Closer to Home
January 13, 2014 / Winter Walking Part 2: Some Animals
My former workplace, a small Audubon sanctuary, is home to many creatures, some of whom are seldom seen except through their tracks and sign. Winter is a great time to search for and find these animal messages, and I went to look for them a couple of days ago. The icy trails, powdered as they… Read More
January 12, 2014 / Winter Walking Part 1: Some Plants
I thought to treat myself to a winter walk in the small Audubon sanctuary where I used to work. Even though it’s small, the sanctuary has several kinds of habitats: a pond, a couple of meadows, some woods. And in the spring, there’s a vernal pool, but that is a subject for a few… Read More
December 30, 2013 / Inventory
About two years ago I decided to prepare an Inventory of the things in my house and to tell the stories of where they came from and how they got to be here. I don’t mean ordinary things, like a table or couch, but things that have family meaning, or are maybe valuable in some other way. As… Read More
December 20, 2013 / Illuminations
When I moved to Massachusetts from Colorado, about fifty years ago, I discovered lots of things that were different from what I was used to. Such as calling soda pop “tonic,” no matter what its flavor. Or learning that a “cleanser” was a dry cleaners, or that when asked… Read More
November 24, 2013 / Remembering November 22, 1963
I was 25 years old on November 22, 1963. Eleven years before, our junior high school class had learned all about the government. We learned about its three branches, the concept of checks and balances among them, the requirements for being a Representative, a Senator, the President. We learned… Read More
November 11, 2013 / Seeing the Eclipse, Just Barely
It was a near thing, seeing our tenth total solar eclipse. I mean we almost did not see it. I kept telling myself what I told the “eclipse virgins” in our group of 96: “Well, the eclipse happens whether you see it or not, and even if you do not see the disk of the sun, you will… Read More
October 14, 2013 / Leaf-Peeping
One of the great joys of living in New England is the coming of the fall color change to the trees of our yards, roadsides and forests. Each year is different, but always beautiful. The colors come from different processes, none of which involve Jack Frost with his little paint-pot. Instead, we… Read More
October 06, 2013 / Street Pianos!
PLAY ME I’M YOURS That’s the invitation painted on 75 fancifully-decorated upright pianos now scattered around the streets of Boston and surrounding neighborhoods. What fun! It’s The Street Pianos! Last Friday we went to City Hall Plaza for the kick-off festivities welcoming… Read More
September 25, 2013 / The Ants in My Driveway
Quite a long time ago, when I was a little girl, we had a canvas hammock hanging between two trees in our back yard. In summertime—those amazingly long, languid summers we had back then—I would spend hours lying on my belly crosswise on the hammock, watching the ants. In the big bare… Read More
September 24, 2013 / The 1651 Forest
The moon rose. The Nauset Indian man looked at it for a few moments. Its brilliance filtered through the leaves of a young oak, just at the edge of the forest. Then he entered his home and lay down to sleep, musing for a time about the hunt he and his son would undertake the next morning in the… Read More