One morning last June I was in the middle of a bird survey near the terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs just inside Yellowstone Park when I heard a voice behind me say, “Excuse me.” I hoped she was talking to someone else, but she persisted. “Excuse me,” she said again more loudly. As I turned …
Naturalistic Metaphor
Cities, naturally, take great pride in their cultural institutions: art galleries, museums, and theatres whose cavernous halls contrast the compression and density of life outside their front doors. New York is no exception: there is something sylvan, something "natural" in the transition from bustling 5th Ave. into the more breathable expanse of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The courtyard in the gallery's American …
The Wonder-Book of Nature
"It is an incalculable added pleasure to any one's sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature." Theodore Roosevelt We have been driving into Yellowstone National Park (the Park), so that I can get some easy skiing in to rehabilitate …
Composting in the Wilderness of My Mind
The beginning of a new year holds great potential. It’s like we’re getting the chance to shed the leaves of our past and begin anew, much like the oaks and maples of northeastern forests. Each autumn as the days become shorter their broad leaves flame a hundred shades of red and a hundred shades of …
The Wild, Willful Christmas Tree
Real or artificial, hulking or pint-sized, short or shaggy in the needles, the Christmas tree is among the most beloved of holiday traditions---and its roots are blessedly pagan. The practice of decorating evergreen boughs or trees, on or near the winter solstice, can be traced back to the Romans, Druids, Vikings and Egyptians, for whom the unchanging foliage …
Writing the Wild 