Summer Reading At long last it was summer, and, free of school, I could spend more of my time happily lost in books of my own choosing. Remembering that sweet time, my thoughts turn to my father and his splendid library. Like Goethe, my artist father was convinced that in the best teaching the mind is lured, so that learning becomes no martyrdom but sheer delight. Many times, this luring meant leaving improving books lying about where I could hardly …
Wetlands Mel Shaw I’m in love all over again. Each spring I revisit one of David M. Carroll’s outstanding wetland books: The Year of the Turtle: A Natural History, Swampwalker’s Journal: A Wetlands Year, Following the Water: A Hydromancer’s Notebook. Even while flurries still sting my cheeks, I turn to Carroll as a gateway into the coming months when I will explore my own water meadow, marshlands and vernal pools. And I am happy to bask in his fine words, …
A Gift of Wings Merak’s feather, beautifully beaded for me by my friend Mireille Lapointe Long ago, through the Ministry of Natural Resources, my husband and I were given the gift of caring for, and hopefully rewilding, a young red-tailed hawk, whom we called Merak. I wrote about this remarkable adventure in my book A Wing in the Door, Life With a Red-tailed Hawk. As it turned out, two year old Merak was completely imprinted on humans, and in spite …