Take Joy!: In the Briar Patch

Words to Consider

I bind myself today to the Holy Powers: Their hands to guide me, Their wisdom to teach me, Their ears to hear me, Their words to give me speech, my heart always to love Them. —Galina Krasskova
"Not to hurt our humble brethren in fur, feather or fin, is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission: to be of service to them whenever they require it.” ~Francis of Assisi
Tikkun Olam (roughly translated, I understand, as Heal the World)
“It is not incumbent upon you to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to desist from it.” –Rabbi Tarfon.
"And the Bastard grant us, in our direst need, the smallest gifts: the nail of the horseshoe, the pin of the axle, the feather at the pivot point, the pebble at the mountain's peak, the kiss in despair, the one right word. In darkness, understanding." -- Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious-makes you so sick at heart-that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" - Mario Savio
"They tell us that we live in a great free republic; that our institutions are democratic; that we are a free and self-governing people. That is too much, even for a joke. ... Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder... And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles." —Eugene Victor Debs
i do it for the joy it brings / because i am a joyful girl / because the world owes me nothing / and we owe each other the world / i do it because it's the least i can do / i do it because i learned it from you / i do it just because i want to / because I want to —"Joyful Girl", Ani DiFranco
"Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another word for respect for life." - Elizabeth Goudge, author of The Joy of the Snow

Sigrdrifa's Prayer

Hail to the Day / Hail to Day’s Sons / Hail to the Night and her Daughters / With loving eyes look upon us here / And bring victory to those who have gathered / Hail to the gods / Hail to the goddesses / Hail to the mighty, fecund Earth / Eloquence and native wit bestow on us / And healing hands while we live

In the Briar Patch

I went down to the bottom of the woodlot this afternoon, looking for baby turkeys. Small (who is named that because she's, well, small . . . smaller than the other turkeys, anyway. I wasn't feeling terribly original that day, obviously.) had been setting, and last week we both saw her with one of the other turkey hens and three baby chicks.

We've seen her and other hen a couple of times since then, but not the chicks. I've heard them peeping, but not seen them. So I was looking to see whether I could spot the place she's got them hidden. And they are definitely hidden—you wouldn't think a white turkey could hide quite so well, but she can. There are a lot of clumps of honeysuckle and wild rose down here, and some of them are pretty thick.

Like this one:

See anything in there? I thought not. Neither did I, until I'd gone past it a couple of times. Then I happened to look in just the proper fashion, and, lo and behold:

See that? That patchy brown thing in the middle of the shadow underneath? (You will probably have to click for the big picture; I did, and I know what to look for!)

That, my friend, is a setting turkey. Lucrezia, I believe; I was too busy pretending to look elsewhere to get a very good look.

So one of these first days we'll have more baby turkeys, I hope, and perhaps we may even be able to see them . . . if their mother lets them out of hiding before they grow up.

Posted at 09:26 PM in turkeys | Permalink