Birthday Hike

 Hello, Bailey! 

We hiked Whitecap for Maggie’s 6 month birthday. She is strong and steady but a bit too Zoomy when crossing an icy trail. I liked bringing her up Bailey’s cairn. She’ll rest there someday… and so will I.

Spring Hike

 The girls went wild over the spring smells today with temperatures in the fifties. I’m dragged this way and that as we stride up the Yellow trail on Whitecap. Every few steps one of the girls will slow to a stop—the smells lure them into a coma and they stand breathing in the smell until I jerk their leash to bring them back to reality. 

Crossing the lower Connector trail

Cleaning the Dirt Mobile 

Puppy Tummy (Trigger warning: Poopie scenes 💩)

Some of the tools of the evening 

At 2am, nature calls. As I walk back to my room by the door to the first floor, I sense something. In bed, my thoughts churn. A few minutes later I get up and stand at the top of the stairs again. Now, a whisper of a familiar smell. 

I dress fully, boots and all. As I head down stairs with my headlamp on high, that whisper of a smell turns into a steady moan. I knew what I’d find.

Little Maggie, eyes averted, sits at the back of her crate with a spread of diarrhea at her feet. I get to work: spread 7 or 8 towels on the walk from the crate to the back doors; grab rug cleaner, dog wash soap, sponges, dish towels; turn on lots of lights; and grab Maggie’s leash. I open the crate and hook up the princess.... 

To avoid spreading the filth, I lead her with strong hands to the back deck. I leash her to the outside railing and get to work cleaning. I’ve lost track how often this has happened, but it's pretty clear that the culprit are treats.  

Praying this won’t happen again. 

Training time

Not a happy hiker. 

After 3 miles of hiking, I attempted to teach Maggie the finer points of heeling. Well, that didn’t go well. First she’d pull then she’d sit, and other times she’d look at me as if I were a dust mite. The push and pull of the final 10 minutes made for a really bad finish to our hike. Above is what she looked like after our session. Me? I regretted the whole adventure. I was too irritated to take a selfie. We live and learn. 

JoAnne's Book

A mentor and dear friend, JoAnne Zywna gave her time and thoughtful responses to my first novel, Summer Blue, and my first chapbook of poetry, Entering Weld (1981). From the late 1970s, we've shared laughter, books, losses, long talks, the Town of Weld, music, and our writing. In the 1990s, JoAnne came to Mountain Valley High School in Rumford (ME) to teach English with me for several years after a long stint at Mount Blue HS in Farmington (ME). We both taught writing at the University of Maine at Farmington. As teachers, we have always placed our students at the center of our classroom lives.  

Over the past 50 years, JoAnne has written a poem a day in her daybook. I remember her reading poems to me at her home in Weld. That writing inspired my own, and this past year I decided her poems needed a larger audience beyond the regional magazines and literary journals they had appeared in. So, I offered to edit and publish JoAnne's poems. We worked during 2024, and the chapbook, Once and Gone, has now been published. Our mutual friend, the artist Mary Hart, supplied the cover art for the book, and we're thrilled with the response from Weld and western Maine folks, colleagues, and friends near and far. 

JoAnne's residence, American House, a national organization of senior living communities, featured her story in their magazine: The Poetic Life of JoAnne Zywna.

                                               

SCENT AND SENSE 

The cutting of boughs 

a traipsing through soil 

softened by early December rain 

to study a stand of firs 

and making aesthetic decisions 

about which branches to remove, 

which seedlings to uproot. 

A singular scent 

rolls up and over me, 

the hope of Christmas, 

the gift of earth. 

The roar I thought was wind 

persisted. 

I stepped to the deck 

to check my senses, 

was encircled by a familiar sound, 

the one I listen for in April, 

the one I approach with shovel, 

to re-direct the whirling current 

away from my road. 

Tonight, January thaw 

has loosed the ice 

and water plunges and pounds 

like tympani avenging all those rests. 

My heart skips one, two beats. 

Tomorrow, will I have a way out? 

                                                                                                        –JZ 

Introducing Anna to Whitecap

We took off to show Anna Whitecap Mountain. I think she was excited but did fall asleep for the 8 minute ride to the trailhead. But when we arrived, the girls lost their minds as they grappled to be first out. We hiked up on the snowmobile trails and the second connector trail. The girls pulled hard as I tried to guide them down the trail. That didn’t go so well at times, but I laughed as got tangled in the leashes and pushed to my knees. Unfortunately, they may have chowed down on deer poop pellets. We’ll see how that turns out. It is what it is! 

 

❤️