I’m warm because I’m sitting in the sunlight, but it’s coooold out here: 20 F this morning (there’s no wind). The Red-Bellied Woodpecker that is supposed to be in Florida is still here. Can it really be our bird feeder that keeps him here? The day before yesterday I believe I saw a new bird: …
Category Archives: nature study
Nature Study and Library Books
I am thinking of participating in Barb-Harmony Art Mom’s weekly “Outdoor Hour” challenges, which follows Anna Botsford Comstock’s book Handbook of Nature Study. Gotta get hold of the book first, though. I’m waiting to get it through the inter-library loan. This, by the way, is why they call him the Red-Bellied Woodpecker (click on image …
Any Good Books about Foxes?
(Choo-Chee the Fox by Galina Kolev, used with kind permission) At the new house we’ll be seeing lots of foxes. I’m looking for a good book about them. It could be a fairytale or a picture story or a more scientific book (not too advanced). As long as it doesn’t reinforce the old stereotype of …
Snails
Amie and I had just read a book about snails when lo and behold! One showed up on our doorstep, literally. That’s our doorstep. Amie was enthralled. We talked about how it carries its house on its back, leaves a trail of mucus, can crawl up vertical surfaces and upside down (try explaining “suction” to …
Making Tracks on the Ice
Over the weekend we visited Walden Pond. As I had hoped, it was frozen over. The Ranger told me the ice measured only 4 inches, and that it wasn’t safe to walk on – it being a very deep pond (102 feet). Nonetheless, there were quite a few people on the ice. We just braved …
Amie’s Little Bird and the Cuckoo Clock
While in Kolkata, I got hooked on birds again. It happens at times, especially in Spring. It stands to reason that I should be a birdwatcher: I love quietly observing, recording in notebooks, classifying. I love birds – of all the animals, I think they are the most wonderful. I have several bird guidebooks to show for my …
Home Ground, edited by Barry Lopez
A while ago I was given a review copy of Home Ground, Language for an American Landscape. Barry Lopez, the editor, set 45 writers to writing over 850 new definitions for the terms Americans use to describe their land. What a book! It has revived my love-affair – lately somewhat neglected -with America and American nature writers, …
Outing on a Fall Morning and a Yard Sale
Amie and Baba at the Park Yesterday morning was blustery and a little cloudy, but sunny and quite balmy. The three of us went to the Larz Anderson Park, where Amie ran and ran, up and down the hill, in a field of leaves and dandelions, hemmed in by trees changed to all kinds of colors. …
We met Henry at Walden Pond!
Amie and Baba at Walden Pond (click on My Flickr to the right for more) The Pond All three of us went to Walden Pond today (Amie no longer calls it “Walrus Pond”). It was 83 degrees F, that’s 28 degrees C! We had not expected it, so we were rather overdressed (long pants). The …
D.B. Johnson’s Henry Books
     We love Thoreau around here. Ever since our visit to Walden Pond, Amie often asks to be read her books about “Henry David Thoro-ow”. We have several children’s books about Henry, but the core of our collection is the series written and illustrated by D.B. Johnson: Henry Hikes to Fitchburg Henry Climbs a Mountain …