There's an art of attending to weather, to the route you take, to the land's marks along the way, to how if you turn around you can see how different the journey back looks from the journey out, to reading the sun and moon and stars to orient yourself, to the direction of running water, to the thousand things that make the wild a text that can be read by the literate. The lost are often illiterate in this language that is the language of the earth itself, or don't stop to read it.

--Rebecca Solnit

ALL THE WORM TRAILS UNDERNEATH THE BARK

OF A GIANT FOREST

write a name in a script

I cannot translate.

And I do not care to.

--Michael McClure

The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sing best.

--Thoreau

The Black Woods Figures

I painted these years ago, when I was interminably unemployed in Portland. I think they're 5X8, but don't remember for sure.

It is an error to think that the world does not feel just because it does not have legs, eyes, and hands.
--Campanella

Antelope Island

Today I visited Antelope Island, in the Great Salt Lake. There are a few interesting animals there, that make the trip worthwhile. It has a fairly bleak, typical Utah look, that is aesthetically appealing. Possibly the best thing about it, it provides a perspective of some of the most populated places in Utah, from a distance that makes humans seem miniscule and unimportant.
I saw Buffalo, Ravens, Goshawks and a Coyote, as well as tracks of Hares and Antelope. (Buffalo hooves leave a delicate mark that seems incongruous with the animal’s bulk.) Also, because the Great Salt Lake is an incredibly important site for migratory water-fowl, there were oodles of ducks. There were many Mallards and Northern Shovellers, of course. Also, there were a few Barrow’s Goldeneyes and Green Winged Teal. Ducks are not something I’m very good at identifying, so I assume there were some rarer ones that I missed.