nature

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…

Though it’s little more than a trickle, the little creek at the periphery of town is running again after nearly six months as a stream of stones. Following the months…

On the last warm day in the Valley, before first snow the mountains, I drove up as high as I could through Lassen Volcanic National Park–over 8500 feet/2500 meters. In…

Usually, an encounter with a wild animal, even in town, isn’t given a second thought. But encounters with animals in a meditative state (which essentially means a spontaneous state of…

As I stopped on the bike to look at the hills, I was confronted by at least 100 crows. They were on the ground by the dozens, and dozens more…

The rains haven’t come yet, but the leaves have begun to turn—yellows mostly. It’s early autumn in California, and the winds have cleared and cleaned the air after months of…