Bent at an unflattering angle to get the blooms backgrounded by the falls, I heard Alder call from the trail above. His long legs and distance runner’s lungs were constantly carrying him two or three switchbacks ahead of me. Plus, I had to keep stopping to admire the flowers. Last spring break, my son … Read more
There’s a field I walk weekly with my friend Jamie and our two reactive dogs. It’s filled with a succession of wildflowers. There’s something blooming nearly every month of the year. The dogs notice the shift in smells, their noses ever curious. Jamie and I are more visual, noting the blues and yellows … Read more
There are small creatures to thank for the flourishing of March’s plant of the month. Just like there are small creatures to thank for all flourishing, including your own. For western trillium (Trillium ovatum), blooming now in bold white on dark forest ground, we have ants to thank. Specifically the American winter ant (Prenolepis imapris), … Read more
To look into the face of an other—a small face, smaller than your own, eyes clear and soulful, two nose holes through which oxygen passes just like through your two nose holes, and the line of a mouth that could be said to smile, covered in a skin so different than yours, scaled and … Read more
“Rise and shine!” I call to my teenage son, and Willamette Valley Ponderosa Pines comes to mind, rising taller than their near companions, shining in the rare January sunlight—just like my child coming into his own. Young and robust, a beacon of vigor in the winter landscape, the Pines planted along the freeway … Read more
alias: Frangula purshiana, Rhamnus purshiana, Cascara sagrada, Sacred bark Before Morning extends her fingers to warm my lowest trunk, down where grasses tickle, I’ve already lifted my summer-leathered leaves to the song of her. The song of Morning spoken by all the winged ones: Robins, Wrens, Sparrows, and eager Bees. Voiced even from … Read more
Curbed in concrete and asphalt, rooted beneath impermeable surfaces of human engineering, yet still, you tower, you arch overhead, tickling third-story windows, holding nests and sunlight in your crowns. Thank you. Thank you street trees for the visual rest of your complexity in a straight-lined urbanity. Your branches trace dark lines, earth’s signature, on gray … Read more
This spring, I’ve replaced some of the original plants in my home garden, things planted when I first moved here twenty years ago. I was young, in love with the classics, a good place to start a garden education. Winter daphne (Daphne odora), with it’s earliest perfumed blooms, I’d planted all around the garden—two near … Read more
The thunk, thunk of a chef’s knife nearby, Abby and I swapped stories at Lovely in downtown Springfield. It was late January. The new year buzz was as strong as the coffee in my veins, as rich as the soil in Ami and Jeff’s garden, as fertile as the friendship between us. Talk of that … Read more
“The Kalapuyas had originally a six month calendar that organized the spring, summer, and fall according to the camas growing cycle. The winter did not have any particular months as it was a long period where it was best that people stayed indoors because of the extensive rainfall.” -David G. Lewis I read this in … Read more