I’ve been obsessed with the feathers of great blue herons for nearly a decade. I’ve always been attracted to feathers, in general, but the magic of heron feathers has overtaken all other plumeage interest and I’ll do anything to get my hands on the darn things.
It all began about 8 years ago when I was on a climbing trip with my boyfriend at the time, we’ll call him Igor. We were in Whiterock, BC for a few days and decided to canoe a small river that spit itself out into the ocean just off the coastline of the mainland. As we were paddling along, I noticed a great blue heron standing on the edge of the riverbank, Igor mentioned the fact that their feathers were supposedly gorgeous. It was like music to my ears, I commanded Igor to paddle harder and we made our way to the edge of the bank only to find that it was made of cattails and other, general riparian vegetation that made it impossible for me to make my way to where feathers might have been found. I’ve been nearly driven mad by the elusive heron feathers of my life ever since. This is all to say that besides all the OTHER reasons Igor and I didn’t work out (namely the fact that I was still madly in love with the dashing mountain man I’m now married to) we broke up because Igor failed to help me secure the plumes of the great blue heron.
HARUMPH.
Some fellows just aren’t up for the task at hand.
When RW and I lived in Arizona, at the nearby Southern tip of Lake Havasu, there was a great blue heron nesting sanctuary. It was amazing! Most unfortunately, humans were not allowed to trespass on the terra firma of the little island that tended to be aflutter with heron wings and squawking babeletts. I occasionally dream about how many feathers I could have collected from that little sanctuary…I wake up in hot panics.
But. Let me tell you, where Igor failed me (specifically in the heron feather realm in this situation I speak of), RW has conquered once again! Over the weekend, whilst fishing a wee reservoir on the upper Portneuf River, we looked West from my little yellow canoe towards shore and spotted a great blue heron. I whispered to RW, “Take me to shore. Right there. I must see if there are heron feathers to claim…”
He obliged.
And I found heron feathers;
the first of my sad little heron feather hunting life.
They truly are spectacular. I tried to capture the color and sheen for you but I failed miserably. MISERABLY. They are of the palest greys and silvery blues — somewhat like the walls in my living room and bedroom. Subtle coloring.
As if by magic.
I’ve been turning them over in my hands all day long, thinking about what I’ll do with them, thinking about how precious they are to me.
In the grand and worldly scheme of things, they are nothing, they are without value.
To me, they’re soft and perfect beacons of hope,
RW helped me find them,
they make my heart light,
capturing them in this world has been a quest
they are, to me, the holy grail of feather collecting. I love them so.
RW will read this and he’ll be annoyed that I even mentioned Igor in the first place — there’s a bit of bad blood there…though I can’t imagine why since the better man got the girl! HA! Sorry husband. Don’t be angry. Do a touchdown dance instead…
This is all to say, while fishing on the weekend, I didn’t catch a single fish
but I did find something I’ve been dreaming
of for quite some time.
Do you have a quest?
Besides finding the perfect pair of jeans or comfortable, black ballet flats?
What is there, out there in the world, out there in the nest of nature, that speaks to you more than anything else? Are you actively seeking it or are you able to find it every day?
*A patch of lady slippers.
*A perfect pussy willow branch.
*A hummingbird or kingfisher sighting.
*A whopper walleye caught at the base of a glorious set of rapids in the Canadian North.
*The perfectly braided lightning strike.
*A sunset.
*A finger crack that follows a beautiful line up the face of a granite wall — it burns your fingertips so bad but there’s so much pleasure found in clinging to it and climbing it — there’s so much joy to be felt in that moment when you defeat gravity.
What’s your quest?
Just wondering….
xx
P.
