead of spreading Covid, spread some cheer.

Use masks, vaccines, and keep your distance, too

‘cause if you don’t, kids deaths will be on you.

You may be wondering if there is a link between Covid-19 and strep. The authorities don’t seem to know yet either. Some have denied any link. Others have speculated that respiratory impairment (damage) caused by past Covid-19 infections left these children more vulnerable to succumb to death by strep. Is it worth the gamble?

If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy reading information in the link attached below.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04403-y

I’m a Millionaire!

I performed my song I’m a Millionaire! to nature but nature chose to repeatedly interrupt. I also included a sonnet that I wrote in the body of this blog post. It’s called Paying it forward. I wrote it on June 24, 2022.

Paying it forward

My angels, who guide me, today

told me “bless everybody you see

while out walking. You don’t have to say

 words aloud – just bless silently. See

 all those blessings returning your way.”

In the rain, I thought no one would be

in the park but the plants – where I lay

down each step. Then I giggled with glee –

I could bless every plant here to pay

them respect. So I blessed every tree;

every bird that I heard; an array

of herbs blooming; and goats that were free

on the range. And while watching them play,

I felt blessed and I wished I could stay.

The weather has been too brisk to tempt me out for a nature walk lately. I mostly hibernate through the long Canadian winter. I have happy dreams of summer each winter day, though.

I have so many videos of summer, happy nature songs, and poems that I have created now. These things bring me summer joy throughout the winter. I see the image of the Downy woodpecker above and think of the Downy (a different one) who regularly eats birdseed from our hands when James and I go out to feed the birds.

Each summer memory that I collect seems to pay itself forward right back to me in the winter. Each summer blessing that I made to the nature I love in the summer of 2022, now returns to warm my heart on the coldest winter days. I am so thankful for Canada’s beautiful nature (even the snow).

Common Sneezeweed

I performed my song, Common Sneezeweed, to a Common Sneezeweed plant that I found on a local urban hike. You will find the video-link attached below. I have also typed up one of my sonnets and included it below. It is called I am sure I’ve got Covid. I wrote it on August 30, 2022.

I poke fun at myself in the poem a bit. Either you laugh or you cry, right? Do any of us really know if we have it (unless we have been professionally diagnosed as being positive for Covid-19)?

Honestly, I wonder if I have “the bug” right now. I wonder each time I feel tired or under-the-weather. I am wearing a mask so I don’t pass it along, just in case.

I am sure I’ve got Covid

“I am sure I’ve got Covid – my temp’s ninety-two.

That’s in Fahrenheit. I don’t know what it should be

but I’m sick, so you’d best keep your distance from me.

If you don’t, you’ll be getting this Covid bug, too!”

“You should rest for a while in that chair in the shade.

You’ve been working too hard. It is time for a break.

You have made this yard nice so now you have it made.

It is shady, so rest – there’s no chance you will bake.”

“So how long did I rest there?” “Not long – forty-five.”

“I feel great. All the birds in the trees made me well.

I feel healthy again and I’m glad I’m alive.”

“You’re allergic to poppy seeds. Didn’t you tell

me your dad was allergic to morphine? And you

likely need a new bathroom thermometer, too.”

I really shouldn’t eat poppy seeds. This body of mine is very sensitive to things. However, I am not embarrassed when I think that I may have become infected by Covid during this pandemic.

I heard a statistic recently that should make people concerned. I think I heard that 50% of Canadians are currently infected with Covid (the authorities are keeping track of the wastewater infection rate, apparently). Things should be interesting when the vitamin D levels plummet again in the winter months.

James and I went to visit my family in the Peace country (northern Alberta) for Thanksgiving this year. I hadn’t seen my family for years (before the pandemic began). In past years, I’d make the journey north in the summer each year. The Peace country is only worth visiting in the summer.

James and I had managed to keep from catching Covid-19 while hiking in Waterton a lot this past summer. We figured we’d be alright, in spite of James’ no immunity (due to his type of cancer and the treatment that he’s getting). James has been coughing this morning. My mother was coughing this morning and had a headache last night. Who knows if it’s Covid-19?

I noticed that my mom has a box of Covid-19 quick tests in her cupboard. I have also heard that those tests give out a lot of false negatives (which makes them useless in preventing the spread of Covid-19). False positives could help prevent the spread but not false negatives.

There are so many variants (and sub-variants) now. Many seem to be mild and many people are asymptomatic (spreaders who don’t feel ill at all even though they are infected with Covid-19). These days there is so much Covid-19 within the population that we aren’t taking the gamble that we’ll catch Covid-19 while out in public. We are taking the gamble that we’ll catch a deadly variant versus a seemingly milder one (that will still increase our risk of having a heart attack a year after infection).

We gamble each time we enter common space or breathe common air. The authorities seem to have no interest in controlling the spread so it seems like we have the option of staying away from our loved ones and never seeing them again or seeing them and risking killing them or ourselves off while we visit (and then never seeing them again).

Or we can choose to live communally in seclusion with our family, I suppose. Perhaps it would work out if we bought a big enough farm and built our homes away from each other and lived as though we were in urban lots. There’s a reason we move away from our families – we do enjoy our time away from them. Everyone needs their own space and privacy.

I enjoyed my visit with my family. Was it foolish? We’ll have to wait and see if one of us dies soon from Covid-19 or has a heart attack a year from now. Is it worth the gamble? Isn’t it still foolish to risk it for a visit?

James visited his father for the last time this summer. His dad died of a heart attack just before James was planning to head home again. I’m sure that James was glad that he got the chance to see his dad before he died. One must wonder if his dad would have died of a heart attack had he been kept away from common spaces and those who frequent common spaces, though.

