Nature & Natural World
Solace in the Garden
Amid the distressing events of the past weeks and days–ongoing pandemic, massive unemployment, police violence, civic unrest, and horrible presidential leadership, I’ve found it challenging to concentrate and write. My subjects have grown smaller in scope and range, largely focusing on the happenings of nature in my wife’s and my backyard.
Plants & Animals
One recent morning, I wandered through my small backyard in Jersey City, New Jersey, reflecting upon the sudden changes and transformations wrought by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The wheels of modern life have ground to a halt. All the while, the natural world continues with its cycles of birth and death, regeneration and decay. Blinded…
One Morning’s Impressions
During the past several weeks, I’ve commented upon the vibrancy and reassertion of nature in my urban neighborhood amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Most of my thoughts are drawn from my observations in my own backyard. Being largely home-bound like most of the country, my world has dramatically shrunk. That is not necessarily an unwelcome…
Springtime in the City
Every season brings particular pleasures and rituals. During the early days of spring, I always enjoy strolling through my neighborhood and observing buildings and streets waking from winter. Gardeners clean up their flower beds. Homeowners tidy their front stoops. Friends chat on park benches. You can feel the energy and expectancy in the air.
Nature Creeps In
Recently, I looked up from writing at my desk and spotted a cardinal pecking at the dirt in my yard–a bold movement of color on the dark mulch and earth. The site captivated me.
Charles Burchfield: Nature & the City
A Christmas or two ago, my wife gave me a copy of Blistering Visions: Charles E. Burchfield’s Sublime American Landscape, a catalog accompanying a 2016 exhibition commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Burchfield Penny Art Center in Buffalo, New York.
Crossing the Empire State
Last week, a minor emergency prompted a last-minute change to an already postponed family visit to Western New York State. Not wanting to call off my long-awaited and now necessary trip, I purchased a round-trip ticket from New York to Rochester on Amtrak’s Empire Service line.
No Need to Go Far
Several years ago, Melody Warnick wrote This is Where You Belong, a book urging readers to slow down and appreciate their lives right where they are. According to Warnick, your life isn’t waiting to begin in a distant city or a rural hamlet. Discover what makes your community, neighborhood, or city interesting. You might be…
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