IT IS THE TIME of year for garage cleaning. Actually it’s past that time of year but this is when I’m doing it. Getting things ready for winter. One of the things I do is make sure my bonsais are ready to survive and thrive through the cold months. When I post pictures in the summer, many have asked about
AS THE LINGERING FALL gradually eases into winter, Koda the Forest Kitten is at a bit of a loss. It grows dark by 5pm, not 9pm. So curfew has been moved up considerably. And the same cold that has frozen the river also freezes his nose. And his toes. And his tail. And his ears. And although he is an
THE BRIGHT MARE’S TAILS and puffy clouds of summer sunsets are no more. A skim of ice completely covers the Father of Waters, and by 5 o’clock the woods are dark. No lingering dusk, no calling of loons or white throats. But a late autumn glow fills the river valley, reflected by the ice, and the chill air booms with
WHEN WE FIRST CAME TO PINE POINT and the old cabin, the forest was choked with buckthorn. Had to literally fight and chop my way through it. Bought a machete! Along with chain saws, brush cutters, weed wrenches, etc. Even the main lot under the century white pines was bad, and the red pine lots nearly impenetrable. Better now. These
THE LETTER THAT CHANGED MY LIFE, and the next step… Today I am feeling grateful. Tidying up a storage area in the cabin, sorting through materials from my 12 years as president of the Listening Point Foundation, I was powerfully reminded of the profound effect that beloved North Country author Sigurd Olson had on my life. That connection began with
WONDERFUL NEWS! On September 8, I posted the story of finding a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk stunned and injured on a sidewalk outside the Stay Fit Gym here in Sartell. Standing guard and asking folks to give the bird a wide berth, I called my friend Elaine Thrune, a wildlife rehabilitator. Elaine arrived quickly and with a bit of subterfuge and
LITTLE STREAM, I can still hear you calling, though my footsteps may take me far away; through the seasons you’re rising and falling; young and old each new day, you move along but you stay, and I thank you for passing my way.
HERE AT The Church O The Pines, we make no differentiation between nature and the realm of the sacred. We believe that heaven ‘is as much under our feet as over our heads.’ We agree with the Zen poet who said, “Green trees, fragrant grasses… a place not sacred? Where?” We know that human beings are natural creatures, as much
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
TWO CELEBRATIONS: Of colors. Of friends. Yesterday Kathy and I decided to find some close-to-home autumn colors. So off to the St. John’s woods we traipsed. Through the old stone arch and down the trail. And were richly rewarded. Every few steps produced an ‘Ooh’ or an ‘Ah’ or a ‘Look at that!’ A celebration of the sights and sounds