As you can see, Wyoming writer, photographer,and sheepherder Cat Urbigkit is joining us at Querencia. She has already given us plenty of great material; now she is “official.” Welcome, Cat!
Cat’s Mongolia, Part 1
Since this is my first official post, let me provide a short introduction: I’m a sheep rancher, writer/photographer from western Wyoming who is fascinated by animals of all sorts, and by the humans who interact with them. I’ll leave out the details of my journey to get to Mongolia, but delve right into some of …
Sunday Links
Nagrom has an essay on ranch life, cowboy music, and an encounter with one of the greats. Paleontology, real and not so: Darren discusses the new long- “tailed” birdlike fossil (and tells us that some of its more obscure details are interesting); and shows us how certain Native American art resembles a hypothetical giant earthbound …
Another Poem
My other favorite fall poem. October Dawn By Ted Hughes October is marigold, and yetA glass half full of wine left out To the dark heaven all night, by dawnHas dreamed a premonition Of ice across its eye as ifThe ice-age had begun to heave. The lawn overtrodden and strewnFrom the night before, and the …
First Dogs?
New candidates for the first dogs? HT Cat Urbigkit. Maybe, though there also may be at least one older claimant. I wonder if DNA supports the multiple origins idea?
Quote of the Week
From At War With Luck: “Whenever man looks at himself with a cold, unsentimental eye the result is invariably something self-destructive like artistry or alcoholism. The delusion that a professor is smart, that a cop is honest, or that a priest is moral is responsible for every lurch forward of civilization, albeit through billions of …
Autumn
One of my two favorite fall poems is Roy Campbell’s “Autumn”, written when the poet was living in Provence. Autumnby Roy Campbell (1901-1957) I love to see, when leaves depart,The clear anatomy arrive,Winter, the paragon of art,That kills all forms of life and feelingSave what is pure and will survive. Already now the clanging chainsOf …
Real Food
Chas got to thinking about the comments below on Matt’s second “For the children” post, (including mine on supermarket cashiers who could not recognize squash or cabbage)and responded with some thoughts of his own. “When I was teaching, I used to hear the same lament from some students: “We can’t afford good-quality food.” “Yes, you …
A Vadim Gorbatov original
Lobo and Blanca from the recent Korean edition of Ernest Thompson Seton’s turn- of- the- last- century “Lobo”, about a cattle- killing wolf in New Mexico. At that time Vadim had not yet visited us, and in gratitude for our supplying background photos of our terrain, plants etc. he gave us this wonderful pen and …
Cat in Mongolia
Cat Urbigkit has just returned from Mongolia. I hope she will be writing here in detail soon, but meanwhile here are a few teasers. Here is the parade at the Eagle festival: in front, my old friend and drinking companion Aralbai, a major character in Eagle Dreams: His son Armanbek, who was about twelve when …