We planned to visit the fish hatchery and then return via a trail on the east side of Great Pond. Clouds erased the glare of direct sunshine. Colors are more vivid.
Mark had his camera and started shooting when we reached Westbrook Pond. With no wind, the pond surface was a mirror. Two pair of swans became of metaphor of peace. Mark said, “I know it’s a cliché shot, but me shooting anyway” Mark takes RE-MARKABLE photos. I heard the click of his telephoto several times.
I Strap on the bear paws. They are antique gut and hickory shoes that are comfortable when eight inches or more of snow cover the fields. I set off on the Hubbard Duck Farm off Hubbard Avenue in Riverhead along the northern edge of the Peconic River Estuary. I begin my trek adjusting the leather straps that have lengthened because they are wet and need to be tightened; I plod off down the right-of-way, over the tracks, beside the woodlands, past the complex of buildings, the incubator house, the long holding pens, the workers house and outhouse, into the snowy fields with tree statues that look like Giocometti sculptures sticking up, stark, smooth sumac with their knobby, jerky stalks and shield scars where leaves held on, past disk harrows rusted and peeping up above snow surface, with goldenrod stalks like pencil lines on white, white paper; the tracks I make cross deer tracks, and mink tracks I enjoy a welcoming, cheerful chickadee.Thea sun is hidden behind a gauzy curtain of a certain snow sky, the drifts in open fetches, the tall reeds that hide the creek, the catch basins for duck waste, the bittersweet berries dropped by the passage through thickets of vines. I plod and tramp past collapsed tin-roofed buildings were thousands of white ducks once quacked and fed and drank and shit. What a beautiful way to spend an afternoon; my thighs hurt; I stop to readjust a strap, tighten the binding; Ie enter a maple forest following a deer path; reenter that field with wind in face through sumac groves, and more disk harrows, who have retired on their home ground. I can hear the ducks, see huge what masses of ducks adding waste to the Peconic River. The place awaits a new beginning..maybe condos. high end luxury homes, golf course. Maybe even an open space area where other people can do what I just wrote about.
A rainy, overcast day and what to do?? Let’s go shopping at K-mart with naturalist Tom Stock. I grab one of the monstrous shopping carts and am determined to fill it up. I join the consumers already in the store. There are many women, over weight, not very attractive, with huge cardboard boxes that look like skyscrapers sticking out of their carts. These women have smiles on their faces like Herring Gulls or ducks (whom always smile). There is a men arguing with their wives in angry tones over what kind of shampoo they should buy. There are over a hundred choices, so I can understand how difficult this decision must be for this couple. I overhear another man saying to his wife “You need a coupon!” in an urgent voice. I spotted a man sitting in the patio section sitting on a lounge chair with strange, distant eyes.
I had come to buy a four pack of color film. That’s all I intended to buy. So how come my receipt says $64.19?? I passed the blue gene section and tossed in two pairs. I needed candles. I picked out two Martha Steward decorator candles. However, I didn’t intend to decorate with them. They are the decorations; they don’t help with the decorations. Another example of package labeling that may suggest to the buyer that if you buy “decorator” candles, you can decorate. I saw a back scrubber so I thought I needed that. I’ve gotten along without a back scrubber for 20 years. All of a sudden I needed a back scrubber. It wasn’t as hard as I thought to fill up my shopping cart but I still had quite a bit of room left.
(In support of the Standing Rock Reservation)
They are lined up for the photo shoot
Reporters ready with note pads
A bevy of politicians, dressed in smiles
Hold gold-painted spades
For a groundbreaking event
They look to the cameras
Hunched with blades of dirt
The ceremonial toss of soil
To signify the start of another sky scraper
Or a new village of wigwams
To grow window dressing as proclaimed
“We are taking care of our Indigenous Brothers”
Thesis the start of a new Native American community
With all its infrastructure
New fire pits, fiber glassed dugouts
A cleared path to their “happy hunting grounds”
To energize their wampum business
For jewelry on display in a strip mall
That covers their sacred burial ground
Perhaps a shot of the Sachem and the developer
Standing in front of a tax-free cigarette outlet
While Natives stand by dumb struck
As they wait to be ushered
Into yet another smaller reservation
The treaty has an “X” signature assuring that
In case a pipeline has to pass through
There will be nothing they do co about it.
Behind the line of politicians, a sign…
“Community Redevelopment.”
Maybe there’s a message here
If so, what is it?
Curious George climbs, snoops,
And gets into everything he comes in contact with
Oops, he just stick his nose in a pot of glue
I can learn from this.
Is the Curious George show just a coincidence
When I turned on the TV?
