The Outside Story

Harry Houdini was a great break-out artist: handcuffed, straight-jacketed, chained and submerged in water, he’d always emerge. Raccoons are famous break-in artists. No chimney flue,…

In maple country, it seems like everyone has a favorite syrup grade. Mine is U.S. Grade A dark amber. But soon, I’ll have to figure out how my favorite grade of the past jibes with a new…

I was enjoying a morning cup of coffee in the sunroom when I saw the hawk. It was perched across the road, maybe 30 yards away, its chest puffed up against the cold. It appeared to be eyeing…

Every year, in mid-March, my family leaves Vermont and heads to Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley to get a jump on experiencing spring. Red-winged blackbirds are calling, chipmunks are…

Deep in the heart of the last ice age, at the bottom of a glacial lake, the clay babies were born. Before I tell you exactly what a clay baby is, here’s how to find one. Take a stroll…

As the sunset colors fade from purple to black, the forest is dimly illuminated by a first quarter moon. An eerie sound breaks the calm. It is not the long, low, slow howling of wolves that…

While winter in New England can be stunningly beautiful, with its magical snowfalls and ethereal silences, I must admit that by mid-February the long absence of so many songbirds has me…

On October 8, 2013, friends Dan Russell and Charles Baldridge stood on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain and had what they later described as an awe-inspiring experience. For an hour and a…

I’m driving to work too fast, late as usual, trying to make up for those last five minutes I spent puttering around my house when I should have gotten out the door. I lean on the…

The sign in the window, which read, “Clearance! Hats and Gloves 50% off,” puzzled me. Snowflakes swirled on gusty winds. The bitter cold stung my fingertips—I wondered if I…

On our back porch, in a pocket of light from the window, was what looked to be an oversized rat wearing white face powder. As it gobbled down cat food, it flashed a demented crocodile grin.…

Fat gets a bad rap in the medical world, for good reason. Excessive body fat is linked to a litany of health risks, including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. Yet in…

We humans tend to cringe at winter temperatures. We put on extra layers, crank up the thermostat, and wait impatiently for the tell-tale drip of spring thaw. However, there are plenty of tiny…

Many years ago, I lived in San José, California where the weather forecast went something like this: Sunny for three weeks, one day of rain, followed by many more weeks of sun. There…

One of my family’s cherished Christmas traditions, back at our farm in Virginia, is to search out mistletoe balls growing high in the hedgerows. Then we take out a 20-gauge shotgun and…

Deep in the winter-dark woods, beneath the roots of a fallen tree, a mother black bear hibernates with her two yearling cubs. In the spring, they will wake up in a near starvation condition,…

My favorite season tends to be whatever comes next, which means, for now, deep winter. With our storm windows installed and four tons of wood pellets put up, I'm feeling smug as the ant…

Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! vile thing, let loose, Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent! -William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream The aroma of wood smoke lingers as you…

In November, as the last colors of autumn are fading, the stark outlines of tree branches are revealed. During this time you might be lucky enough to see an occasional dark mass, looking from…

Nature writers spend a lot of time celebrating the unknowns in the natural world, those little reminders that we’re not as smart as we think we are. It’s an especially resonant…