IT IS A BEAUTIFUL MORNING at the cabin in the piney woods. The chickadees and jays and red squirrels are all proclaiming its virtues. And their own. But today I will be traveling. Appearing at the Detroit Lakes MN Public Library at 2pm. And later at the Bagley Library at 6pm. I suspect we may talk about books! Perhaps play
AT THE OLD FAWN ISLAND CABIN, a century next year, we have many photos, mementos and keepsakes adorning the log walls. Sometimes, when it is quiet, or when I am here alone, I wander around and look at them. And remember. And ponder. One item is different from all the others. It is a framed poem, written and given to
In our cabin in the woods, a 100 year-old Steinway piano resides. My mother, the best teacher I knew, taught lessons on it for over a half-century. Now my wife, Kathy Ann, the best teacher I know, teaches lessons on it. From my book, ‘A Wild Path’, this is the story of that piano, of the people who love it,
THE MORNING cuppacoffee view from the cottage screen porch down the historic ‘voyageurs’ highway’ is worth the trip up to Rainy Lake all by itself. Rained all day yesterday, supposed to rain the next few days. But this morning, with song sparrows and yellow warblers singing, with the ghostly echoes of old voyageurs’ chansons and with sunlight glinting off the
IT’S BEEN A LITTLE WHILE since we’ve seen the cabin-in-the-woods look like this. With more to come. March might turn out to be our first winter month. Koda-the-forest-kitten is not happy. The congregation of the Church O’ The Pines is cold and hungry, so Fellowship Hall is open for business. We think about all our migrating friends heading back home
IF ONE OWNS or inhabits a piney woods, it is incumbent upon you to go for walks in the woods. It is a sin, in fact, if you do not. At least according to the Church O’ The Pines rulebook. And when you go for a walk it is only good form to take a walking stick. An old one.
WITH THE KIDS and grandkids gone, the white throated sparrows and many of the loons gone, and Kathy at home, it is up to me to drive north and drop by the island one last time. To check and double check locks and latches and odds and ends, to say a last goodbye to the ‘dear old cabin’ (99 years
ON FAWN ISLAND, we now have a new cabin with running water, shower, and flush toilet. Which is great, and makes Kathy Ann happy. Which makes me happy. But I am still fond of the old outhouse, the Church of Peace, the path through the cedars to the shady bower, a site of solitude and meditation whose charms we have
AT THE OLD CABIN, Koda-the-Forest-Kitten, industrious and smart, has learned a new trick. Koda has long known how to get attention and tell us he wants OUT! Tearing up the laundry, scattering Mom’s desk papers onto the floor, knocking her latch-hook paraphernalia onto the floor, leaping onto and over every piece of furniture in the cabin. Just little hints that
AT THE CHURCH O THE PINES, there is an insistent whispering and shushing in the pine tops, under a gathering overcast. The wind is restless, and the woods seem to be in a waiting, anticipatory mood. The blue jays are restless, too, and in full cry at the slightest disturbance. Other birds and congregation members are more quiet, gathering food