I stacked energy bars and Imodium on the dining room table a month before we left. Then there were vaccinations and clothes for winter in New York and summer in South India. Toilet paper, malaria pills, water purification tablets, hiking boots, dried fruit, and sandals. Check each off the list. Since I’m an anxious traveler, […]

Orange fritillary butterflies flutter beside the trail, dining on coneflower nectar and dew. The dogs run in front of me. Old Willow leads in a burst of energy, but her speed doesn’t last. Disco comes behind, bouncing up and down until I throw a yellow squeaky ball. We walk together in morning peace punctuated by […]

In late June, I receive encouraging editorial feedback about the first draft of my book about Monarch butterflies. After reading the first few pages, my belly clenches and an inner voice says, “You can’t do this. How can you write about butterflies while the world explodes with hatred and war?” My years of devotion to […]

In July 1972, they moved with their baby boy to a crumbling farmhouse on a dirt road and immediately got to work. She cleared cobwebs in the cellar while he made shelves from old barn boards. Like her grandmother, she grew vegetables and picked summer fruit. She canned to feed the family in winter and […]

Dear Bluebird Mama, Earlier this week, I saw you carrying dried grasses inside a nesting box while your mate flew from barn peak to birdhouse perch to crimson maple tree. I watched from inside through Vic’s astronomy telescope. About three decades ago, he and I set up two boxes on opposite ends of an old […]

Yesterday evening, after another wild thunderstorm, I look in the nesting box closest to my house and find 5 tiny white eggs nestled in feathers. The Tree Swallow Mama feathers her nest while she lays one egg each day. She’s the best interior decorator I’ve hosted, adding new colors—black, striped, and fluffy white—and rearranging feathers. […]