The natural world, life, and dogs.
The slow march to the shortest day and longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere ends today, the winter solstice. Here in central Idaho, it has been a day of fun (running snow-covered trails with the boys this morning) and celestial wonders, mixed with relief that our daylight hours will finally start lengthening.… Continue reading Winter Solstice
I’ve begun speaking aloud my thoughts about moving away from Idaho, maybe to Vermont. This shift from internal musings to sharing the idea with friends is one of the ways I process big changes I’m contemplating, putting it out there – verbalizing my reasons, hopes and concerns – and listening to the feedback. This lets… Continue reading Searching for My Tribe
Such a pretty word, serendipity. Tickles the lips and tongue to say it. Yet it's the word's meaning and its occurrence in life that's truly delightful. The fact of finding interesting or valuable things by chance.Cambridge Dictionary A happy coinage by Horace Walpole to denote the faculty of making lucky and unexpected 'finds' by accident.… Continue reading Serendipity
At daybreak this morning the temperature is nine degrees Fahrenheit. Fog - common most mornings from autumn through spring - drapes the pastures on the valley floor, hiding roads, homes, trees, fences, and cattle under a fluffy light gray blanket. Fog lingering on the valley floor. Some days I watch the fog creep slowly up… Continue reading Frost: Nature’s Flocking
I’ve been wrestling with myself. A fierce internal battle for over three weeks now, and I’m exhausted. Should I write about “the incident” I hinted about in my last post? Or try to let it recede into my psychic background, let it die from lack of oxygen? And if I do write about it, how?… Continue reading Fear and Anger: A Toxic Mix
Ah. This - procrastinating - is something I'm good at! "To put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done."Merriam-Webster Dictionary In the first comprehensive English dictionary, Dr. Samuel Johnson defined procrastinate with a single word: delay. But there's much more to it, an underlying reason for the delay, whether anxiety, wishful thinking,… Continue reading Procrastinating
Autumn in these Idaho mountains arrives in late August and continues until the snow comes, usually in late November. A few late-blooming flowers offer splashes of color while the grasses, leaves and larch needles transition from green to various shades of yellows, oranges, reds and browns. It's pretty, in an understated way. This has been… Continue reading Dog Photobombs VIII – Autumn
A drop in temperature, into the zone well below freezing, brought frost, highlighting bits of the natural world that would otherwise remain obscure. Spider webs. I started this recent morning walk with my dogs thinking my phone camera would remain in my pocket, that there wouldn't be anything new or interesting to photograph. I was… Continue reading Webs
Nature, and more particularly the forest nearby, always envelope me in an embrace that soothes and heals. This time of year, my attention turns toward a particularly wondrous tree: the larch. The forest around me is primarily evergreens – firs and pines. Nice trees, all, but rather mundane in their...greenness. I don't see a lot… Continue reading Larch Trees: Autumn’s Last Hurrah
A note: This post is a departure from my usual efforts. While this essay does reflect on “the natural world, life, and dogs,” the themes of my Wild Sensibility blog, the recent event prompting it entails much sorrow: the sudden, tragic accidental death of my brother. This post describes my initial steps on the long… Continue reading In the Blink of an Eye
Wild Sensibility 