I’ve been in and among nature since I was born. Some of the earliest pictures of my family show my (most definitely sleep deprived) parents loaded to the brim with outdoor gear, with a backpack child carrier on each back. Having twins isn’t easy, but […]

My wife, when she fell ill, was advised by the physicians to chew on gooseberries in order to gain some vital energies.  She kept salted gooseberries in a bottle and chewed on them occasionally. There is something very special about this fruit; may be it […]

Hypatica nobilis syn. Anemone hepatica En härlig vårdag i april, solen skiner och snön har precis smällt bort. Vi tar oss ut till barndomens blåsipps-backar – dessa som brukar vara blåa av sippor – och mycket riktigt, så även denna vårdag. En yster liten vårbäck slingrar […]

  Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American transcendentalist, nature writer, ecologist, and mystic encountered pines daily in the woods of Massachusetts. In these excerpts, Thoreau describes some of thoughts and observations on pines. Thoreau uses the white pines he finds in the Walden woods in the […]

“A Genealogy, Mostly Plants” By Pamela Banting I was born and raised in a place that takes its name from its trees. The name of the village in central northwestern Manitoba is the direct translation of the Swampy Cree name for the area, Wuskwi Sipihk, […]

Where I grew up on Vancouver Island, coming across a Hairy manzanita (Arctostaphylos columbiana) could tell you something about the history of that particular place. It could tell you, for example, that there was probably a wildfire there in recent decades (or centuries, depending on […]

Sliced lives; inconspicuous and dormant. Human events read out loud from timelines imprinted across dead tissues. As the skin of others gathers in these crevasses of plant history; quiet trees become silent. Until the conservator cleans off the years and awakens the giant within.   […]

Poison ivy In Connecticut where I grew up, poison ivy is everywhere. The name pretty much tells you not to go near it. It’s covered with an oily resin that can cause a nasty reaction if you touch it. My mom taught us what poison […]

When I was in second grade, we moved out of our apartment in northern Kansas City, Missouri and moved into a house in southern Kansas City. I can remember having to change schools and change friends, and I felt like my world was ending. But […]