been written about the ability of nature to calm, teach and restore. Its birds and animals are icons in my world. I won’t try to match Henry David Thoreau or John Muir, but nature and its creatures have saved my life more than once. Always, after the deaths of loved ones, I go to the woods or sea. There I grieve, meditate, rebuild. Fortunately, I have lovely woods. High Chaparral's 13 acres in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana is my haven. My ocean, as a part-time Californian, is the vast Pacific where we watch whales, sea birds and dolphins.
Glorious with lilacs in spring and clean and bight with snow in winter, High Chap is a favorite with family and friends.
In the nearly 20 years Bruce Keller and I have been together, it is our summer refuge. We spend winters on the road and in our San Diego townhome, where we have a small but lovely garden, a bit of California nature.
High Chap was beloved by our Yorkshire terriers, Nick and Nora, who came here as puppies and spent parts of their nearly 17 years with us, luxuriating and chasing voles in the soothing balm of the Beartooth Mountains.
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| An orchid blooms in La Jolla. |
Here along the West Fork of the Stillwater River, we see few people. Nature is our companion, a treasured friend and teacher. In San Diego, we find spots near the city to appreciate nature.
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An egret looks for lunch
in Point Loma, San Diego. |
BIRDS come and go with the seasons. Many migrators pass through for a handout at the feeders. We’ve had grosbeaks, buntings, jays and finches, several kinds of woodpeckers pecking upside down at the suet. We see sandhill cranes and trumpeter swans in the nearby pond, and once rescued a rare pigmy owl who hurt his wing on the cliff and recovered.
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A favorite walking path leads
to the ocean in San Diego. |
We've heard the song of Canada geese honking their way to warmer climes. We’ve photographed fledgling wrens and robins, and watched their parents forage for insects and worms. We’ve marveled at five kinds of hummingbirds, saved a few injured ones, and like to think they’re the same ones we watch in San Diego winters.
WE'VE PLANTED dozens of trees -- fir, pine, aspen, apple and ash. Most of them made it but like all honest gardeners, I admit to casualties. We do constant battle with the pine bark beetle. I’ve nursed rose bushes and lilac sprouts into adulthood, harvested thousands of seeds-- cosmos, marigolds, hollyhocks, zinnias, four o'clocks -- planting them for the next summer. The deer get plenty of blossoms, too. We don't mind sharing.
I’ve sprinkled the ashes of loved ones under blue spruce sprouts and watched them grow to three stories. We’ve watched a doe give birth in the thicket up the draw on the way to the artesian well. She had twins and we walked the puppies on leashes for two weeks while she groomed them for the greater world.
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| This brown bear was photographed from our patio! |
WE'VE WATCHED beers slide down the talus and scree above the house, in search of the chokecherries flanking our upstairs bedroom deck. Our fearless male Yorkie, Nick, chased a mature bear a few summers ago, ran up his back, was flung into the bushes and lived to bark about it (only scratches, no wounds from the claws, which on an angrier bear could have killed our daring ten-pound Yorkie.)
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Hummingbirds abound
at High Chap. |
In the 30 years I’ve been at High Chap, I’ve rescued many snakes and sadly killed a half-dozen rattlesnakes, the last in the summer of 2021. He was resting on the welcome mat by the front screen and refused to move, even when I banged two cast-iron pots over his head. Only when they come right up to the house and refuse to leave are they dispatched. Otherwise, we give them respect, a wide berth and relocation if possible.
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| A little fawn ventures out on the High Chaparral road. |
MY HUSBAND pointed out that the bird feeders create the perfect environment for reptiles. "Animal Ritz Carlton," he calls it. The birds spill seed, then mice, rabbits and squirrels are attracted to the spills and the snakes come to lunch on the rodents. I hadn’t connected those dots until this summer, so I moved the feeders farther away.
NICKY was bitten once and nearly died. For years he and Nora took the rattlesnake vaccine. While it doesn’t claim to prevent a snakebite fatality, it gives time to get the victim help. I remember that the snakes were here long before we came along.
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| Auntie Cookie and nephew Kenji Christopher looking for wolves. |
We call High Chaparral “Wild Kingdom” because it has a rugged, wild feel to it, although “civilization” – aka Billings – is only 100 miles away.
I designed a granite memorial where plaques of departed family pay homage to their lives.
The family is now scattered – Georgia, Oregon, California, New York – but High Chap and Montana are home -- complete with raccoons and skunks. In San Diego, we romp with seals.
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Sunbathing seals on
San Diego Bay |
My nephew Kenji and I saw a wolf here once, and I’ve recorded five mountain lion visits, as close as the drive-way one snowy night.
Life has betrayed me more than once. But as Jane Goodall taught me, nature -- when treated with respect-- never does.❤️
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