“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 […]
Category Archives: family
“Wild thing (bam, bam bomp!) You make my heart sing (bam, bam bomp!) You make everything … groovy.” ~ The Troggs My sister reports from San Antonio that she has made friends with a neighborhood possum. She occasionally puts food out for it, mostly leftovers of some kind. Possums are omnivores, so they eat […]
The last few tomatoes from the summer crop had taken turns ripening slowly on the kitchen counter over the fall. Every year when the first frost comes on, I harvest all the tomatoes, red and green alike and lay them out on the counter. The ripe ones don’t last too long — salads and sandwiches […]
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,We learn from all your beauty;O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,We learn from all your beauty.Your bright green leaves with festive cheer,Give hope and strength throughout the year.O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,We learn from all your beauty. ~ George Strait Tales of sacred plants — and their keepers […]
“The amount of contamination that plants can remove from aquatic environments depends on the amount and type of pollution, the plant species used, and the size of the floating wetlands.” ~ Susan Cosier When I was a kid in Texas, we used to go out to farms and ranches owned by our dad’s clients. My […]
It was windy and cold with constant rain alternating between sprinkles and torrents. Walking on Cannon Beach was not particularly comfortable, but watching the waves from the fireplace in our vacation rental house’s living room by was pretty great. If you go to the Oregon coast in November, you must expect early winter weather, and […]
Bird hunting in Texas involved covering a lot of ground, pushing through brush and mesquite, following behind the dogs looking for quail. We wore brush-resistant pants and jackets, but still ended up with plenty of scratches and cuts. We tried to avoid the prickly pear and cholla, but the dogs were hard to control. My […]
“Blue spaces are outdoor environments, either natural or manmade, that feature water prominently and are easily accessible to people. They can be anything from an ocean coastline, river, or lake, to a town pond, a harbor, or even a fountain. They are the aquatic equivalent of green spaces, a subset of the broader concept of […]
As a kid, my family was well-off enough that food was plentiful, and our mother was a great Southern cook. Our dad also cooked — primarily the game we collected by hunting or fishing. Between having great food available and being a big kid, I have always been a ‘hearty’ eater. Nonetheless, there have been […]
“The concept that we could use it, throw it away, and it doesn’t matter where you throw it, and it’s going to safely disappear, that does not exist.” ~ Ramani Narayan, Professor, School of Packaging, Michigan State “The vast majority of plastic waste produced around the world is not recycled, but rather incinerated, landfilled […]
Writes of Nature 