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water cannot be held
Mama needs a moment. Mama needs a drink so she can unhinge her jaw like a snake, leave the phone off the hook, hang the Do Not Disturb sign, and refuse to answer when, inevitably, they knock anyway. Mama needs a hot bath. Mama needs soft light, and a book, and another drink, and maybe…
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first a branch falls
First a branch falls. No—first a branch grows, and lives, and is green, and then it falls, for reasons mechanical or biochemical. Or it’s cut with purpose. Either way, it leaves a wound, and…
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september 22: cold hands and yellow leaves
[Trying a new thing: notes from a hike, collected via voice while out in the field, and edited and expanded later.] Cold today in the meadow where I begin. It was 45 when I got up this morning. Some places around here had a freeze alert last night; some places had a fire alert…
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rules for walking in the woods in December
Don’t expect too much. Don’t expect, for instance, to be reborn,even if the buds are already forming on the trees. Expect to sit on a wet stump wondering what would happenif you never came home, if you refused to move againuntil you rotted down into the rotting wood. – Visit a dead racoon of your…
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nature notes, June 23
I haven’t posted here in a long time, and I haven’t been getting outside as much as I’d like either, but I have a pretty good excuse, namely: I had a baby. I’m incredibly excited to be introducing him to nature, bit by bit. My current favorite field guide is Wild Urban Plants of the…
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nature notes, January 4
Winter weather, scifi biology, and looking ahead to this year’s nature goals.
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recent reading
News about nature—or at least new-to-me stuff—that has caught my attention recently. Listening plants, cheating wildlife photographers, and the inevitability of kicking bugs out of your house.