Christmas Eve at our house is quiet. There are no small children anymore, and the larger family travel happens on different days, so the evening of December 24 has settled, over the years, into a long stretch of unscheduled hours that we have learned...
I was up before five on Monday, not on purpose. The cold woke me. The thermostat had not yet kicked over to its morning setting and the bedroom was a few degrees lower than usual, and once I was awake I was awake. I...
The solstice walk was almost not a walk. The forecast had been wrong all week and by Sunday afternoon the gray had thickened into the kind of low ceiling that does not look like weather, exactly, but makes you not want to go anywhere....
December is a month for counting. The light is short, the yard is mostly bare, and the things that are still here have all earned their place by staying. I have been keeping a rough tally this week of what is left in the...
The juncos came back this week. I noticed them on Sunday morning, working the ground beneath the platform feeder in their tidy, head-down way, gray hoods and white bellies and the small tail flashes that give them away when they fly. There were five...
The first hard frost arrived on a Tuesday. I noticed it before I noticed anything else, because the back step was white when I opened the door to bring in the empty mug from the night before, and the mug had a fine rim...
When the weather keeps everyone indoors, an old habit returns: a deck of cards and a few hours around the table.
Cold weather thins out natural food and brings more birds to the yard. Here is what actually keeps them coming back.
Some places are built to be a whole trip on their own. A look at what fills the modern resort destination, floor to floor.
Seed brings in the birds that eat seed. Water brings in nearly everything. A few notes on getting it right.