Mish is the host of tonight’s d’Verse and gives the following prompt for tonight’s quadrille:
So I give you the word “steep” to infuse into your poem of 44 words.
Steep drifts
shelter the pheasant
outside my window.
He stares in at
the greenery
and wonders
at the mirage
of summer.
*
I leave quinoa
and rolled oats
steeped near
the corner of
the house,
hoping he’ll
find it. His
partner from
last week’s
gone.
Tao Talk 
oh love this Jade…how you gave me glimpse how the outside looks in, too often i am looking out and not inwardly, such an inspiring set of 44 words – lovely!!
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Thank you, Gina!
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What a nice guest to have in winter, may he find his partner again, in the mean time let him eat.
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yes :)
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I never thought about that mirage of summer before! We have a pheasant neighbour,too – Mr P. However he has eaten all my winter greens, so he is not as popular as he could be.
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Bummer on Mr. P. There is no green to be found around here…
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I like the thought of the pheasant looking in at the mirage of summer. They mate for life you know. I do hope she didn’t die or was killed by a hunter. Such love birds.
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I did not know that pheasants mated for life. The two here are both males, but they were always together. I heard the mournful call of one last week over by the neighbor’s house. I really hope their dog or the hawk or the cat that hangs around here didn’t get him.
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This will happen when the mate, if female, dies. Two old bachelors together.
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And now one :(
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Hopefully he will find another friend. I have a pheasant and a brown tanager that have bonded and become friends. I call them Pete and Repete and have taught the tanager the first six notes of the XFiles theme. they are two old men together.
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How wonderful <3
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fun rhyme, images and story of your kindness and the illusion of summer was funny.
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This is very beautiful and powerful.
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thank you
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It is my sincere pleasure
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I love the picture you paint of the pheasant in the snow, wondering at the mirage of summer, Jade. He’s very well fed with quinoa and rolled oats! Our pheasants don’t just have partners, they have harems!
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you’re down south, aren’t you? pheasants aren’t native to this area.
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We’re on the North Norfolk coast in the UK and we have so many pheasants!
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oh my goodness, all this time I was thinking you were in Norfolk, Virginia! Let me adjust your geoposition in my mind….
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:)
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You got your pheasant to come up close. I hope he finds a partner. They usually have a harem so maybe he has a few more stashed away somewhere :)
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There was just him and one other male. He looked sooooo cold out there huddled by the slider.
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They do get cold. Even here where the winters are mild, they often don’t live until the spring. Most of ours have gone, I think. Not from the hunters; the foxes have been feasting.
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It’s much worse out there today. More snow with a vicious windchill. No sign of him or his buddy.
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It isn’t round your way where the temps went down to -50°C last night was it?
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not sure what it was last night but it’s 10F with -7 windchill and winds off of lake mi at 21mph. It’s effin cold! not sure what all that is in C and km…
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10°F is -12°C! The coldest we’ve had is one night at the beginning of January when it went down to -5°C. But it’s always warmed up in the day. I don’ know how anything survives in your part of the world at all.
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Tomorrow it’s supposed to be between 6 and 0 F. Wind and snow are still flurrying out there. Same with Thursday. It’s supposed to get up to freezing by Friday. It’s effin cold!
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I heard on the news that millions of fish had died. It doesn’t really surprise me.
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:( When I was out at the lakes last week, Lake MI was not frozen very far out, which is unusual for this time of year. I wonder if the sudden super freeze threw the fish off guard…
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If they were caught in it, close to the surface maybe.
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I love the idea of pheasant looking in at the mirage of summer :) this is beautifully drawn! ❤️
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A very touching share; I love to bird watch, but around here the crows raid and rule the feeders. A pheasant in the wild can deal with snow.
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I hope so. When I opened the back slider to put some oats at first (so he could eat it right there) of course he was scared and took off very quickly and flew just over the top of the snow and back to the woods. First time seeing him fly.
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p.s. There are swarms of crows in the area but very seldom do they ever get near. I think someone around here has made them very afraid of humans. I can hear them in the back field having a party sometimes.
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A vivid visual of the poor soul staring through your window. I hope he finds his friend.
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Yes, it’s a straight line over my monitor to him standing there, so it was impossible to not see him all day. When I opened the back slider to put oats down he flew off and hasn’t been back since. I did see a rabbit nibbling on the other pile of food at the corner of the house.
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Very nicely done!
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Thank you, Charley!
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Lovely quadrille.
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Thank you, Arcadia!
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Love these kinds of connections!
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I’m glad, VJ!
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I like the thought of ” the mirage
of summer” and that you left some oats and quinoa for the pheasant.
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Thank you, Frank. I hope to see both of them tomorrow, but today was the first day in a week that I saw the one.
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I love how you used steep twice, and the protection of the steeps in this slice of heartbreak. I feed my local crows, and worry about them endlessly when a regular doesn’t show (and rejoice in the new juvenile crows each summer.) Thank you for caring for your local wild birds.
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I’m so glad it connected with you. Happy to hear you take care of your local wild birds also <3
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Beautifully done quadrille!
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Thank you, Punam!
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You are welcome ❤️
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Ah to have a friendly pheasant winter visitor. I do hope its partner has not met his demise in the hunting season. Such wonderful creatures.
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This was wonderful Jade. :-) I hope the partner just traveled on, and nothing more dire…
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Thank you very much, Rob. Me too.
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It’s a tough old world
Empathetic view
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