Was this meant to be?
I was looking for the NYC Marathon
And you popped up
I wondered. is this a prompt for some poetry?
I am tempted and curious myself
What will happen next?
What’s your “big picture” message?
Be curious like me?
Everybody’s curious, I think
Perhaps to be more curious
I went to college and passed
I put my hand on the remote
To change the channel
“No. no, no Tom, don’t surf
Stay with me” Curious George begs
Look at him. adorable and charming
A furry little monkey
Oh my gosh, he’s opened a desk
In an elementary classroom looking at books
Wow, he is curious
So I decide to buy a scratch-off card
Because I’m curious to find out
What’s behind those little covered windows
So I scratch. YIKES I won! I won! A dollar
Being curious has paid off
Hey, this might be the big picture message
OK, Tom, get curious about
Something more important
Turn off the TV, get busy
Use my five senses
Start asking questions
I know I’ll find something
Let my curiosity grow.
Thanks Curious George
November 4, 2016
I spent part of the afternoon with some children on the plains. The 19 acre site never looked better not only because of the beauty of grasses. I watched the colorful jackets of children bounce and dodge in the distance as they made their way along the trail. I was glad to see this. This is what the place is for. This is the kind of playground I’d like to see for all children.
I was asked by Nomi to work with these 9 children to draw them out and try writing poetry. We started with a scavenger hunt.
Cupsogue is a strange name for a park. It sounds like a local Native American term. Wikipedia confirmed my suspicion. “…dated from the 1690’s, local Indians called it Cupsogue meaning “closed inlet,” A 1931 nor’easter opened it again and it was widened during the hurricane of 1938. I suspect that the location and narrowness of the barrier beach has caused it to open and close several times over centuries. Perhaps local Indigenous residents witnessed one of its closings.
The park is located at the dead end of Dune Road. It is fronted on three sides by water, the Atlantic, Moriches Bay, and Moriches Inlet. The inlet has been bolstered by two long rock jetty’s to curtail erosion. On either side, 15 foot high iron towers mark the opening.
After 22 Thursdays of two hours work for Nancy and me, we’ve come to the end of the organic farming season. Today, Nancy shoveled and carted wheelbarrow’s full or organic compost to spread on the new garlic plot.
I gathered hoses and sprinklers to stow over the winter. The farm is a lonely place in winter, bees sequestered in their hives, tools locked in the shed, walk in cooler turned off, irrigation valve shut off, tractor and attachments covered. It is sad to end one season on the soil for the next is jackets and hats.
I cut down three vagrant trees growing in the row of raspberry bushes. Today was a slow day for workers so I took time to pick and eat what ripe raspberries were left.
Still healthy
The boy within still acts up
Thrills over a nature discovery
Loves toes in morning dew
Hikes with Mark
Dinners with Nancy watching 6PM PBS news
Scouting the organic farm for ravens
Puttering in the garage
Growing spinach, chard, and zinnias
Writing poems and essays for tomstock.org
Coffee and New York Times in the morning
The afternoon nap
Making a stir fry
Time in the man cave
Shopping the produce isle at Best Market
Keying out a mushroom
Visiting Bob’s Lot in Edgewood Preserve
The dunes at Babylon Overlook
Presenting power point Secrets of Sampawans Creek program
Creating collages and constructions
Sifting compost
Grand kids Owen and Maggie, Daughters Julie and Jenny
Attending programs at the Walt Whitman Birthplace
Being on the Hempstead Plains
Visiting with friend Darrel Ford
Doing little science experiments
Going to yard and garage sales with Nancy
I am happy that after 21 years of retirement, I am fully engaged and am contributing to my family, immediate community, and region
I am thrilled that I have a site on the internet where I can post samples of my writing. Writing is one of the most important things I do. I write about my nature experiences in essay and poetry. I believe that my writing is a “force for the environment”( Max Wheat comment)
Tom Stock
“What good is a nice house if you don’t have a healthy planet to put it in?” H.D. Thoreau
A nice house is useless if our bigger house is fowled. The pathology works from both ends, top-down and down-up. Let’s start with population growth. Boom, WAIT! This essay has to stop right here. Native American built structures that decomposed and left no toxic remains. Now, archeologists clamor to find remnants to learn about their lifestyles.
Our houses need water, electricity, food, clothing, petrochemicals for our gas grills and cars. YES – Remnants end up in our bigger house and has come back to bite. 9 billion residents in the big house is a bit much, don’t you think? But, now that we have them, what to do? While governments try to do the big stuff, we try with the little stuff. Still, sustainibility isn’t happening.
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