Photo AlexCM Inaturalist. It’s a world citizen. It’s perhaps the most widespread wildflower on the planet, found all over six continents and the Arctic, even on South Georgia Island, less than a thousand miles from Antarctica. In North with the Spring, Edwin Way Teale describes the wildflower thusly: “In one level valley dandelions extended […]
Does your father sometimes walk a trail along with you, even long after he’s gone? I invited my dad to hike with me today in the Trust’s Pappenheimer Preserve, to get a head start on Father’s Day. I wasn’t sure he would come. While loving, thoughtful, and dependable, he was somewhat of a mystery to
This Walk’s For You, Dad Read Post »
My heart knows what the river knows. Katie Lee (1964) My Merlin App is lighting up with migratory birds, all merrily greeting me on this spring stroll in Iron Mine Valley. These wet woods are awash with warblers. Dripping with yesterday’s rain, the earth smells fresh. The river frolics. And the beavers have built an
Valley of Analogies Read Post »
We are creatures of habit and direction: we like our days and our lives to move forward. We like the stories we read to do the same. This is not one of those stories. In fact, if you start at the end and read backwards, you might just join me at the same place. Our
Sit Down and Shut Up Read Post »
Over the course of our six-year conversation, I’ve shared some far-fetched stories. I told you that a meteor once fell in the Madeline Regan Preserve (The Sky Was Falling) and that earthquakes were increasing in our locale, the big one due soon (Shake, Rattle, and Roll). I swore I heard the ghostly cry of Elizabeth
They’ve cleaned me out of everything they could reach. The deep snow is crisscrossed with tracks leading from one leafless bush to another, and it’s only winter’s frosty rug that protects the perennials they overlooked in the fall. I’ve never developed a successful oversight plan, one that would reduce plant damage or limit black-legged ticks.
