I heard the echo of Walt Whitman as I treated myself to a solo walk through the woods Sunday morning (which turned out to be a nice palette cleanser for the stress of that crazy Packer game.) Fog lifted as I strolled along and that felt like a metaphor. We humans breath a little deeper [...]
I'm know I'm not the first to appreciate the metaphor of the tree, but every season I admire them more. I like their root-to-seed circle of life and the history we trace through the circles in their trunk. I admire their bend-don't-break attitude, their posture, and the dignified way they welcome strangers to nest on [...]
We marked the end of Daylight Saving Time with a day trip to Hartman Creek State Park, where we tuned out the noise of our daily lives and wandered squishy trails for nearly three hours. With spring winking at us from the north side of Hartman Lake, and winter holding fast on the south side, [...]
On a glorious autumn day, we went searching for Aldo Leopold, which initially alarmed the person who introduced him to our family. "Wait," Molly texted, when I alerted her to our plans."Are you looking for his grave?" It was a gross but seasonally reasonable question, with Halloween just days away and poor Mr. Leopold gone [...]
We've always known that the land was not ours. Brief, fascinating encounters with its true proprietors have taught us that. We've stood pinned under a porcupine's tree staring at quivering quills, unwilling to trust our Wikipedia-inspired knowledge of quill-throwing potential. We've been taunted gloriously by corn-veiled coyotes howling at the moon. We've seen snake skin, [...]