Often, we hunted or fished on underused farm or ranch land owned by one of my Dad’s clients — usually with a field lying fallow or a lightly grazed prairie. There would be old buildings we could peer into, watching for snakes and other nasty critters. Hand-dug wells, dangerously covered by rotting boards, offered an […]
Category Archives: biophilia
My garden is kind of a mess this year, even more so than in prior years. The raised garden boxes we built a while ago to save my old back are wonderful to help avoid the kneeling and bending, but have also reduced the garden area to a more defined space. The earlier garden sprawled […]
“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.” ~ Unknown My small town enjoys tree-lined older neighborhoods that are pleasant to walk through and front porches that are nice to sit on. The combination of shade trees and other vegetation keeps the local climate comfortable, even if […]
It’s uncomfortably hot … everywhere. According to meteorologist and journalist Bob Henson, “… the Climate Reanalyzer website shows that July 3, 2023, was the warmest single day on record — only to be toppled by July 4, tied on July 5, and broken again on July 6 … these were the warmest globally averaged days in centuries, […]
Will you still need me, will you still feed meWhen I’m sixty-four? ~ The Beatles I remember when I thought that the idea of being sixty-four was outrageous. It was soooo old … Well, this week, I turned seventy-four and I’m beginning to see what old really means and feels like. I can visualize […]
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” ~ Unattributed We’re installing new fences around our back yard. The existing ones, probably put in before the 1940’s, are wire mesh strung on two-inch metal posts set in concrete. They have grown interwoven […]
“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.” — Kahlil Gibran I grew up very near the 30” rainfall line that transverses Texas and the entire U.S. from north to south and reflects the significant climate differences. Science writer Harvey Leifert described it as follows: “It separated “cattle country” from “farm country”. Crops […]
“Among the first to document the exuberance of urban ecosystems were casual observers and curious botanists in war-torn Europe in the 1940s. The rubble-strewn cities of World War II, to the astonishment of their inhabitants, very quickly brimmed with plant and animal life. The vegetation that emerged from the debris was totally unexpected, a cornucopia […]
Edinburgh Castle rises above craggy heights in the middle of the city, part castle and part palace, the home of Scottish royalty. An ancient hill fort dating to before the seventh century, Edinburgh’s steep cliffs and rocky slopes preclude entry or attack from all but one side. Today the Royal Mile is filled with buildings […]
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” ~ John Muir “We forget that nature itself is one vast miracle transcending the reality of night and nothingness. We forget that each one of us in his personal life repeats that miracle.” ~ Loren Eiseley […]
Writes of Nature 