Hummingbird's Territory 1988

This happens to me constantly when I'm out and about painting; which I love. I call them my aeronautical heroes and another one of God's gifts to us all. Facets of sparkling iridescence, displayed by the sunlight; living jewels which I am blessed that day with this emerald beauty. A Hummingbird. Small but tough, a genius in flight: manoeuvring also in backwards, vertical, and hovering flight. That mighty little bird gave off mechanical sounding clicks and humming of fast wing-beats. It perched after feeding on this beautiful wild rose and kept me company. Leaving only to challenge that day, a bald-eagle, falcon, hawks, and a couple of meadow-larks. It soared skyward, and with persistent badgering sent the others flying off and out of it's territory. Always sweetly coming back to rest by me.

Indian River Creek 1988

Turbulent flow of relunctant release,
I find myself perched lanquished to a form which never ceased,
Knowing the screams and cries from the banshees,
To never loose to their menacing haunts amongst our trees,
With their threatening encounters behind,
Please God protect the next Mortal which they will proclaim and blind,
My Seeing sense, sends me to transform these forest models,
A Gift to spread the colours of transformation but never coddle,
I leave as we all leave, our Spiritual essense where we occupied,
An emotional adventure only to please mother-earth and feed our hunger inside,
Oh, that creative energy which I hope never eludes my being,
One will die many deaths, if the innovation of a vacuous existence of not seeing,
Being in this state of pure exuberance and smelling of the Earth,
Odors of pine and cedar permeate my humanity and imprinted girth,
Pulling away from that beautiful impression in colour and feeling,
Having the calling to bring one back to another adventure, but not yet, Heavens ceiling,
A grey jay observed and wild eyed porcupine kept me company, I later had discover,
Mountain friendly visitors, while I nestled in their garden to explore and cover,
Lifting my body from the falling dessecated cedar, my shape engraved my presence,
Ritual thanking of the goodness I find willed upon me, and a hike back out to the realm of resonance.

The Spring Sanctum 1997

As that forest breathes with vitality and new life,
One will search to God for a gift in this abundant strife,
Spreading out in the dawn with the dew on the plants,
Dare to rejoice and express and entrance,
Sometimes the trails are foreboding to venture,
The owls in their daytime slumber will call out and guard like centaurs,
Racing for that perfect light and playing to invent,
Another language of my visual attempts,
Silence, please prevail,
And demons off those trails.
Catching a glimpse of the red-eyed, wild dogs as they wail.
Forest damsels save the song for a chorus must be won,
The jade greens, chartreuse, limes and viridian, all licking at the bark for fun,
Nature's wonderful scent and the winds seek to numb the living,
We all know that time has begun to reach into our conscious shivering,
Time to leave, but yet, bring back the moment of Seeing,
To never forget, but reach out for one's Being.

Clematis 2005

The clematis is almost tree like and if you prune it less, only selecting the aesthetic branches, the bush will grow into a beautiful tree. We've had the nocturnal animals visit all summer and they've enjoyed consuming the sweet flowers and sometimes their bulbs. Naturally we don't care as their entertaining to watch with their hunting techniques: of sniffing, digging, and munching. The skunks will leave a scent marker and try to avoid the families of racoon which are after the same food. Racoons sometimes climb the alder and elms and squabble all night, and I've heard of them entering to eat pet food left out all night. The adjoining forest next to our land with it's hedges and thick overgrowth of brambles and wildflowers, are the burrows and dens of these visitors.