My sister recently offered me her “happy light”, you know, the high-lux intensity lamps that can stimulate serotonin. She lives near Arcata, on the often foggy, overcast Northern California redwood coast. But, with a guilty gratefulness for climate change, we … Continue reading
Tag Archives: nature
I found this enchanting. The creature weighed only a few ounces, but it was challenging monsters thousands of times bigger and heavier. There was something magical, even holy, in its valor and determination.
Continue readingSix loons swam in a tight circle less than six feet in diameter. Every now and then, a loon would dive into the center of the circle and vanish, and a little while later one would pop up to the surface and rejoin the circle. The whole thing smacked of the occult. After a while I felt I was intruding on a private and unquestionably magical ritual peculiar to loons, and ought to move the hell on before I offended. So I moved on.
Continue readingWhen my sweetheart asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, I realized I wasn’t in a party mood this year. After due thought, I said, “I want to go look at the ocean.” And since the Pacific … Continue reading
Thor and Bear dog and I just discovered that we haven’t been hiking in our nearby wooded trails—we’ve been “forest bathing.” At least we think so. Reading an article from The Washington Post by Meeri Kim, “Forest Bathing,” we learned … Continue reading
Scylla was planted here so long ago that it has completely naturalized. If you’ve ever planted scylla in your own yard, you know how many years it takes to make a carpet of blue like this.
Continue readingSince I’ve moved to Oakland, I’ve frequently observed that we don’t have winter here. During those months labeled “winter” on the calendar we get rain (at least now that the drought is broken) and the occasional blustery day, but so … Continue reading
All this nature is lovely, of course, and when one is in the right frame of mind, one can imagine they are singing their little ones to sleep.
If only. Nope. They are either, uh, carrying on, or seeking to carry on, with female individuals of their species.
It was my first house and garden. In my innocence, I accepted many gifts from my neighbor. Did I mention my neighbor’s mischievous sense of humor? Twenty-four years later, I still have most of them. In abundance.
Continue readingMy mom made wild grape jelly out of these sour little guys. It takes gallons to make any jelly to speak of, because they’re 65% seed inside and 25% skin outside. But the skin’s the best part. She didn’t need to add any pectin to make it gel. The jelly was almost black and packed with flavor.
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