“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”― Ursula Le Guin
One of my favorite things about hiking is seeing what’s around the next corner. I always say “I’ll just peek around one more bend” then three hours later I’m working my way back having gone much further than intended. It’s a chronic hiking issue and an impossible habit to break. I’ve learned to make sure…
“There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath.” – Herman Melville
My sister and I marked the summer solstice by the sea. We have made a new tradition since our parents passed of going down to Newport RI to celebrate their birthdays (both in June) as well as the solstice (our father passed away on the summer solstice, a truly fitting exit). We have historical connections…
“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
Spring came early to New England this year. After a relatively mild winter, in late February, there were pips pushing up through frozen earth and even some modest “Big Nights” (amphibian migrations to vernal pools), some of the earliest ever recorded. The birdsongs abruptly changed, as if someone suddenly switched the forest playlist. Now that we…
The Shortest Day
“Forgetting the wrongs, with carols and songs…To drive the cold winter away…” After our parents passed, my sister and I decided to come up with new holiday season traditions. We started going to Newport RI to visit the mansions in their festive splendor, drink mead at midwinter bonfires and visit Winter Lights at various historic…
“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” – Henry Adams
Every August I look forward to the arrival of the Perseid meteor showers, easily the most spectacular of the yearly celestial events. On a clear night when they are peaking you can see dozens streaking across the sky, heralding the coming autumn. One of my most cherished memories from childhood was rowing out after dark…
My wish is to stay always like this, living quietly in a corner of nature. – Claude Monet
Here in New England we are having what botanists call a “mast year”. Mast refers to the nuts and berries that provide a core food source for wildlife. A mast year is when the conditions are right to create an overabundance of these food sources which in turn creates more babies. Mast years tend to…
“Many runes the cold has taught me, many lays the rain has brought me, other songs the winds have sung me….” The Kalevala
Back when I worked in Search and Rescue we did a lot of night training for the dogs. That involved one of us going out into deep woods, finding a good hiding place and sitting silently – sometimes for hours- while the K9s and their handlers used their skills to find you. You couldn’t have…
“It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in the broken world…”- Mary Oliver
We recently had a nor’easter pummel us with over 3 feet of snow in less than 24 hours. Of course we lost power (again) and twisted our joints into unnatural shapes shoveling. Good times. However, the storm even at its height didn’t stop the intrepid chickadees, titmice and juncos from being out and about seeing…
“We faced it and did not resist. The storm passed through us and around us. It’s gone, but we remain.”― Frank Herbert, Dune
A couple of weeks ago we had a series of storms that swept through the Northeast. For days we heard the cracking and crashing of trees succumbing to the weight of snow and ice, unable to withstand the relentless wind. Of course we lost power and as the house got colder, we layered clothing to…
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