The lingering glow of immersion in salt water quickly sweated out of me when I returned home to a yard in need of attention. Some of the attention simply needed a prompt investment in labor, like mowing the lawn and cleaning the pool. Co-existing with mature trees means picking up a collection of branches and…
Treading water on an early morning swim and looking up to sky, I observed a pair of red-tailed hawks moving across the landscape in a coordinated hunt. It was an impressive display, with one hawk working to spook prey into revealing themselves and the other perched nearby ready to pounce on the unsuspecting victim. A…
“Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free.” – Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac Last week I drove up the street I…
I woke up thinking about missing turkeys. This isn’t a normal occurrence. I dwelled on the question; Where do the turkeys go in summer? They made a point of being very present for winter and spring, but seemingly go on vacation all summer. Sure you might still see one now and then on the side of…
“When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.” –…
“We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes – something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought…
This is the absolute truth. This morning I poured myself a glass of water and started writing a post that will have to wait for another day. I’d set the kettle and heard it starting to boil as I was writing, so I took my glass that had been sitting there and walked into the…
I have two neighbors I’ve only seen once, just the other day from an upstairs window overlooking the backyard and the woods beyond. At the edge of the woods there’s a chain link fence that once occasionally held the dog in and now defines the wild from the manicured backyard I wrestle with endlessly. It…
