It took me by surprise. Resting on the steep backside of a ridge whose top was ringed with a black rock outcropping that gave it the feel of a fortress, the white bone snapped into view just before my foot landed on it. Whoa! I managed to redirect my footfall. Not only to avoid hurting the bone, but also to keep it from rolling under my foot and sending me on a tumble down the hillside. I’ve seen plenty of bones in my life. In a life lived amongst livestock, you get familiar with death and bones. You also…
Category: Animals
Alive
In a thicket of thorn apple trees, a single tree-twig of a chokecherry tree unfurled its leaves. The first leaves I have seen this spring! They are green and rimmed with red. This little twig-tree, as tall as a medium sized cat, stands proud, there in its little clearing. After the long winter we’ve had in north central Montana, this little twig-tree is a sight for sore eyes, indeed. Winter has ended (I hope), and spring begun all in one day, it seems. Snow banks still hang out in the low places where snow piled up deep. The land looks…