An Update from the Earth Connection
Warm greetings to all EARTH CONNECTION subscribers! I apologize for being silent for so many months. And this will be my last posting for many more months. You see, I have taken on a temporary but...
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All About Bark
Anyone who regularly reads this blog knows that I am in love with trees. They are marvelous beings in a great many ways. And most recently, I have been musing on a particular aspect of trees–their...
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An Ode to the Appalachian Trail
photo by Robert McCaw What I wanted for my birthday in mid-April was to take a hike on the Appalachian Trail with my husband and son. So that’s what we did. And with most of the trees still bare, it...
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Flamingos Are Returning to Florida!
It make me so happy that flamingos are returning to my beloved Florida! During the decade that I lived there, 1964-1974, I never saw a single flamingo in the wild. While the image of the giant pink...
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Night-Night Birdie
Where do the birds go at night? Late on winter afternoons, when all the juncoes, chickadees, and titmice I’ve watched flitting about during the day are nowhere to be seen, I wonder where...
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How Pain Can Be Turned to Joy
photo by Ira Shorr Just over a week ago I joined with about 150 people for a bracing plunge into the Potomac River near Washington, DC! No, we were not insane. At least not mostly. We were raising...
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Out of Tragedy–Great Opportunity
Truly, Hurricane Maria’s devastation of Puerto Rico was horrific. But something good can come from it. Something very good. The tragedy of Hurricane Maria creates the potential to transform...
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Giving Thanks for Our Miraculous Home–the Earth
How often do we think to be grateful for this earth? At Thanksgiving time, we know to look around the table and give thanks for the people we love and the food we share. And other cherished...
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Our Plastic Future
a remote South Pacific island Who among my fellow ’60-somethings’ doesn’t remember the scene in The Graduate when Dustin Hoffman, the newly-minted college grad, is given a single word of advice...
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In the Path of Totality
My dear sister, Tanya Bohlke, was one of the lucky millions who witnessed last month’s total eclipse of the sun. She experienced it as a profound natural event, so I asked her to write about it...
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Mad for Orchids
Who knew that orchids are the world’s largest plant family? Ten percent of all plant species are orchids! I had always thought of orchids as exotic, even rare plants. Until recently, that...
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Stink Bugs 101
It’s summer now. But fall will be here soon, and with it the dreaded annual stink bug invasion. Not very many years ago I had no idea what a brown marmorated stink bug was. Now I am...
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When the Catbird’s Seat is the Bird Bath
the bird bath awaits its next visitor There I sat, at a little table on our balcony, sipping wine and pondering stinkbugs. Yes, stinkbugs. Thinking others might share my curiosity about what the...
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Namaste, Wood Thrush
photo by Blaine Rothauser Oh, wood thrush, how I love you. To my ears, your song is the sweetest of all forest sounds. Yet I almost never see you; you hide yourself so well, deep among...
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Stopped in My Tracks
A few weeks ago, on one of my wanderings in the forest down the slope from our house, I saw a sight that stopped me in my tracks. There, just inches above the ground were what looked for all the...
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Tiny Odes to Our Earth
I am greatly pleased to offer here several very short–and lovely– poems composed by my friend Fred Andrle. the slow river forks around the tiny island forever thunder slams against my...
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Paradise for Birds and People
photo by Andy Schmookler Greetings from Israel! My husband and I are exploring this fascinating and beautiful country. Here is a short piece I wrote recently: It is late afternoon now. Andy and I...
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A January Swim for our Climate
photo by Ira Shorr Everyone who knows me understands that I am passionate about climate change. I truly believe it is the greatest crisis humanity has ever faced. And we must deal with it for the...
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A Tribute to Basho
One of my truly sweet memories from a mostly unhappy year of teaching fourth grade was when I taught my students about a Japanese poet who wrote beautifully about nature. Basho, the seventeenth...
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From a Nature Lover’s Broken Heart
What an amazing sight–the sun coming over the ridge seemed to focus all its illuminating energy on a single dogwood. This morning my daily exercise routine was punctuated by a surge of joy....
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