This is an excerpt from "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold, from the 1977 Tamarack Press edition. Leopold's poetic description of Fall weather, and life's lessons taught by having a woodlot and cutting firewood are chronicled in the November essays.
"The wind that makes music in November corn is in a hurry. The stalks hum, the loose husks whisk skyward in half-playful swirls, and the wind hurries on. In the marsh, long windy waves surge across the grassy sloughs, beat against the far willows. A tree tries to argue, bare limbs waving. but there is no detaining the wind" ...
"Out of the clouds I hear a faint bark, as of a far-away dog. It is strange how the world cocks its ears at that sound, wondering. Soon it is louder: the honk of geese, invisible, but coming on. The flock emerges from the low clouds, a tattered banner of birds, dipping and rising, blown up and blown down, blown together and blown apart, but advancing, the wind wrestling lovingly with each winnowing wing. When the flock is a blur in the far sky I hear the last honk, sounding taps for summer"
Monday, November 24, 2008
October - "Smoky Gold"
Excerpts from "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold, edition published by Tamarack Press, l977. In the essay "Smoky Gold" Leopold, accompanied by his dog, reveals his hunts for grouse, ducks and deer, are also opportunities to appreciate nature's bounty.
"There are two kinds of hunting: ordinary hunting, and ruffed-grouse hunting. There are two places to hunt grouse: ordinary places and Adams County. There are two times to hunt in Adams: ordinary times, and when the tamaracks are smoky gold. This is written for those luckless ones who have never stood, gun empty and mouth agape, to watch the golden needles come sifting down, while the feathery-rocket that knocked them off, sails unscathed into the jackpines."
"The tamaracks change from green to yellow when the first frosts have brought woodcock, fox sparrows, and juncos out of the north. Troops of robins are stripping the last white berries from the dogwood thickets, leaving the empty stems as a pink haze against the hill. The creekside alders have shed their leaves, exposing here and there an eyeful of holly. Brambles are aglow, lighting your footsteps grouseward. The dog knows what is grouseward better than you do. You will do well to follow him closely, reading from the cock of his ears the story the breeze is telling." Essays "Too Early" and "Red Lanterns" continue Leopold's reflections on the hunting theme.
"There are two kinds of hunting: ordinary hunting, and ruffed-grouse hunting. There are two places to hunt grouse: ordinary places and Adams County. There are two times to hunt in Adams: ordinary times, and when the tamaracks are smoky gold. This is written for those luckless ones who have never stood, gun empty and mouth agape, to watch the golden needles come sifting down, while the feathery-rocket that knocked them off, sails unscathed into the jackpines."
"The tamaracks change from green to yellow when the first frosts have brought woodcock, fox sparrows, and juncos out of the north. Troops of robins are stripping the last white berries from the dogwood thickets, leaving the empty stems as a pink haze against the hill. The creekside alders have shed their leaves, exposing here and there an eyeful of holly. Brambles are aglow, lighting your footsteps grouseward. The dog knows what is grouseward better than you do. You will do well to follow him closely, reading from the cock of his ears the story the breeze is telling." Essays "Too Early" and "Red Lanterns" continue Leopold's reflections on the hunting theme.
July "Great Possessions"
Excerpts from "A Sand County Almanac" edition published by Tamarack Press, 1977.
Leopold's July essays entitled "Great Possessions" recount his joy in land along the Wisconsin River as he rises early to listen to its "tenants". His poetic expressions of dawn bird song combine with his scientist's proclivity for documenting each note.
..."This daily ceremony...begins with the utmost decorum...At 3:30 a.m. with such dignity as I can muster of a July morning, I step from my cabin door, bearing in my hand my emblems of sovereignty, a coffee pot and notebook. I seat myself on a bench, facing the white wake of the morning star. I set the pot beside me. I extract a cup from my shirt front, hoping none will notice its informal mode of transport. I get out my watch, pour coffee, and lay notebook on knee. This is the cue for the proclamations to begin.
At 3:35 the nearest field sparrow avows, in a clear tenor chant, that he holds the jackpine copse north to the riverbank, and south to the old wagon track...Before the field sparrows have quite gone the rounds, the robin in the big elm warbles loudly his claim to the crotch where the icestorm tore off a limb, and all appurtenances pertaining thereto (meaning, in his case, all the angleworms in the not-very-spacious subjacent lawn). The robin's insistent caroling awakens the oriole, who now tells the world of orioles that the pendant branch of the elm belongs to him, together with all fiber-bearing milkweed stalks near by, all loose strings in the garden, and the exclusive right to flash like a burst of fire from one of these to another.
My watch says 3:50. The indigo bunting on the hill asserts title to the dead oak limb left in the 1936 drought, and to divers near-by bugs and bushes. He does not claim, but I think he implies, the right to out-blue all bluebirds, and all spiderworts that have turned their faces to the dawn. ...
I encourage you to continue reading "Prairie Birthday" as well as "The Green Pasture and "The Choral Copse" which are August and September essays. LR
Leopold's July essays entitled "Great Possessions" recount his joy in land along the Wisconsin River as he rises early to listen to its "tenants". His poetic expressions of dawn bird song combine with his scientist's proclivity for documenting each note.
..."This daily ceremony...begins with the utmost decorum...At 3:30 a.m. with such dignity as I can muster of a July morning, I step from my cabin door, bearing in my hand my emblems of sovereignty, a coffee pot and notebook. I seat myself on a bench, facing the white wake of the morning star. I set the pot beside me. I extract a cup from my shirt front, hoping none will notice its informal mode of transport. I get out my watch, pour coffee, and lay notebook on knee. This is the cue for the proclamations to begin.
At 3:35 the nearest field sparrow avows, in a clear tenor chant, that he holds the jackpine copse north to the riverbank, and south to the old wagon track...Before the field sparrows have quite gone the rounds, the robin in the big elm warbles loudly his claim to the crotch where the icestorm tore off a limb, and all appurtenances pertaining thereto (meaning, in his case, all the angleworms in the not-very-spacious subjacent lawn). The robin's insistent caroling awakens the oriole, who now tells the world of orioles that the pendant branch of the elm belongs to him, together with all fiber-bearing milkweed stalks near by, all loose strings in the garden, and the exclusive right to flash like a burst of fire from one of these to another.
My watch says 3:50. The indigo bunting on the hill asserts title to the dead oak limb left in the 1936 drought, and to divers near-by bugs and bushes. He does not claim, but I think he implies, the right to out-blue all bluebirds, and all spiderworts that have turned their faces to the dawn. ...
I encourage you to continue reading "Prairie Birthday" as well as "The Green Pasture and "The Choral Copse" which are August and September essays. LR
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Hard at work
The Leopold Heritage Group is hard at work planning activities Aldo Leopold Month and Earth Day in 2009. Your suggestions for new activities or revisions to old ones are welcome. Please post comments here, or write to leopoldheritage@gmail.com.
Thank you.
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