Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
MAY 30, 2024 – In his recent commencement address at Brandeis University, Ken Burns imparted exceptional wisdom in prose that bordered on poetic. One pearl among the many reflected the famous documentarian’s relationship with nature. He encouraged the graduates to . . . Be in nature, which is always perfect and where nothing is binary. …
MAY 29, 2024 – My wife recently returned from a three-week sojourn in The Last Frontier—Alaska, a name derived from Aleut-language meaning, the “mainland” or more expanded idiomatic form, the “object toward which the action of the sea is directed.” She was not on a cruise, which is vantage point of most Lower 48 American …
MAY 14, 2024 – (Cont.) Saturday’s nearly six hours of heavy labor left me feeling as I had every time after skiing the 52km American Birkebeiner Ski Marathon. I was so utterly exhausted, my walk was down to a shuffle. I was afraid to lie down for fear I wouldn’t be able to get back …
MAY 5, 2024 – Recently I tried to imagine the experience of a 10- to 15-minute stroll on the surface of Mercury, our solar system’s inner-most planet. My “what if” thought was inspired by what Dava Sobel has so to say about it in her acclaimed book, The Planets. The key features of the speedy …
APRIL 30, 2024 – I looked forward to writing today’s post. Having junked out on news reports about current events—everything from the war on Gaza to the college campus protests to the Hush Money Trial to what planet Bill Barr is on—I knew exactly what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say …
JANUARY 23, 2024 – By sheer will I came to terms with the undeniable fact that what I’d wanted to believe was the bat was nothing more than a black sock. Meanwhile, Beth called me from back home, safe from nature. Nonetheless, she is our veteran cabin mouse killer and bat battler. Some eight years …
JANUARY 22, 2024 – In our part of the country, a family tradition is owning a lake cabin (Minnesota) or cottage (Wisconsin) “up north.” It’s where we urban folk can fish, swim, marvel at sunsets, watch the stars come out, and roast marshmallows for s’mores. It’s where we commune with nature and, ironically, where we …
MAY 26, 2023 – After paying my dues all morning and into the afternoon, I took a break to take our seven-year-old granddaughter to nearby Como Park, St. Paul’s version of Central Park. She had the day off from school—something about a teachers’ workshop—so her mom had taken her to work at a shop near …
MAY 20, 2023 – Today a sister called me to catch up. At some juncture she said, “I’m sure you remembered, but today is Dad’s birthday.” “Yeah,” I said, adding that he would’ve been 101. “Maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t live that long,” she said, light-heartedly. I agreed. Rarely are sight, taste, hearing, …
MAY 14, 2023 – (Cont.) Many princely pines in the Trädgård are in worse shape than how we found our back-garden princess, but the latter is more accessible and not surrounded by tick-land. With all the necessary operating equipment relatively close at hand, I decided to administer emergency care to the stricken princess. I summoned …
MAY 13, 2023 – Nature. We view it romantically, spiritually, philosophically, scientifically, even religiously. But we also have a long history of approaching it contemptuously, as a nuisance, an obstacle, an enemy, and of course, a giant reservoir of riches to be exploited, pretty much at any cost, so long as a handsome profit can …
MAY 12, 2023 – Today we made our first trip to the Red Cabin since the snow melt and ice-out. Vegetation here is 10 days to two weeks behind the foliage at home, which itself is well behind its usual schedule. In mid-March the snow was still two feet deep, and that was before the …
APRIL 26, 2023 – I’ve always been jarred by our cultural norm of breaking the conversational ice with a person in a non-business setting. “What do you do?” we ask, or if the person’s retired, “What did you do before retirement?” If the question elicits useful information, in most settings the answer provides only a …
APRIL 13, 2023 – Yesterday afternoon after I brought Illiana home from school, she grabbed her scooter, donned her helmet and celebrated freedom by zooming full-tilt down the sidewalk. Inspired by her carefree spirit, I followed, luxuriating in the hot zephyr as it overwhelmed the last vestiges of winter. She was headed for the playground …
APRIL 8, 2023 – The snow was already soft by the time I got underway with one load of gear for the slog to the car parked a mile away. From there, the paved roads were mostly clear, but already, the twisting, undulating back roads were so checkered with potholes, I drove as if I …
APRIL 7, 2023 – I threw the plastic sled in at the last minute, thinking it might come in handy. Good thinking. On impulse I’d decided to take a quick overnight trip up here to ski sections of the Birkebeiner Trail tomorrow morning for Day No. 124 of a record season. The forecast calls for …
MARCH 20, 2023 – Today I was ant on a hill. Nothing revelatory about that. Gazing up at the stars on a clear night or looking down at the earth on a clear day from 36,000 feet reminds me that each of us is . . . an ant, or more precisely, something far less …
FEBRUARY 7, 2023 – In a hurry, I lugged things that partly define me: in a small backpack, The Overstory, a gift from my oldest sister, and a fresh set of clothes I hadn’t had time to change into; in my right hand, a plastic bag of trash and best set of x-c skis; in …
FEBRUARY 6, 2023 – This afternoon I switched from skis to snowshoes and headed into the woods. I wanted to harvest some poplar shoots for use in my next gnome home, and I knew a place where I’d find an ample supply. The challenge was reaching it through the heavy snow. My route took me …
FEBRUARY 5, 2023 – After imitating a prone coal-miner for an hour yesterday, hacking, chopping, picking away at the compacted snow under my car, I repaired to the cabin to fire up oak in the wood-burning stove and crank up Simon and Garfunkel on the CD (“Cabin Disc”) player. I then whipped up supper. While …
FEBRUARY 4, 2023 – Maybe winter’s getting to me. Yesterday I’d talked by phone with Beth about our narrowing drive and how our plow guy will have to round up a front-end loader to remove enough snow to accommodate the large gas truck that refills our propane tank. Otherwise, for the rest of the winter, …
FEBRUARY 3, 2023 – Last night here in northwest Wisconsin the temperature “went rogue,” plunging to minus 22F without regard to windchill. In such conditions, you get a little slap happy. Early yesterday evening I discovered that a banana had slipped out of a grocery bag and spent the previous 24 hours in the trunk …
FEBRUARY 2, 2023 – The Punxsutawney wonder’s performance today discouraged people who’ve had enough of winter. Understandably, a good share of the country’s citizens are among the disgruntled: we’re in for a “long” winter—specifically, another six weeks of it, which takes us to mid-March. In these parts, however, everyone knows that March is the snowiest …
JANUARY 29, 2023 – This morning, while reading the news and facing a window, I peered occasionally over the top of my laptop screen to monitor outside activity—sunlight inching along the snowbanks; trees shuddering in the cold; and periodically, a person in heavy wraps and with steaming breath, out walking the dog. The canine was …
JANUARY 26, 2023 – Today in these parts, the temperature was mild—20s Fahrenheit—with sunshine. By this weekend, the daytime highs will be in the “lower single digits,” euphemistic lingo used by local TV meteorologists to describe “cold.” Overnight lows will fall below zero. There’s no euphemism for “bitterly cold.” Ahead of the “cold” and “bitterly …