For those of you just arriving, I am currently writing about Pacific Northwest trees. This is a practice in appreciation, place-making, and is a pandemic project I hope to continue beyond this period. Though there are certainly no starts or finishes to this, if you… Read More
Last weekend I decided to do something that sounds odd. We’ve all had to get creative about what we do during a pandemic, both in desperate measures and finding trivial pursuits. The self-prescribed activity I will describe below definitely falls under the more trivial side… Read More
Last week I laid out a plan to pontificate on Pacific Northwest trees, a storied appreciation of the most prominent of plants. I offered up experiences with the red alder, those ever-cycling nutrient bombs, the first wave. What comes after? Well, by design or chance… Read More
Small leaves dance across the horizon, strings plucked one by one with fingers of rain on this dreary April morning. The soft, lightly rolled under serrations of new leaves need this moisture. Gray dappled trunks running with rain remind me of childhood, watching Northern Flickers… Read More
The moment we crawled onto a flat that weaved into a beautiful alpine meadow, I was fairly certain I hated backpacking. This was after we’d enjoyed the expansive Jack Mountain and the Nohokomeen Glacier. This was after I sat in the shade, listening to Sooty… Read More
From where I sat, I could feel the water swaying beneath me. A light breeze pricked at my flushed face. We sat, waiting for them in hushed anticipation, punctuated by an exhale of four wispy puffs of breath, and a matching explicative from someone in… Read More
Winter is a season we love and hate. When you step outside and are immediately cold and wet, you curse it, and the wind it rode in on. Yet an afternoon crowded with sombre clouds dropping fluffy snow, a night of sparkling hoarfrost casting rainbows… Read More
Truth be told, I’ve been having a difficult time writing lately. I’ve felt spectacularly prosaic, and without anything worth discussing. I’ve been remarkably unsatisfied with the process and the outcome. There’s excuses coming out of my ears. But, mainly it boils down to depression about… Read More
If I told you I was going to attend a BioBlitz, what would you think I meant? Part of me thinks it sounds like a hurried bowel movement, but I’m sure I’m alone there. Outside my twisted imagination in the real world, a BioBlitz is… Read More
I’ve always appreciated the language we use to describe rivers. They bend and stretch. They have a reach and run. They carry things. Really, they’re alive. Not too long ago it occurred to me I’d never seen a wild, major river. What a thought. Thinking… Read More
Wingtrip 