Down
How many times have I gone down into the blue dragon’s cave ... Xuedou, Blue Cliff Record , Case 3 Southwest over the ranges, at dawn the full moon answers the rising sun that sidles to its midwinter notch in hills to the northeast. Even before the shortest day there’s a feeling that the season has turned. Birdcalls change as territorial manoeuvres begin again; brown thornbills check the eaves for cobwebs to carry away for nestbuilding; blackbirds chase and scold but don’t yet stake out a nest-range with their songs; fantails that didn’t migrate haunt the ways. When I go walking with F and Z we need only light clothing – they’re visiting from maritime eastern Canada, where this year, unlike other parts of the north, just now summer temperatures are the same as ours. Black cockatoos gather in the big pines on top of the hill to shred cones for the seeds inside and