There is a chorus outside my window. This haiku seems appropriate for this first day of summer:
The cricket
proudly pricks up its whiskers
and sings.
—-Issa
(trans. by Stephen Addiss)

“I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular . . .”
—-from When Death Comes, by Mary Oliver

    I’ve just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver. It is the account of her family’s one year experiment in eating locally grown food (theirs and others nearby). In order to do this, they moved from Arizona to Virginia. They already owned an old family farm in the Virginia countryside, so they didn’t [...]

horizon

pasture

    “Thoreau was a self-taught naturalist and writer . . . and he had learned how to use both his learning and his imagination to uncover the hidden life of places. For him writing was a form of discovery . . . and like him we can learn to use writing as a window into [...]

pond

chipmunk

deer

“It is remarkable how many creatures live wild and free
though secret in the woods . . .”
—Henry David Thoreau, Walden

field

May is National Wetlands Month, and wetlands arise from the presence of water. This month has seen an unending upward surge in the price of gasoline. Therefore, the following quotes from David W. Orr are appropriate:
“Oil and water have had contrary affect on our minds. . . [...]

This is a photo of one of our local rabbits.
According to WV wildlife expert Scott Shalaway, “loss of habitat” is the prime factor affecting the cottontail rabbit.
Shalaway, S. (2007, April). Here comes Peter Cottontail. Wonderful West Virginia.