Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard My rating: 5 of 5 stars It took many months for me to finish reading this book, as I could only manage it in small doses. Dillard writes with an intensity level that starts around 7 or 8 and cranks up to 11 by the end of each […]

Freed from predation pressure, abalone had become plentiful in California’s coastal waters. Native Americans had been decimated by infectious diseases and the economies of coastal (and other) tribes had been severely disrupted. Sea otters, which devour abalone, were on the brink of extinction thanks

In the hospital ward, we were not allowed visitors because of Covid restrictions so on each of the five days, I revisited a different decade of my past, dwelling at length on close relationships, wondrous journeys and joyful moments. Five months on, I still get great pleasure from doing this. I am a

I hope this old grandmother/grandfather oak doesn’t mind me sharing this image where their roots are showing. It’s such a perfect illustration that, for trees, as much is going on belowground as above… more, actually, for the roots are where the tree does their thinking. deep :: the roots I touch wh

there’s a Moon among the persimmons https://www.instagram.com/p/CIjSmgXpo1_/?igshid=u6b01r53woo2

A stern insistence upon courtesy to the living creatures that share our world with us in common to the most diverse religious traditions. “Man as Viceroy” – an essay by Gai Eaton

It was the persimmons clinging to the leafless branches of a modest sized tree that first made me fall in love with this house. Now, 23 years later, I’m still no closer to getting used to their exuberant abundance. early sunset a flock of crows winging homeward https://www.instagram.com/p/CIenCWKJkR

one leaf returns to where it came from . . . San Mateo, 2020 https://www.instagram.com/p/CIeYuxhJbxl/?igshid=1jn6rkvs1r282

It’s Thich Nhat Hanh’s 94th birthday. We spent a good part of it with @sit.walk.listen in Oakland, meditating, walking, and listening for change and for hope. #blacklivesmatter✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 #rememberbreonnataylor (at Downtown Oakland) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGOUYzEJVab/?igshid=10e0s1o6kbha4

They are cutting down the pine tree on the corner. It was maybe 80’ tall and almost three feet in diameter, perfectly healthy, an old tree full of years. And now it’s mostly wood chips. Today, for the first time in weeks, the sky is blue, and there is more of it than before. I […]

This is the University of Chicago “Great Books of the Western World” collection, edited by Mortimer Adler and published in the 1950s. My grandmother, a single mom on a budget, scrimped and saved for months to buy this for my father when he was quite young, maybe 12, and it shaped the rest of his […]

The word “apocalyptic” is overused. Seriously, it’s just a dark, smoky orange sky. Elsewhere, fires are blazing and firefighters are crawling out of emergency shelters. That’s where the word applies. Here, it’s actually quite peaceful.