By Katherine Hale - Ah, spring time. The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming -- and this week, I found a tick biting my leg. The first tick of the year is a phenological milestone no less significant than the first ruby-throated hummingbird or the first daffodil, but much less enjoyable for the observer.… Continue reading Tick Tock
By Shelby Perry - “There is magic in running water, for after I have thought its life history all out there is still much unexplained.” These are the words of my great-grandfather, from a book he wrote ninety-three years ago called Man’s Spiritual Contact with the Landscape. I never met him, as he died… Continue reading Magic Waters
By Ellen Gawarkiewicz - We’re in the middle of faoilleach – the Gaelic season comprising the last three weeks of winter and first three weeks of spring. Before you groan over the absence of green, and wish yourself in the lime lighting of a June forest, take time to notice and celebrate other colors that… Continue reading The Colors of Faoilleach
By Hannah Phillips - The flower buds from Mrs. Waters’ elm tree are 35,000 feet up in the stratosphere on an express flight to Ohio. The goal is to get them there before they dry up. When they arrive, scientists will lay them on wax paper, collect their pollen as it falls from the stamens,… Continue reading Restoring the American Elm
By Sean Beckett - One good thing about a mild winter is we avoid that familiar experience of leaving a warm house to enter the arctic interior of a frosty, morning car. Imagine sitting down in that frigid seat: Your shoulders tense and tighten like old taffy, you shiver spontaneously, and the chill leaks into… Continue reading Winterizing
By Katherine Hale - Despite the concrete, compelling realities of pine-cone gall aphids, winter buds, and migrating waterfowl, I head indoors as Thanksgiving approaches, trading adventures afield for the familiar comforts of food and friends. Chopping squash and garroting cabbage, I'm preoccupied with the wonders outside, even as I think about the purpose of this… Continue reading Giving Thanks For Nature: A Meditation
By Julia Runcie - In the murky, humid forests of the Carboniferous Period, organisms grew to remarkable size. Dragonflies as big as Cooper’s hawks ruled the air and three-foot-long scorpions prowled the earth. The swampy water concealed beasts like the dawn tadpole, a predatory amphibian as long as a pickup truck. The canopy showcased elegant… Continue reading Evergreen and Everlasting: The Long March of the Lycophytes
