I am excited to launch a series of stories prepared by participants in the fall Wenatchee Naturalist course. For the 12-week course, each person made weekly visits to a natural area of their choosing and wrote notes, sketched, and took photographs. At the end of the course, each person reflected back on their unique experience and shared a snapshot with the rest of the class. In this blog, I’ll be sharing a series of creatively told stories that readers will enjoy. Check in for more chapters soon!
Here is Sue Simmon’s free verse poem, accompanied by her photos of her backyard shrub-steppe field site.
Pitcher Canyon Field Site by Sue Simmons
Select a Field Site: Easy Assignment
Pitcher Canyon: Home off and on for 35 years
Someplace close would suit
Easy access equals frequent visits
Set the boundaries
Made a map
So easy to view even from my kitchen sink
Coyotes on parade, BOLD in broad daylight
Quail singing Chicago, Chicago
Chukar pitching in with a distant beat
Jays braying their dominance, till the Red-tailed hawk entered the scene
Dark-eyed juncos flitting and sitting
Sage and bitterbrush their convenient perches
Lichen silently reforming the sandstone
Cheat grass getting a jump on the other plants in the mild fall days
All so easy to see out the kitchen windows
Baking in view of my Field Site, more often than not, met the requirements of this assignment