I am excited to launch a series of stories prepared by participants in the fall Wenatchee Naturalist course.  For the 12-week course, each person made weekly visits to a natural area of their choosing and wrote notes, sketched, and took photographs.  At the end of the course, each person reflected back on their unique experience and shared a snapshot with the rest of the class.  In this blog, I’ll be sharing a series of creatively told stories that readers will enjoy. Check in for more chapters soon!

Here is Sue Simmon’s free verse poem, accompanied by her photos of her backyard shrub-steppe field site.

Pitcher Canyon Field Site  by Sue Simmons

Select a Field Site: Easy Assignment

Pitcher Canyon: Home off and on for 35 years

Someplace close would suit

Easy access equals frequent visits

Set the boundaries

Made a map

So easy to view even from my kitchen sink

Coyotes on parade, BOLD in broad daylight

Quail singing Chicago, Chicago

Chukar pitching in with a distant beat

Jays braying their dominance, till the Red-tailed hawk entered the scene

Dark-eyed juncos flitting and sitting

Sage and bitterbrush their convenient perches

Lichen silently reforming the sandstone

Cheat grass getting a jump on the other plants in the mild fall days

All so easy to see out the kitchen windows

Baking in view of my Field Site, more often than not, met the requirements of this assignment