Coffee Clutch with Dutch Henry: "For a Friend"

Monday, January 28, 2013

"For a Friend"

Howdy Folks,

Today's Coffee Clutch is dedicated to Pamela Nuckols who went to heaven on Friday. She was one of the original Coffee Clutchers, enjoying our visits before we started the blog, when I posted our chats on Facebook. I think she was the first to sign on to follow our blog. She was one of the first to call it the Coffee Clutch. Pam loved our chats about nature, she loved bird watching, butterflies and flowers. She loved leaving comments, told us it made her feel as though she were walking and chatting with us under the trees, watching and listening to birds. She loved nature and so missed being able to stroll through it. So she walked with us.

As with so many of our Facebook friends, I didn't know Pam before we met over the electronic fence. We were introduced by her cousin Carol Bernstien, and I thank Carol for that. Don't you just love how Facebook can spread friendship worldwide with ease? I'm not a tech savvy fellow, but I do thank my agent, Dawn Dawdle for pushing me into this part of the techy world. I would be lost now without all our friends who have become family, on Facebook and here on the Coffee Clutch blog.

Pam was a cheerleader, never complaining, always writing and reading about things she loved.

For you Pam …

Sleet tapped out a slow melody on the barn's tin roof, the trees hung heavy, bowing under the weight of their morning ice blanket. Juncos gathered under protective ice laden bows refueling for the day on cracked corn, singing their one note "twang." One by one and two by two Morning Doves joined the Juncos at the scratch. Two male Cardinals sat high on a limb, their brilliant red coats shimmering as they called, "tick –tick." I wondered if they were complaining about the freezing rain. A pair of squirrels crept cautiously to join the breakfast buffet. A single Chickadee waited patiently on the old stump for a chance to join them. Mr. Blue Jay was not so patient.

A train's long whistle sounded in the distance, I poured my first cup and saluted the heavens. The chickens settled in the barn, and we all gathered with Kessy. Well, Saturday, the chickens and I did. This being a, "not perfect weather day," Tigger and Miss Kitty stayed in the house. Kessy munched her hay as we sat beside her and chickens rummaged the bedding beneath and around her. Snug and dry in the barn, sleet tapping the tin, it was another perfect Coffee Clutch morning. God Bless you, Pam, all of us know you'll be forever a Coffee Clutcher.

Gitty Up

Dutch Henry

2 comments:

KitJanuary 28, 2013 at 10:56 AM
Such a sweet salute to the passing of a friend.
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PatriciaJanuary 28, 2013 at 3:11 PM
Oh, that was a wonderful eulogy for your friend.
I love reading your posts.
I guess I forgot you were another fellow Dawn Dowdle author.
Patti
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Welcome to the Coffee Clutch

Welcome to the Coffee Clutch, a happy place to visit. I write uplifting stories about a wide variety of subjects from horses to birds and nature, to love and family and friends. Sometimes I'll post excerpts from stories I've written for Equine Publications. Sometimes I'll post about writing itself. Coffee Clutch got its name because I often write while enjoying my morning coffee in the barn with my mare Kessy, and all our critters. Join us here for fun conversation and stories I promise will make you feel good.

It's For The Horses

This is not a book about riding, or training horses. It is a book on my thoughts, ideas and suggestions on how folks might find the joy in doing things for the horse, with the horses’ point of view as the leading guide. My hope is to help as many people as possible learn to hear the horse, feel their spirit, and in that way help horses everywhere. Over the years I’ve met and worked with remarkable people and horses who taught me about their feelings, their joys, their sadness, and their spirit. As a horse advocate everything I do is from the horse’s perspective, including this little book. Every story, idea, suggestion and thought on these pages will be to suggest and share thoughts and ideas on how to maximize a relationship between horse and human—from the horse’s point of view.

Tom Named by Horse

The only man ever to offer Tom respect is Red Cloud. The only woman to give him love is Red Cloud’s granddaughter. Struggling with his own personal demons, Tom finds himself wedged between honoring that friendship and staying true to the depths of his conscience. Amid a backdrop of tumultuous social upheaval, he finds nothing prepared him, the woman he loves or Chief Red Cloud, for the changes about to thunder into their lives, sweeping them helplessly into the tides of human conflict and historical drama. Available on Amazon.

From The Banks OF Little Bear Creek

The Tom Named by Horse Saga continues. Three years after the death of Tall Dog, Tom Named By Horse and Soft Cloud have turned the little soddy, the lands granted them by Red Cloud, and the lean-to barn into a thriving horse ranch, fulfilling Tom’s dream. The Plains Indians Wars, or Red Cloud’s war, is mostly behind them, and the lands have had their transformation as Red Cloud’s vision had warned years earlier. Trailing horses from the ranch to Denver city has become an annual event for Tom, Buck and the rest, and this is the story of that trail. In the spirit of a good old John Wayne movie, vengeance, cattle and horse thieves, a dirty sheriff and corrupt mayor, and a wedding make this year’s drive a ride you’ll want to tag along on.