Over the weekend it started. The non-stop tiny patter-patter of black specks raining down from on high. You stand still and listen and it sounds like fizzing. We thought they were seeds on the patio, as much as possible under the umbrella, and didn’t think much of it, except : what fecundity! Billions of seeds! …
Category Archives: natural world
Coyote Creates Land
Amie and I are enjoying reading and telling creation stories. We weave in evolution, the Flood, how Coyote created land, fossils, Darwin and Lopez, and how the first people came out of a bird’s egg. “If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a …
Snowfall
The Robin pair has arrived. They are slow and ponderous and conspicuous in all this white.  The Carolina Wren is a much smaller, darting blur of motion between bush and planter. The snow is coming down again. There are only  two layers to the sky: closest, most turbulent, where you can distinguish the snowflakes; behind …
Moonlight and Goodbyes
Last night, February 14, was a Full Moon (the Snow Moon) and the light was bright and magical on the snow. I always try to take pictures but my camera (or the camera woman) isn’t really up for it. Still, here are the best ones. There was no “lightening” done on these images. This is …
There is No Alternative, or Paul Shepard for the Twenty-First Century
If you would like some music with this post,  I recommend Isakov’s 3 a.m., from which comes the following lyrics: give me darkness when i’m dreaming, give me moonlight when i’m leaving give me mustang horse and muscle, cuz i wont be goin gentle give me slant-eye looks when i’m lying, give me fingers when …
Continue reading “There is No Alternative, or Paul Shepard for the Twenty-First Century”
Chicken in Brown Paper Bag
Our plans to bury the recently deceased Nocty were thwarted by the deep freeze we are in. The ground is rock hard. The bird too. I put Nocty in an empty feed bag and rolled it up. I’m keeping her on the porch so no big animals can get at her. As for the little ones, …
The Stuffed Birds of Natural History, Against De-Extinction
On MLK day we went to the Boston Museum of Science with friends. We mostly hung out in the Green Wing with the New England birds and natural history displays. I enjoy studying the stuffed animal skins, the skeletons and fossils in their glass cases. No doubt some of my preference is due to the old-timey-ness, the absence …
Continue reading “The Stuffed Birds of Natural History, Against De-Extinction”
Throwing Spears with Weller, Shepard, Jenkinson, and a Dream
{The following is an offshoot and distraction from another, much more difficult post, which can be read here.} Via my studies of Stephen Jenkinson I found this talk on grief by Francis Weller,  In it, Weller likens the history of mankind to a 100 foot long rope. The first 99 feet represents humans in nature, hunting, foraging, defending …
Continue reading “Throwing Spears with Weller, Shepard, Jenkinson, and a Dream”
Life Lessons for Birds and Clouds
On a warm and sunny day last week, Â I let the chickens out in the yard. Amie came home from school just then and she joined the flock. For an hour she herded the hens around, nattering and scolding like a mama hen, with some marvelous life lessons (for chickens). What is the difference between …