nature

Feeling rather low after staying up past midnight watching the news, I stepped into the backyard to look at the stars before going to bed. There was a stupendously clear…

Probably the smartest animal on Earth, other than humans, is the Orca, projectively known as “Killer Whales.” Of course smarts, as seen with humans, is a very different thing than…

A mallard couple was lounging in the shallows of ‘the beach,’ a short sandy stretch in wooded Lower Park, as I approached. Not wanting to disturb them, I backed away…

It’s late afternoon. The foothills are astoundingly clear after raining all night and morning. A few lines of gray and white cumulus hover over the hills, like stationary waves crashing…

It’s a mild, early spring late morning in northern California. The first white and pink blossoms have popped out on the flowering trees in the neighborhood and parkland. And magnificent…

The afternoon was gray and chilly, with only the saddle-shaped opening to the canyon visible in the hills beyond town.  Sitting on plastic and pads, I welcomed the sun as…

“We are waiting…for change, for the future, for news, for tenderness, for each other, for patience to wait some more.” That pitiably truthful vicious circle, in the [Philosopher’s] “Stone” of…

After spreading plastic and pads to ward off the dampness, a flock of robins greet me as I take my seat amidst the wet leaves. They land close by, and…