In spring, I search for nests. I part the branches of shrubs and low-limbed trees, peering into their depths for a clump of sticks and string and shredded plastic — the messy structure of a mockingbird’s nest. I squat and look upward for a cardinal’s tidy brown bowl. I stand even with the end of … Continue reading The Not-So-Peaceable Kingdom
I recently met a Facebook friend in real life for the first time, and one of the subjects that came up in conversation was our respective blogs. "So you're a trained naturalist?" she asked. I had to confess that I'm actually more of a Googler, and not even a trained one. It took a lot of … Continue reading Gall
Every spring my bird-watching neighbor across the street starts waiting for the rose-breasted grosbeaks to return to her feeders for a day or two during their long, long migration, and every spring they turn up, right on time, to feast on the safflower seeds she puts out especially for them. I keep a safflower feeder up … Continue reading Migrants
Mother's Day is hard. It has been five years since I last spent this day with my own mother and just eleven since my grandmother was here to share it too. After two decades as the junior mother of the clan, I am now the only woman left in this house. I am inexpressibly grateful … Continue reading Grief
My great-grandfather ordered the first sprig of this Dr. Van Fleet rambling rose shortly after it was introduced in 1910. He planted it at his house in Bertha, Alabama. When my grandparents married in 1930, my grandmother brought a rooted cutting to her new home a few miles down the road in Clopton. Years later, … Continue reading Witch’s Broom
In Middle Tennessee we don't have much of a winter, even under perfectly normal circumstances. Rainy gray day follows rainy gray day, punctuated once in a while by the clarity of snow. This winter hardly counted as winter so mild were the days, so rare was the snow. Still, the trees were bare, and the … Continue reading Two By Two
When I was in college, English majors were required to take at least one math class (or approved math substitute) and at least two science classes (for which there were no substitutes at all). Both requirements filled me with dread. In high school, when it was my turn to go to the board, the trigonometry … Continue reading Science
Three or four years ago, weeding the garden in early spring, my middle son inadvertently uncovered a cottontail nest tucked beneath the rosemary. The baby rabbits seemed hopelessly vulnerable: thumb-sized creatures, eyes still closed, without a bit of shelter from the cold March rains. And yet their nest under the rosemary plant was a perfectly … Continue reading He Is Not Here
I spent this weekend at Rivendell Writers' Colony, the most peaceful place on earth. It was my second visit to Lost Cove in two weeks: last time I was staying at a friend's retreat cabin a bit further down the bluff from Rivendell. Like the rest of the Tennessee, Sewanee was crippled by a terrible … Continue reading Hide and Seek
Wild storms came to Middle Tennessee this week, right on schedule for a region on the edge of Tornado Alley. Many branches fell out of our seventy-year-old maple trees, and many others were left dangling, torn but not broken—a scenario that is always a trigger at our house for a conversation that goes like this: … Continue reading Secrets
