Helping people enjoy the natural world around them
I received my first diary for Christmas when I was eight. Writing was never a bother, but I never took to the practice of recording the happenings of each day despite my good intentions. Now I'm trying to change my ways by keeping a diary for the sake of my garden, to have an annual record of planting dates, vegetable yields, chores, and other such minutiae.
Read MoreIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times... No -- wrong story! This is A Tale of Two Seals, not Cities, which is only about the best of times!
Read MoreI really have no right to complain considering this mild winter. But no matter – around this time every year I get desperate for warmer weather and flowers. Conveniently some plants are happy to accommodate my longing.
Read MoreAll work and no play makes me a very, VERY dull girl. And so it has been while I work on the revamp of my other website, NYC Nature News (check it out and check back often as I'll be updating regularly!). Just took longer than expected...
To remedy this situation, I enjoyed a rejuvenating nature excursion but took a whopping 3 weeks to write about it!
Read MoreThe afflicted among us keep our thoughts to ourselves to avoid ridicule from others, and are overjoyed when we find like-minded kin. We make secret purchases at the grocery store, and then proceed to the nearest park.
We are the squirrel fanciers. And there's more of us than you'd expect!
Read MoreAs I consider the last 12 months, the places I've visited and the nature I've enjoyed, one consistent theme shines through: great people. So in this last post of 2011, let me just thank my wonderful friends and family. Wish I had photos of ya' all, but do have snaps of a few of you to share...
Read MoreThough I'm not a local, I know that Staten Island has many things to offer -- Snug Harbor, charming Historic Richmond Town, and the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in the city. But I never expected Staten Island to offer me an intimate visit with Wild Turkeys (Melagris gallopavo).
Read MoreThoreau's Walden passed by my eyes many years ago -- high school, perhaps? -- and while I might appreciate the concept behind the man's work, truth be told I found it a bit dull. Enjoying a recent walk through Queens Botanical Garden has made me reconsider his deep documentation of a single landscape.
Read MoreOnce a potter's field, reservoir, construction storage space for new subways, site of a huge anti-war rally, and drug/prostitute marketplace, Bryant Park has certainly seen it all. Before its renovation into a more friendly landscape, heroin sales were so brisk that it was nicknamed "Needle Park" -- not to be confused with the one at 72nd Street and Broadway and the setting for the movie "The Panic in Needle Park." Ah, New York City in the 1970s!
Read More