It is me again, trying to learn more about birds. I am trying with my shore birds, I am trying with my old field guides and my new Merlin ID app. And so, when I heard about a class to better identify bird song, I thought I should add one more tool to my feathery […]
Cameron
It’s the last day of summer for us, so I’m taking my summer feet to the beach. This post ran in August 2019. This year, school will look a little different, because we’ll all be barefoot. At the beginning of summer, my feet often feel tender. There is a particular stretch of asphalt between the […]
We have been going out to see the comet—to try to see the comet, that is—almost every night for the past week. I read articles to figure out where to find it, beneath the Big Dipper after sunset. Most of the articles call it a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it’s true. Comet NEOWISE won’t be back […]
In March, when the boys and I started walking at the beach every morning, I decided I would re-learn the names of shorebirds. Not the gulls—even the professor who originally taught me the names of shorebirds said not to worry too much about gulls. But the other ones, the ones with the w’s in their […]
We turned 10 this week, and instead of getting together for a gala, we wrote each other postcards, alone in our homes. It’s a very writerly way to celebrate. Thanks, pandemic. Today we wrap up our week-long celebration with postcards from Sarah, Jenny, and Cameron. Sarah Gilman Dear 2010 Sarah G.— First, you’re going to […]
People who have come to visit say that it is quiet here. Now it is even quieter. Fewer car drive by, fewer planes fly overhead. In the hour before dawn I no longer hear the train whistle. My neighbor used to leave early each morning for dental school, 50 miles away. Now there is no […]
I know it’s not Friday, and we don’t really do a lot of penis posts any more. But I felt like with all the uncertainty in the world, I really wanted to revisit this post about alligator penises. It first ran in 2013. The alligator harvest at Louisiana’s Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge happened every September, so […]
These little friends got a ride home with me from the gym the other morning, stuck into the spiderwebs that cling to the side mirrors. There were more all across the front of the car, stuck in the small valley between the folded windshield wipers and the glass. I was delighted—could this be seed dispersal […]
