Category: Back to Nature

PERIL AND PARADISE

OCTOBER 3, 2021 – A friend recently gave me Bob Woodward’s bone-chilling book, Peril, in which he details how America nearly cratered last January. Yesterday, after plunging into the book, I realized that to avoid cerebral explosion, I’d have to take a break; far better for mental and physical health to be lost in the …

OF LOONS AND EAGLES

OCTOBER 2, 2021 – This year we’ve seen extraordinary loon- and eagle-activity on our lake. Along our shoreline, especially, eagles have been loud, busy, and majestic.  Loons, meanwhile, have dominated the waters and developed unusual familiarity with humans passing by aboard pontoons. Little action has been caught on camera. Loons and eagles are much too …

“WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT?”

SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 – Yesterday I talked about celestial majesty—the beauty of the Milky Way, the wonder of the cosmos. Today, the subject is . . . your anus. I’m joking, of course. I meant “urine—us,” which is how astronomers pronounce the problematic name of the seventh planet of our solar system, spelled U-r-a-n-u-s. I’ve …

HEAVEN

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 – Yesterday evening I joined two of my sibs and a brother-in-law for dinner at the cabin of Björnholm. It was a simple and splendid affair—the four of us, seated around the oak table, partaking in bowls of chickpea stew accompanied by Swedish flatbread and a recording of Alfred Brendel playing in …

MOONLIT RIDE

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 – My wife rode home earlier with our weekend guests. Hours later, I loaded the car and departed from the Red Cabin. Once I’d transitioned from local, sleepy roads to byways south and west, I imagined myself sitting alone in a compartment aboard a long-distance train hurtling across foreign lands. I luxuriated …

LOOK, DON’T TOUCH!

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021 – When I hike the trails through my tree garden, I take incremental measures to weed out the prolix, wild raspberry bushes. I love cultivated raspberries and miss the ones that used to grow in our backyard at home. The wild ones, however, are a different animal . . . er, plant. …

WILD STRAWBERRIES

SEPTEMBER 8, 2021 – While hiking recently on our “back 40” I encountered a patch of wild strawberries. It reminded me of Wild Strawberries by famous Swedish filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman. I first “experienced” Bergman’s films while I was a student at Interlochen Arts Academy—by name and curricula, an “artsy-fartsy” establishment.  It was attended by many students …

A SIGN OF TIME

SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 – During a woodland walk yesterday in the reaches behind the Red Cabin, my wife and I encountered a formal sign marking the entrance to Grindstone Woods Conservancy, 70-acres of  undeveloped land that lie behind us and adjoining property owners along the northwest shore of Grindstone Lake. The sign was crafted by …

AM I SIMPLY ALL WET?

SEPTEMBER 4, 2021 – When Ida unleashed her fury on the Northeast earlier in the week (after wreaking havoc over Louisiana), in just one hour over three inches of rain fell in New York City’s Central Park. This was a record.  What I found most disturbing about this is that the record it broke had …

“REALITY IS STRANGER THAN FICTION”

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 – When I prepared to escape Monday afternoon, I collected what I’d need for a week of isolation at the Red Cabin—food, phone, tools, clothing, computer, et cetera. After 120 miles, however, I remembered what I’d forgotten: my journal and The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. I felt like an …

A MOMENT IN TIME (PART I OF II)

AUGUST 22, 2021 – Yesterday I took a hike in the tree garden of Björnholm. It was my inspection since our recent three-week road trip to New England. The day was beautiful—warm, sunny, with a breeze off the lake and reaching into the woods With hand-clippers I tamed the more aggressive raspberry bushes that had …

“BACK EAST” (PART II OF II)

AUGUST 15, 2021 –  (Cont.) The surrounding beauty was created by millions of years of geologic forces and biological evolution. We spent much of the day hiking through this dynamic painting, absorbing at every step, the dramatic scenery. As nimble as she is intrepid, the harpist who wins wild applause when she tames the most …

“BACK EAST” (PART I OF II)

AUGUST 14, 2021 – As a biting fly in the car kept me alert, we hurtled west on I80 across Pennsylvania and Ohio to Friday’s destination just beyond Toledo. The day had begun in Cragsmoor, NY, 90 minutes from Manhattan. Our proximity to Gotham reminded me of things that people back home in Minnesota have …

CONNECTICUT TRAILWAYS

AUGUST 3, 2021 – Connecticut is a cornucopia of parks, nature preserves, bubbling brooks, secluded ponds, and old growth trees. It’s a nature-lover’s paradise. Yesterday, as our son Byron and his wife, Mylène headed out for work, I Googled, “How many state parks in Connecticut?” Answer: 139.  I had to narrow it down to “State …

UNFATHOMABLE

JULY 25, 2021 – Yesterday I walked along a wide logging road on our back acreage and noticed how well the many red and white pine seedlings had done this year, despite the paucity of rain. Most of the three- and four-year old seedlings have doubled their height. Because of this growth, the pine are …

NON-ENDEERMENT

JULY 18, 2021 – Deer are a danger. They feast on gardens and new pine shoots, and they’re all too eager to ambush motorists traveling on country roads. Deer total cars, and we see plenty of deer totaled by cars when we drive to the Red Cabin in northwest Wisconsin. One-mile stretch of highway is …

ARMCHAIR FISHING WISDOM

JULY 16, 2021 – Grandpa had been a fisherman, as I knew from the rods and reels that hung on the back porch of the cabin. There was also the large fishing net that always got snagged on stuff in the green boat box down by the dock. Then there were his stories about canoe …

“AS SHE IN HER SUBTLETY HAPPENED TO BE”

JULY 14, 2021 – I like to photograph nature. Or rather, I like to frame scenes and objects within nature’s infinite collection of light, lines, color, and compositions. I remember seeing my mother, a painter, often forming a frame in the air with her thumbs and index fingers to “capture” a potential painting.  I find …

“NO, NOT THE NEEDLE!”

JULY 11, 2021 – One of the downsides of nature is that it can get under your skin. I experienced this recently when a thorn spiked my finger—through leather gloves—as I cleared wild raspberry bushes from pine seedlings in my “tree garden.” After an expletive the sharp pain subsided. Later, I made my way back …

DAMN, MOTHER NATURE!

JULY 2, 2021 – I love Mother Nature—her beautiful sights and sounds in infinite varieties. But to my affections she’s indifferent. Even when I shower her with praise and adoration, she rains on my parade or, alternatively, refuses to rain when my tree garden needs it most. It was in the tree garden yesterday where …