“I think we are still grappling with a narrow view of nature and wildness, that this is remote and faraway and we must travel to find nature in some distant place. What we need to appreciate and connect with is the nature all around us, the nature near to where we live and work and […]
When we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. ~ Herman Hesse Our young dog makes a mad dash out the back door to surprise the crowd at the bird feeder. The birds explode in a shower […]
The creatures I met in the fields and woods around my house came to feel like a secret family, though I spent a lot of time chasing and catching them and not thinking much about how that made them feel. ~ Helen Macdonald The loud noise came from across the alley, and I was curious […]
… It is not a sentimental but a grimly literal fact that unless we share this terrestrial globe with creatures other than ourselves, we shall not be able to live on it for long. Joseph Wood Krutch The other night our big cat, Betty, sat by the closed French door staring out through the glass. […]
I think it started when I decided to move the bird feeder. It was tilting, and the corner of the flower bed into which the pole was planted had begun to sag and break up. The nearest branch on the oak had grown long enough that the squirrels could go to the end, bounce the […]
As I sat on a bench overlooking Clear Creek, the noise from the nearby highway was discernible, but not too intrusive. I could hear the creek below me and the kid noises from the playground across the creek. Broken sunlight through the clouds, light wind; I felt stress drain away and my batteries recharge. It […]
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 […]
Lying on top of the bird feeder, it appeared to send an ominous message to the small birds that routinely feed there. It was nearly as large as some of the smaller birds, and seemed placed to establish dominance, like wolves marking their territory. It reminded me of the turkey scat my dad used to […]
They fluttered down like leaves tossed into the air, then wheeled around jockeying for a place at the feeder. Their chirping was loud and insistent, and the ones that didn’t get a perch landed in the nearby bushes and loudly complained about their fate. Spring brings out all the birds; the ones that overwintered are […]
Writes of Nature 