I don’t know if I arrived on time or the crows left on cue, but the crossroad of events involves some sort of synchronicity that defies reasoning. Reasoning is best left at home for such occasions; left for our clocks, laptops, and logical minds. Children have a way...
Just because the leaves have fallen does not mean the show has ended. If anything, Driftless Wisconsin’s stunning beauty is accentuated, revealing limestone outcroppings, subtle contours of the land, meandering creeks, and other new vistas previously hidden. Deer,...
Out for our evening walk, our dog Riley seems intent on exploring the smells of fall: decaying leaves and animal scents along the trail. I’m focused on the show. A patch of first color hangs above the canopy, lit up like a sunset. A fluorescent glaze coats the trees,...
So we headed up the hill under a twilighted sky, summiting around dusk and descending in the dark. I know this trail well. Each deadfall, tree root, and protruding rock fixed in my mind. But in the dark, things get misplaced. As two weeks ago when I tripped over a...
The land makes difficult work for city planners and civil engineers. Straight lines and level ground are in short supply. Trying to find a place to build a house or plot a road is rather like trying to set a beer can on the fender of a ‘59 Cadillac; there are no flat...
The Mississippi River offers this sort of amazement. The river presents so many points of fascination that it requires, I dare say, both arms to take it all in. Bald eagles grace the skies like mobiles hung from a ceiling. Bluffs rise abruptly from the waters edge,...
