Yesterday was RW’s birthday!
Sometime last week I asked him how he’d like to spend his special day — though I don’t know why I ever ask because the answer never changes. We spent the day over in the Little City of Rocks area of Idaho hunting chukar, nibbling on a picnic and exploring the sage laced hills and coulees there. Hunting was a four hour hike up and across the rim rock and volcanic hoodoos of Little City of Rocks (not to be confused with City of Rocks by the folks who like to climb Idaho) at the end of which we were terribly sun beamed and wind blasted — I felt exhausted. Farley had run at least seven more miles than we hiked and he was exhausted too. We coasted back down onto the Snake River Plain, grabbed some delicious Italian for dinner with a friend in Twin Falls (lasagna is one of RW’s other birthday requirements — he’s like Garfield) and eventually we arrived home in Pocatello where we covered the tomatoes with blankets out in the gardens, belly flopped into hot baths and tossed ourselves into our warm bed.
It was such a splendid day.
You know, when you’re out strolling across the shifting hands of the seasons there’s an extraordinary amount of texture applied to all the senses. Those patches of lichens that are so busily lipping at the surfaces of stones seem
twice as thick and vibrant as they did in the summer months.
The small body of water in the sea of sage glimmers like holy
sapphire! The mountains in the distance, capped white and groaning with imperceptible
shakes and quakes, grind away at the sky and the blue holds the faint pulse of indigo crushed fine in the smooth bowl of the mortar.
It’s.
Nearly.
Too.
Much.
For.
Me.
To.
Bear.
I perish. I die in the wonder of creation, time and time again.
I move through it like I belong in it, like a wild horse owns the rock that trims its hooves, like rivers to the seas, like the clouds so designed and destroyed by the lift of the mountains
and the grace of the plains. I move. I belong.
This small body lives to leap up and over stones, scramble through thorny thickets with my heart beat glowing bright in my throat and there on the soft sides of my wrists. Then sifting, sifting like the river water sifts the silt, claiming clarity and purity as it flows. I am lost, divided, made whole again, raked into neat stacks by the tines of the wind and then spread out once more and drifting.
But I digress.
This was all to say, happy birthday Robert.
I loved being out on the land with you yesterday.
The wind burned my cheeks red and coaxed some tired coal in my soul into flame once more.
I hope you had a wonderful day too.
Let’s do it again sometime.
:::POST SCRIPTUS:::
I nearly forgot!
Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow
Canadians! I hope your lives have been
full of family, friends and blessings this weekend
and always.
:::POST SCRIPTUS:::
I nearly forgot!
Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow
Canadians! I hope your lives have been
full of family, friends and blessings this weekend
and always.
YAY!
happy birthday RW, and happy hunting
*happy thanksgiving*
Happy birthday, Garfield!
Oof. That is big, beautiful country. These photos are giving me a longer longing.
Happy Canuck Thanksgiving to you too, and Happy Birthday weekend to RW! I'm just gearing up to head to my parent's house where i'm tackling family dinner this year…baked hams, mixed mashed veggies with caramelized onions on top, baked brussels sprouts with toasted pecans, carrots vicchysoise, pumpkin pie and dark chocolate ginger tart for dessert. whew. looking forward to it!!
xoxoxo
happy birthday, robert! looks like you celebrated it fully. gorgeous post, levitating woman.
Happy Birthday to RW! What a splendid way to spend the day. Farley looks marvelously happy there, too.
Happy Birthday to RW, what a wonderful day you had
Happy Birthday to RW. Sounds like a glorious day indeed.
HAPPY birthday to Robert (already posted same on his Facebook page)!
Fabulous photos–I can almost feel the light and wind.
Happy birthday Robert! Hope your day was splendid.
Happy Thanksgiving to you! I'm off to hunt out a pumpkin from the garden for pie!
And a happy belated birthday to RW!
