Lay of the Land
Owls Among the Meteors
I’m speeding down a dark Vermont road, hurtling through a star-studded October night on an urgent quest: to witness the banding of one of the world’s smallest owls, the northern saw-whet. Continue reading
Lay of the Land
Lay of the Land
One but Not the Same
The sun was setting as my backpacking group and I headed back to our campsite from Cinder Cone in Lassen Volcanic National Park. We walked in silence, falling into a rhythm. Continue reading
Lay of the Land
Wild Borders
My son, just five years old and spry, shambles down a small, dry, high desert wash beneath junipers and ocotillo, mumbling a song. I listen to his words, mostly fun nonsense Continue reading
Lay of the Land
Cosmic Fruit
COLD STRAWBERRY soup stimulates honeymooners. So goes the thought in rural France. Medieval botanists believed that strawberries, being many-seeded, aided fertility. Both Venus and Freyja, Roman and Norse goddesses of love, Continue reading
Lay of the Land
Biking with Butterflies
WHAT I DIDN’ T KNOW, as I crawled through that ditch alongside a lonely Texas highway, was that a cop was racing to my rescue. Continue reading