Archive for the ‘Wild Nature’ Category
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
Last night I went for another run and skinny dip in the Seymour River. This time I went down the Twin Bridges trail, which is closed for trail work. I felt worried as I ran down the trail and saw that they are widening it and gravelling it. The sign ...
Posted in Running, Wild Nature | 1 Comment »
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
A recent discovery at Monkey Valley inspired me to write this homage to John Denver:
Blue turd on the counter makes me happy
Blue turds in my bed can make me cry
Blue turd means the mouse has found the poison
Blue turd means the mouse is going to die
I was very moved by ...
Posted in Wild Nature | No Comments »
Monday, May 11th, 2009
The absolute best thing about Monkey Valley is running with the bears. (The worst thing is the cell reception, but I won't go into that now.) It has not happened often that I've had the chance to run with bears here—only a few times in nine years—but it happened today.
I ...
Posted in Running, Wild Nature, Wild Women | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
I just got back from Monkey Valley, where I had a chance to find out how the place fared for the winter. I found evidence of some horses (or so I thought) in the yard, and the corpse of a tiny shrew in the power room. Other than that, no ...
Posted in Wild Nature | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
One of the things I love about Monkey Valley, which goes hand-in-hand with the stillness, is the presence of wild animals. Being so far away from people and their noise means being out where the animals live. Having an encounter with a wild animal is a special gift that sometimes happens ...
Posted in Wild Nature | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
At Monkey Valley, we place a strong emphasis on keeping retreat participants safe. One of the ways to do that is helping people learn about the wild animals that live in the area. I've written extensively about cougars on this blog, to tell you the story of how I learned ...
Posted in Wild Nature | No Comments »
Friday, November 28th, 2008
I saw the first sign on top of the fridge: smaller than a grain of rice, and dark brown in colour: a mouse turd. But smaller than the average mouse turd. Which made me wonder if it might have been emitted from a shrew or vole... There was no question ...
Posted in Wild Nature | 3 Comments »
Monday, November 17th, 2008
The Western Canada Wilderness Committee, of which I am a member, has a campaign on to ban grizzly hunting in BC and protect grizzly habitat. They believe the grizzlies are in danger of extinction, and I find their evidence convincing.
If you are interested in finding out a little more, here ...
Posted in Wild Nature | No Comments »
Sunday, November 16th, 2008
When you are on a vision fast or medicine walk, you enter into a mystical realm where all events and encounters take on a significance that is bigger than what most of us experience in ordinary waking life. During this time, an encounter with an animal is not just a ...
Posted in Vision Fast, Wild Nature | 2 Comments »
Friday, November 14th, 2008
"Puma, cougar, catamount; Felis concolor, the shy, secret, shadowy lion of the New World, four or five feet long plus a yard of black-tipped tail, weighs about what a woman weighs, lives where the deer live from Canada to Chile, but always shyer, always fewer, the color of dry leaves, ...
Posted in Wild Nature | 1 Comment »