Category Archives: Reflections
Five things to love about stick season in Maine
My hornet grows up and leaves the nest
Puddle jumping and other reasons to love the rain
Silver, gray and wet–everything is damp and swollen with moisture. Shimmering beads hang from the tips of buds and line blades of grass like peas in a pod. It is raining again. There was a time I cleaned the attic as I listened to the water pelting the roof, or organized my closets while drinking […]
The call of the elver, eel fishing in Maine rivers.
Dim shapes move back and forth along the banks of the river, distorted by the wavering light of kerosene lanterns. Moonlight shines on a crowd of gauzy structures supported by bits of twine. Nets and tents are illuminated from the lamps inside, and a bonfire is sending neon orange sparks into the sky. This is […]
Is it re-purposing or senseless destruction?
Like many DIYers, I frequently cannibalize one thing to create another. Buttons from a much-loved coat, torn beyond repair, became the closures for an artist book I was working on. Cast aside planks were turned into painted bootjacks, and yes, I have a necklace made out of old clock gears. Where does one draw the […]
Weather proverbs, a true or false quiz
Weather is a favorite topic of conversation in America, it is safe, not likely to get people wound up, and always interesting. Weather lore has been around as long as there has been weather and people to talk about it, and I will take a weather conversation over politics any day. New Englanders have a […]
But Officer, my teacher told me to
The four-years compressed into one-year learning extravaganza called the Maine Master Naturalist Program has gotten me into trouble more than once. I have been attacked by toe-biting insects and found myself deep in the woods with an angry goshawk. My last assignment had me talking to the police, or, had them talking to me. […]