It’s hard to believe that I am one year through my two-year masters program! When I moved to Ashland last July, I hoped that riding my bike would be as much of a central activity in my life as it was in Portland. Well, lo and behold, it has. I commuted to Medford on the … Continue reading
The skin of the planet is fragile. Watch. Listen. You can only listen. By listening, you may see a sparrow warming itself in steam on the corner of your gutter. By listening, you may see the first crocus shimmy up from the frozen Earth. A sentry, the first scout. You may hear the fall of … Continue reading
The winter skies are blank- empty like a still pool of water, reflecting. They wait, as we do, for the world to erupt in color and bright song. We need this empty time, these white skies, to recalibrate. We need to take stock of ourselves as we stand, alone. Alone, away from the brightness of … Continue reading
I sit at my kitchen table on this overcast Sunday morning, warmed by tea and sheepskin slippers and classical music. My body feels strong and efficient and accomplished. Part of this grounded peaceful feeling has to do with eating healthy and maintaining an active body and mind. But mostly, it’s because I’m a two-wheeled evangelist. … Continue reading
Spider Weather by James Morrison These are the warm calm days before fall strips the trees and rain turns the ground slick the sky unpredictable, the days of yellowjackets and fruit flies that hover over the last wave of fallen apples and grapes. I’m spending time with the fat orange and brown spiders tying pitchfork … Continue reading
Because I woke up today to the splatter of rain on asphalt… Because now, in the lived-in-mid-morning, sun hits the rain still lingering on leaves… Because I don’t want to restate what has already been said… I am sharing with you a post I wrote two years ago, “an ode to pluviosity.” …Because today the … Continue reading
It’s dogwood season. The time when color comes back into the world, fragile green leaves craving the sweet kisses of sunlight. They (and we) gather it close, soaking it in, feeling the fresh breaths of spring. Outside my back door is a dogwood tree. Most of the year, it grows unassumingly out of a concrete-enclosed hole … Continue reading
I’ve become one of those crazy people- wearing spandex, tight-fitting rain gear and shoe covers. I flatten my hair with a helmet, talk routes, and bedazzle my ride with lights. Sometimes, I feel like a Christmas tree with the rest of ’em, back end blinking red. I don’t speed along high-speed highways, trying to keep … Continue reading
As we transect the city streets which look like mirrors, dark and wet with the insistent rainfall, we zip up our boots and our hoods, faces close to the candle just a couple minutes longer to savor the light. The lights burn in markets and tea houses, beckoning those who hang on to their habitual … Continue reading
Celebrating seasons has been a focus for this blog since I started it over two years ago. Seeing the cycle of the earth sprouting, growing, flourishing, and then dying and decaying in its eruption of color, texture, and scent throughout the year has always been a point of interest for me as a nature observer. … Continue reading
in the midst 