For the last few days I’ve been slowly completing an annual rite of fall: raking leaves. The colossal Norway maple that looms over our yard, which sheds each October with all the messy gusto of a yellow lab on a dark couch, makes this a rather herculean task. For most people, leaf-raking is utterly quotidian, […]
Nature
Space is this abstract concept to lots of you. I know so many people, including so many writers, who could not care less about the subject. They are bored, at best, by everything that exists beyond the eggshell-thin layer of this planet’s atmosphere. The wild, kaleidoscopic kingdom of life on this world is enough for […]
Cameron said the other day that she’s feeling a little bit low on perspective right now. First of all: Me, too, Cameron. Me, too. Secondly: For perspective, I recommend the sky. It’s always there, there’s often something happening in it, and the thing that is happening almost never relates to an election. Here are some […]
This morning I awoke to the kind of day that offers an easy excuse to skip the walk. The temperature gauge read -3F (-19C) when I crawled out of bed, and by the time I’d finished the tea and hot porridge my husband had prepared, it was still only -1F. But the dogs were eager, the sun […]
The sky was a deep sapphire blue the day they cut down the giant. It was a matter of time, we knew, because they had already cleared out the scrub oaks and the wild cherry trees and the scraggly mountain mahogany. But it was still a shock to see it fall. The giant must have […]
Several days ago I found myself in Idaho, driving west along the St. Joe River with a couple of companions, when, rounding a bend in the road, we came upon a snake. The creature was sprawled in the east-bound lane, and although she wasn’t moving, she had a certain three-dimensional je nais se quoi that […]
This post originally ran winter of 2014 and circumstances have not changed. Careful out there! There’s been a lot of road kill on my drive to work and back in Western Colorado, mostly prairie dogs and rabbits, and young magpies trying to learn how fast they have to fly to get out of the way. […]
I have some new neighbors who many people would consider a nuisance. They show up at random times. They occasionally kick the rocks that line my driveway, and once they knocked off my downspout. They also eat garbage and leave a real mess. These neighbors are mostly loners. They watch me, unblinking, and do not […]