2017 was the year of the Great American Eclipse, and I live in its path. I also write about the Earth, moon, and sun for a living. So I was determined to not only cover the eclipse, but own it. Like many creative people, I am happiest when I am doing work for myself, and […]
Miscellaneous
Well, folks, we’ve just completed Corvid Redux Week, and you know what that means. Or maybe you don’t. It means we had a whole week of posts about the antics of some noisy and spooky looking but truly amazing birds. Our offerings went like this: Sarah celebrated “scatter hoarding,” a wonderful seed-saving thing that smaller […]
Ann, I see your crows and raise you ravens. With a beak like a Swiss army knife and an intellect to match, the raven is an icon, mascot and pest, as mysterious as it is ubiquitous. For me, as for most people up North, these winged scavengers hover just below my conscious radar. They steal balls from […]
This post originally ran in April of 2016. Every dusk, still, the crows fly singly or in groups over my house in Portland, bound west across the Willamette River for their unknown roosting spot. One of these nights I’m going to grab my bike and head after them. Then you’ll probably read about it here. […]
Christie kicked off the week by reduxing a post about the time she lost her phone, and found her brain: The impossibility of sharing with the rest of the world whatever moment I was experiencing here and now was a powerful reminder of how much more I take in when I’m not relying on technology to […]
Each morning, when the fog was thin enough to see, I went to the cliffs. I’d park the white pickup down a grassy ATV trail. Or off the main dirt road on a pullout. Or in the turnaround at the island’s southwesternmost point, where, when the wind was up at sea, waves coming from the […]
Can plants behave? Can they weigh risk against reward? Do they have personalities? A new study suggests they can and do—and that we’ve missed their complex behavior in part because they live life at such a different pace. Mimosa pudica, or “sensitive plant” is a frilly plant in the pea family with a wonderful talent—when […]
This post first ran on April 22, 2014. A few weekends ago, I hiked a deep canyon with a couple of friends. As has become my habit, I toted my smart phone along. I set it to mute so that I’d remain undisturbed by pings and rings, and I pulled it out of my pack only […]