You seem to have a LIMITLESS supply of Parkas!!
have been thinking about thanksgiving: hope you celebrate it well and good!!
happy birthday, robert!
and: happy jumping in nature's autumn colours!
xx
Happy Birthday RW, I know your day was filled with much love and happiness;o) The pictures are making me homesick;o)
Happy Birthday, RW! And many more.
what a beautiful way to spend a birthday. 🙂 great photos!
You make me want to move to Idaho. I'm so glad you had a wonderful day, and another HAPPY BIRTHDAY to RW! What a spectacular way to spend it 🙂 I love how happy Farley looks. What is the second collar on him? Question: why isn't RW wearing orange? How do you know other people won't be hunting? I'm just curious, as I'm not a hunter 😀
Love and hugs!
The spirits true nature. No wonder we run wild and free…You two are the coolest!
many happy wishes to RW -Cheers!
xox
The spirits true nature. No wonder we run wild and free…You two are the coolest!
many happy wishes to RW -Cheers!
xox
Happy Birthday RW…a perfect birthday!
Coincidence that my sweetheart has the same birthday…and that we had Italian!! We did not hike though even though it is a favorite. We covered as many football games as we could : )
I long for lichen…good to see you leaping! xx
Thanks for all these wonderful birthday wishes for RW! His birthday was the 8th but tonight we're having his official party with 15 friends coming over for a massive taco dinner in our dining room. He has asked me to make pumpkin pie for his "birthday cake" and I'm going to get to work doing just that in a few moments, along with a couple of apple pies as well (I just picked the neighbor's tree and these apples I'll be using are like pure sunshine gold).
Cat! Thanks for your question about RW wearing hunter blaze orange. Here's my answer:
He should have been!!!
HA HA!
The area we were hunting in is a very wide open space, as you can see in the photos, and there was no one around for miles, but he still should have had on at least a blaze orange cap. I'll bust his chops about that a bit:) He always wears orange when he's out for elk, antelope or deer because he's usually walking through thick timber and it can be easy to mistake a man for an animal…but he's getting a bit sloppy about wearing it while he's out bird hunting.
Thanks for the reminder!
I'll make sure I slap a blaze orange hat on his head next time he goes out.
xx
OH.
And the second collar on Farley is his hunting collar. It holds both a shock collar and a beeper locater. He runs really big when he hunts — in flat areas, he'll sometimes get out 3/4 of a mile. If he strikes a low point, it can be hard to see him. When he freezes on a staunch point, the beeper lets out a loud beep that allows us to locate him on sound.
As you can imagine, when he his hunting blue, spruce or ruffed grouse in thick timber it is usually IMPOSSIBLE to see him when he goes on point. The beeper is a necessity in such instances when it comes to locating him.
I've explained the shock collar in past posts but It's used to enforce commands, never to discipline. Farley can get so concentrated on scenting that he'll sometimes ignore a command and want to go his own way in the field. A light reminder with his shock collar tells him to remember that he is in partnership with Rob and he needs to follow the whistle commands that have been given. RW rarely uses it.
I should film Farley at work sometime. He's beautiful to watch, all business. And he's REALLY really good at what he does…passionate too. He'll run for Rob forever…until he dies. It's kind of beautiful and heartbreaking to watch. You'd never imagine that a dog could be so passionate about his work…
Happy Birthday RW!!!!
Beautiful, beautiful post.
Thanks for sharing.
Recurring theme of you in flight-
always fun.
Happy Thanksgiving Jillian! xo
The two of you are sweet and inspiring. It makes me happy to see two people enjoying each other's company! ¡Viva el amor!
Kate!
Thank you.
🙂
This post made me think of you and this…Habak 3:19 and this Hinds Feet on High Places..Hannah Hurnard x
J: definitely slap some orange on that man! 😀 We could make really snazzy bright orange bunny ears that he could wear! ha ha ha.
I'd never heard of the beeping on a collar but that is REALLY cool! And I'm all for the small shocking training collars. Buddy used to trek forever with me. But he always stayed close…we were like brother and sister and protected each other.
I would LOVE to see video of Farley hunting. I bet he is simply majestic.