ON A WINDY and rainy day in which we were unable to paddle among Lake Kabetogama’s Grassy Islands and picnic on Woodenfrog Point as planned, we instead had a lovely lunch at nearby Arrowhead Lodge. Nearly 100 years old, it is a classic Minnesota North Woods resort. We still hiked Woodenfrog and another trail along the shore, finding pine knots,
SCENES FROM OUR day-trip boat tour to Kettle Falls and back. With my friend, Head Park Naturalist and Interpreter, Ranger Mark Miller as our guide. What a treat. The temperature was… crisp. The skies a bit cloudy. But we got some sunshine at the Falls, providing good light for a shot or two of the tiny, iconic island used in
EVENING MEAL PREPARATION on Fawn Island while Kathy Ann chills and relaxes. Not really the tradition over the last 30 years, but a very good one to establish. Knee-boarding and waterskiing and dock-diving and fishing also accomplished today, along with suntanning and screen door repair. And some intermittent water-taxi service to and from the harbor leading to Frostbite Falls, Minnesota.
IT IS A FINE DAY in the Pine Point woods, as two of our favorite migrants among the passeriformes—perching birds—have returned. The little yellow-rumped (Myrtle) warblers have traveled from the southern US and Mexico, on their way to the North Woods of northeastern Minnesota and Canada. They are usually the first of the warbler tribe to push the boundaries of
THERE IS A WAY of looking at the world around us that is so old and honored, so wise, so self-evidently true, that it is almost completely at odds with the way we normally live our lives. It is a way in which we see and acknowledge Nature as being inhabited by teachers and teachings, and more than that–as a
GOOD MORNING from Orchid Corner at the Church O’ The Pines…Where outside along the river, Sparky the Cardinal is singing his heart out; Canada geese are gabbling, wood ducks squealing, sand hill cranes trilling as they fly over; and the full, glowing disc of the sun rising over sparkling water. After a fine, soaking rain for the forest, it is
OF ALL THE TEACHERS I have known, I have found none greater than trees. So many teachers and teachings have enriched my life that I wrote a book about them, accompanied by drawings of favorite scenes. A few of the things trees can teach us: Reach for the light. Grow from the bottom up, and from the inside out. Be
ALL THE MEMBERS of the Church O’ The Pines were excited this week, as temperatures soared and spring breezes blew. The eagles chirped loudly from their nest tree, and chickadees sang their two-note, ‘Spring’s here’ mating song. Down at the river bank, male hooded mergansers practiced their sweet little growling sounds to attract the attention of impressionable females. Sparky the
HERE AT THE CHURCH O THE PINES by the great river, the tall, deacon pines have seen many things. The Spanish-American War, two World Wars, epidemics and pandemics, recessions and depressions, the invention of the radio and television, the telephone, the motion picture, the arrival of the automobile and internal combustion engine, men going to the moon, the great, world-gathering
IN ZEN BUDDHISM, the Flower Sermon refers to a time when the Buddha, in order to deliver a teaching on the ineffable ‘suchness’ of life in the present moment, simply held up a single lotus blossom. One disciple smiled. Thus indicating the direct transfer of wisdom without words. I love to smile at flowers. I think the smile is felt,