Joshua’s Trust Blog

I have heard my last cricket. The hard frost sometimes comes in October, but this year the temperature dawdled just below freezing for many nights. Fall finally gave up in mid-November, and with it the last tree crickets. Before then, the few remaining fiddled on during sunny days as if it was still September. Deer […]

The year or two after I graduated UConn felt aimless even as I worked. It was a struggle to fit into America after my emotions and ethics had been put through the ringer by LBJ and Nixon. I don’t speak much of those times. Several of us camped in the forest off Mason Road together

“With each step, take refuge in Mother Earth.” The first thing I notice is that I’m following my shadow. This has always been a shady chamber of tall white pines, but one of the grandfathers has fallen, and new and sunlit growth surrounds the path through Holt/Kinney Woods. In Kay Holt’s childhood, she knew this

Dusk is the deepest part of twilight, that fleeting time of not quite dark when magic feels possible. At dusk this June you could catch magic in a mason jar like you did at the age of six. Remember? Optimism can be hard to come by, but this year the fireflies did their part. Our

Earlier this Spring we joined a special Joshua’s Trust hike at Windham’s Allanach-Wolf Woodlands. This expansive 120-acre JT property hosts a rich ecosystem of forest, swamps, and waterways. A paved drive allows easier access to nature, but there are also walking trails winding through the woods and around stream-fed Lake Marie, where geese and ducks

Early June; it’s the cusp of summer. As soon as I come over the hill and squeeze through the thick mountain laurel, I pick up the chorus of voices. From above, The Eastern Pe-wee (Pee-a-wee), the Pine Warbler, whose fast chirps defy mnemonics. And the Gray Tree Frog, whose trill sounds like a sedated Red-bellied