Had the air conditioning on in the car today. It’s January 17. 76 degrees here in Atlanta, according to our car’s gauge. A week ago, ice on the roads kept the workers away from finishing our house. I read last week that another big chunk of Antarctica has an 11-mile crack and may be about … read more A summer’s day
Category: Trees
To See A Tree: A naturalist’s journal of the Southern Appalachians. Our ambivalent and ignorant relationship with the natural world
Harvest moon
[Jan. 14] It takes awhile to vacuum the little pieces of paper in the office left over from the shredder. I try to get some joy out of using the leaf-blower on the deck, but individual leaf stems and bird seed are stuck between the floorboards. In this last cleaning of the rental house, I’m … read more Harvest moon
Lay of the land
Driving up and down the mountain to our house, I forget what 2,000 feet of elevation really means. The way to know the land is to walk. When I look at a topographical map, I can situate myself in the larger environment. Imagine what it was like for the pioneers. They knew to follow rivers, … read more Lay of the land
Attention to details
I’d put it off as long as I could, but today I had to face the file folders in my office. I hadn’t done a thorough sorting of office paperwork in maybe four years – not the superficial kind of sorting where you are only stuffing more paper into existing files and tossing the junk … read more Attention to details
Lost in the snow
Nothing around me is familiar. Only one house is visible, far in the distance. The street I crossed a few minutes before was unmarked. I followed an old road bed up into the woods until it stopped dead. Nothing now but snow, trees, shadows, and silence. A perfect afternoon to be lost. Though the temperature was … read more Lost in the snow
Magic mushroom
I’ve been struggling to even out my sleep schedule. Last night I suddenly knew what I needed: a cup of reishi mushroom tea. Reishi grows in the forest, and abundantly on dying hemlocks. I photographed the one above in the Chattahoochee National Forest. It’s a large, hard mushroom, with colored bands and a red waxy cap. … read more Magic mushroom
A cat named Daisy
I’m home in the mountains, and I took a walk. It was 32 degrees at 5 o’clock. I came up a hill and saw a black animal dashing across the road far ahead. I thought it was a dog. When I got to the corner, I saw that it was a cat. A fat black … read more A cat named Daisy
Flutter byes
Said goodbye to some old friends today. Little by little, I am winnowing my belongings so that our rebuilt house doesn’t feel so stuffed when we move back in. Clothes. DVDs. Books. Art supplies. Bulky accumulations of memories and identity that I can’t let go of. Today it was herbs. I learned the basics of Southern … read more Flutter byes
Written in black ink
We’ve had lots of rain the past few days. The streams are flowing through the woods. The chickadees are tittering and laughing. There are so many things to love about the rain. Most of all, how it strips the trees bare. Naked tree limbs and soaked tree trunks make such lovely patterns against the sky. … read more Written in black ink
A loud therapy
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!! It’s that time of year when my tranquility is destroyed almost daily. I’ve always detested leaf blowers. From the first time I heard that horrible noise, I declared that all leaf blowers should be outlawed and their users thrown in jail. I can’t count how many times I’ve had a meditative hike, an afternoon … read more A loud therapy