Good Free Photos, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is rendered helpless in the face of the muse that sometimes attaches to the keeper like a woodtick: ON BEING A TREE I wish that I could be a tree. Gaudy now in autumn glee. I’ll undress soon for winter …
Read
Category:Nature
Kickass Goes to a Prairie
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis with the following advice: Go to a prairie! It will be healing! See more at… The Bill Stokes Author Page
Kickass and Bird Feeder Speculation
Rennett Stowe from USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, buys the keeper’s contention that life is pretty much a process of ignoring reality and making of the truth what you will. This approach—now trending beyond all measure, is applied by the keeper to his balcony bird feeder and allows …
Read
Kickass and Naked Gardening
Tainted Fruit, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, having successfully assisted Phyllis in negotiating “Naked Gardening Day” back in May, is offering his help as “Naked Bike Riding Day” is followed by “Naked Hiking Day,” marking activities that Phyllis once participated in—fully clothed, of course. …
Read
Kickass and Morel Rejection
Oregon State University, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is aware, along with the keeper, that one of life’s important lessons is the ability to handle rejection; but when it is consistently handed out by a fungus, changes need to be made: hence this May, the keeper announces that …
Read
Kickass and Naked Gardening Day
Tainted Fruit, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, constantly making excuses for the keeper’s inclination to screw things up, is stepping in to try to explain how he—the keeper, managed to confuse Mother’s Day—the first Sunday in May, with Naked Gardening Day—the first Saturday in May. …
Read
Old Guard
Photo by Geoff Carter By Geoff Carter My family is lucky enough to own lakefront property in Northern Wisconsin. We’ve been going there for over fifty years, ever since my brothers and I were children. My mother would pile us into our red VW bug on the first day of summer vacation, drive for five hours, …
Read
Kickass and Bird Migration
Antonio, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in his fascination with the fact that, according to ornithologists, 340 million birds will migrate across the skies of the US tonight. The incredible timeless night migration of birds is now being negatively affected by human …
Read
Kickass and Attenborough
David AttenboroughDepartment of Foreign Affairs and Trade website – www.dfat.gov.au, CC BY 3.0 AU, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s assessment that watching the PBS “Climate Change” program hosted by David Attenborough produced the sensation of being aboard a doomed airliner. The program’s take-away for the keeper was …
Read
Kickass and the Trees
Maud Newton, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in noting the trees, huddled now in late April on the hills in skeletal nudity, but beginning to offer tender buds to buy the leafy/lace green gowns to take them dancing extravagantly through the long …
Read
Kickass and A Walk in the Woods
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, fresh from reading The Overstory, where Richard Powers relates trees to humans, walked in the woods with son Larry to assess the kill of ash trees by the invasive emerald ash borer. The walk included pauses at many of the …
Read
Kickass and Talking Trees
Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, has been working with the keeper in the burgeoning field of other life forms—like trees and other plants, having here-to-fore unknown abilities to communicate with each other, and with humans: if you are of a certain mindset and you take a walk in the woods—the …
Read