Over the last week I was lucky enough to spend several days communing with science writers in Oregon. I love going different places and seeing how different things are. This time I particularly enjoyed the difference in vegetation – ferns and mossy rocks everywhere. I have a soft spot for lichens, and friends send me […]
Nature
Since writing a book on the night sky (The Wild Dark), I can’t help looking up. I’ve slept outside most nights since the end of February, more comfortable falling asleep under stars than in a bed. The other night, I woke startled at the brightness of the Millky Way, thinking it was a wildfire. The […]
It is fall, and even though not much changes here, the light becomes low and golden. I feel like every season is my favorite time of year when it arrives, but this time, I really mean it. Here is a beautiful tree of gold from a trip to Japan, and here’s a post I wrote […]
I’ve said it before and I will say it again: There is a bug that is the best bug, and it is the cicada. We’ve just come out of August, the time of the dog-day cicadas – the ones that come out every year. This one was greeted me on my stoop the other day, […]
This post came out a few years ago exploring anxiety and big, wild cats. At that point, there had been no deaths this century from mountain lions in Colorado where I live. New Year’s Day this year that statistic changed when a woman was attacked while alone on a hiking trail not far from the […]
Not everything can be awful, right? Not everything can be the worst. Anyway, I have just decided that I refuse to let everything be the worst and to succumb to the idea that no, it is, in fact, the worst. I feel a bit guilty about trying to grasp joy, but what choice does any […]
You want travel to change you. Right? But then you come back home, and it’s back to your regular life, and the smells and sounds and memories and surprises drift away, and there you are, back the way you were. This spring, I spent nearly two months on a pilgrimage, visiting 88 temples on the […]