For how long will I question whether a visit with loved ones is worth it? For how long will I get that luxury?

You never know when your last opportunity to visit your loved ones will be. I’m very glad that the last time I saw my family was good. If it is the last visit we’ll enjoy together, whomever of us remains will have good memories of those who passed away.

Pasture Sage

Pasture Safe is a common plant of the Lethbridge Coulee trail system. It is beautiful and smells great. I sang a song that I wrote to a Pasture Sage plant. My song is called Pasture Sage. You will find the video-link attached below. I recorded this performance in the summer.

I wrote sonnets exclusively this summer. That is to say, I did many things besides writing sonnets, but sonnets are the only poetry form type that I filled with content. All of the songs that I have sung to nature this summer are also sonnets. I had such fun singing this summer!

Pasture Sage

Though this sage is quite common, it’s second to one –

Prairie Sage is more common. Both sages are fun.

Prairie Sage forms a mat, whereas Pasture does not.

Leaves are finely dissected but each has a lot

of grey hairs on each side. This fine foliage won’t hide

any snakes from the sun – it’s too fine to make shade.

It can grow in the coulees on south-facing slopes

where most other plants perish, this Pasture Sage copes.

It has alternate, silvery leaves with soft hair.

In the pasture, it thrives, since cows leave it right there.

Hairy texture is bad? Or the taste makes them sad?

Livestock pass it all by in the fields where they’ve laid.

It has small yellow blooms at the end of July.

You won’t see them; you’ll smell that these plants are nearby.

There are several species of sage in southern Alberta. I can’t believe it has taken me so long to try to know them. Sometimes you take those around you for granted. I will be trying to figure out what type of sage is the one in the video attached below. It is a beautiful plant found at 6-mile Coulee Nature Reserve in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

Even though the summer has past, these sage plants still look and smell great! Even though this summer has finished, I keep singing and having fun. My memories of summer will keep me warm, in any case.

Noon Racoon

I sing my song, Noon Racoon, in a video attached below. I also show the racoon who inspired me to write by sonnet/ song in the video that I attached called “Pavan’s Noon Racoon” for you to enjoy and a poem called World War Flu, that I wrote on July 17, 2022.

World War Flu

Covid’s a test for fools in the West

and all politicians have failed.

China’s pandemic’s messing with them –

and all the world’s countries are nailed.

People should see that lock-downs are key

and personal freedom’s a curse –

spreading this flu from tourists to you

and things are about to get worse.

Variants grow and no one can know

if Covid’s pandemic will stop.

Patiently, Ping is watching this thing

and Western economies pop.

That’s what it’s for. Ping started a war.

It looks like he’s won – democracy’s done.

I got a strike for spreading “medical misinformation” on YouTube again. Both times it’s happened, James and I were talking about Covid-19 FACTS and both times we had mentioned China. It seems that some pro-China person really has a hate-on for what I have to say. Perhaps they’ll prefer reading my opinions in the form of poetry instead.

Upper Rowe Lake

James and I hiked up to Upper Rowe Lake yesterday. We had hiked this trail in Waterton Lakes National Park in the past but we certainly enjoyed our hike up to the lake yesterday more than we’d enjoyed the hike in the past. I couldn’t have experienced a better hike up to Upper Rowe Lake.

My journey started at Cameron Lake on September 21, 2022 because James and I had intended to hike the Carthew-Alderson trail. James missed the shuttle so we decided to hike to Upper Rowe Lake. I wrote and sang a sonnet song as I waited at Cameron Lake so no time was wasted. I have attached the video of my performance of Cameron Lake in Fall below. Cameron Lake was beautiful (as much as it was cold).

Besides the first video attached to this post, all of my videos are attached in order so you may view this post as a guided hike – as though you were hiking along with me on September 21, 2022. I have attached a video of one of my songs (that I wrote and performed on location) called Lower Upper Rowe Lake. I have also typed up a poem that I wrote this morning (September 22, 2022) about the hike. It is called Fall Treasures of Rowe Lake Trail. I have attached it below.

Fall Treasures of Rowe Lake Trail

I hiked the Upper Rowe Lake trail to see

the riches of the mountain scenery.

That polished lake was smooth and crystal clear

and sparkled there beneath the alpine sun.

The treasures found on Rowe Lake trail are dear.

I treasured all the people – every one:

A Claresholm Cooper, powerful yet kind,

did windmill work; worked out; and worked his mind.

Two Kamloops pairs: one old, the other young,

but both were young inside and warmed my heart.

A Corgi and two horses walked among

the human gems and each one was a part

of something more – combined as if to be

a part of Rowe Lake’s treasured scenery.

There were many beautiful sights along the path I hiked to Upper Rowe Lake and back down again. There aren’t many flowers blooming there anymore but there is still a lot of greenery and wildlife. I saw a Bighorn sheep crossing the road near Lineham in the morning. Although I have seen many a sheep in the park, I have never seen them up around Lineham. I only see the sheep in the townsite in the spring.

Even though the weather was ideal for hiking this trail, the Upper Rowe Lake and the rest of the scenery was beautiful, my favorite part of the hike to Upper Rowe on September 21, 2022 were the people whom I met along the way.

Upper Rowe Lake is a lovely trail to hike in the fall but I have always considered it to be more of a “journey” hike than a “destination” hike. Sure, the lake is beautiful, but there are many beautiful lakes in Waterton Park (and there are more beautiful lakes which are easier to hike to than Upper Rowe). Still, I don’t think I would have wanted to be anywhere else on September 21, 2022. I had a perfect hiking day along the Upper Rowe Lake trail.