tales from the wild metropolis
One of the things I like best about traveling is hearing different accents, turns of phrase, the variations in cadence and rhythms of speech unique to a specific place. Now that there’s a Starbucks on nearly every commercial district corner, and big box stores are shading out the retail undergrowth, it can be easy to... Continue Reading →
The melody seeped into my REM cycle, making me just lucid enough to believe someone was singing a cappella outside my window. But my sleep-clouded brain couldn’t make out the words and I didn’t recognize the voice either. Besides, who would want to serenade me? My sweetheart, perhaps, but he lives two hours away by... Continue Reading →
The semester is winding down, so I can’t say I was all that surprised to hear a soft, kittenish mewing coming from the small wedge of remnant wooded habitat between my apartment parking lot and the highway. I’ve mentioned before that I live in a complex near campus and, sadly, it’s common for a new... Continue Reading →
Early Thursday morning, a sound came blasting through dreams and memory to my sleeping brain. It’s been years—decades even—since I lived in Tornado Alley, where April brings showers, The Wizard of Oz on television, and being hustled into the basement at all hours of the day and night. But when the emergency siren wailed just... Continue Reading →
The air wasn’t filled with the thumping of Rubbermaid® recycling bins or the metallic squeal of a dumpster being lifted high above a clumsy automated truck, so the last thing I expected to see when I came around the corner was three members of the neighborhood waste management team standing in the middle of the... Continue Reading →
Racing past a nearby pond, I mistook the bird for an art installation. I realized my error quickly enough once I downshifted. Then again, there’s just something so painterly about a great blue heron (Ardea herodias). The graceful, sinuous lines; the aqueous blues and grays; the plumage, evocative as a brush stroke. The unhurried disposition... Continue Reading →
Next-Door Nature 