The natural world, life, and dogs.
I love snow. Snow is a big reason I moved to Idaho's mountains. If precipitation is going to fall from the winter sky, I prefer it be in the form of snow rather than rain. Seattle has way too much rain and too little snow. I don't miss Seattle's rain. Snow is a state of… Continue reading Snow: Too Much of a Good Thing?
It's snowing, again. I love snow! Even though winter officially started December 21st, and spring arrives March 21st, here in Idaho's mountains winter doesn't gain full steam until January. New snow intermittently drifts down from the sky through March and into April. Locals joke that it always snows on Memorial Day (late May), and it… Continue reading Half-way Through Winter
I’ve been feeling wordless lately. Shocker, right? It happens. No worthwhile topic I’m itching to write about. No current stream-of-consciousness idea presenting itself to me as worthy of words on the page/screen. Instead, I turn to my dogs and let them console and entertain me. They’re good at that. Conall’s Food Bank for Ravens has… Continue reading Wolf Moon
If you pay attention, the natural world offers endless entertainment. This winter there's almost daily life-and-death drama unfolding right in my yard. Nature's circle of life, on a small scale. In late December I wrote about two ravens who had discovered my dogs' discarded marrow bones. I toss them over the yard fence into the… Continue reading Conall’s Food Bank for Ravens
I'm fortunate. I get to see lots of wildlife where I live, adjacent to a national forest in Idaho's mountains. While I rank the wolf - including the one I was privileged to see in its natural environment back in 2006 - as my favorite animal among the local wildlife, red foxes are a close… Continue reading Outfoxed
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
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
Wild Sensibility 