There is pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more … LORD BYRON, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage It’s evident from even a cursory review of Facebook […]
Category Archives: nature
I caught a wasp in the kitchen window with a glass and piece of cardboard, then let it go outside. I’m not much troubled by wasps and bees these days, although when I was a kid we used to be pretty terrified by yellow jackets. They were aggressive, could sting you repeatedly, and were pretty […]
We were walking on the short bluff above the Little Colorado River on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, looking for archaeological sites. Though surrounded by empty desert, we scoured the surface and found plenty of evidence of past occupants. Pottery shards littered the ground among the greasewood wherever the sand had been blown off down […]
“There is more life in dead trees than there is in living ones.” Old Ecologists’ Aphorism, quoted in Feral by George Monbiot The mouse lay in the middle of the trail, desiccated and flat. It didn’t appear to be eaten; it was relatively intact. The ants weren’t finding much to drag away, so it just […]
“…the fairy tales are more powerful than the facts.” George Monbiot, Feral The big bad wolf blew down the little piggies’ houses. He also ate grandma and terrorized Little Red Riding Hood — not to mention Peter, the boy who cried wolf. TV shows and movies present wolves as the ever-present danger in the woods. […]
The Naturalist’s Axiom: You can’t do just one thing. Law of Successful Tinkering: Save all the parts. Corollary: Save the instructions. Roderick Nash The brown head was just visible above the ripples in the water. We watched it cross the tank (what we called a farm pond) and disappear into the weeds at the […]
“Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.” A.A. Milne “But these are weeds,” Melanie exclaimed, “We pull these up in our yard.” “Yes, but this isn’t your yard.” Paul noted kindly, looking out over the prairie. We were collecting native plant seeds on the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant site to […]
“It is not enough to know what you are fighting against: you must also know what you are fighting for.” George Monbiot, Feral “Well,” he replied to my question, “If I had lived back then I’d probably have died before I was ten.” I thought a minute, then he pulled off his glasses. My father […]
My grandmother taught ‘voice’ in a small town in Texas. As I understand it, ‘voice’ was how you controlled your singing, which probably meant taking the Texas out of the singer’s voice. When we visited her, we had to stay outside when she was giving lessons, and not be disruptive. Someone, usually some teenage girl […]
The monotony of the trail had made me weary, then I heard the unmistakable buzz and saw movement in the trail ahead of me. Not three feet away was a giant rattlesnake coiling to strike. I was instantly terrified, energized and alert. I recognized the feeling from about thirty years ago when I was snorkeling […]
Writes of Nature 