On winter walks, Abby flops on her back and rolls on lawn grass blanketed with hoar frost. Corgis have a double coat. They embrace the cold. With spring in the air, she’s more apt to turn an ear to the click of valley quail, sniff the bloom of primrose, and gaze at the flight of […]
It’s a cool, blustery morning in late April 1967. Opening day for stream trout on Couse Creek. Wisps of cottonwood bloom float above a field of alfalfa ready for its first cut. Basalt-studded slopes showcase the early bloom of sulphur buckwheat. A solitary crow spreads his wings and voices his opinion from atop a telephone […]
I push my bicycle past a concrete barrier that prevents four-wheeler access to the South Fork of the Umatilla River, strap on a backpack that holds a water bottle and a peanut butter sandwich, and begin the upriver journey to Thomas Creek. A pair of belted kingfishers chatter past. Dried stalks of mullein weed and […]
Wheat harvest is in full swing as I drive south across sun-burnished slopes of the Blue Mountains. Dust devils send chaff spinning above disturbed fields of stubble. Mourning doves flush from the edge of the road, gathering gravel for their crops. It’s been two weeks since I last wet a line and stream trout are […]