The road is a glorious two lane stripe of asphalt that flanks the northeast side of Mt. Rainier National Park. The day was dry and the light was beautiful, but the top of the mountain was not to make an appearance, the clouds blanketed the highest parts. Never mind, never mind, the air smelled amazing …
Across the alley from my house there’s a sprawling fig tree. It’s abundant with fruit in the summer — once, I was walking to the bus stop and wondering how it could be that everything smelled like honey when I realized that it was coming from the bottom of my shoes; I’d stepped in fallen …
When you stalk the bees in your yard, you start to learn that there are several different kinds. The fluffy black bumblebees in the Charlie Brown shirts. The stripey cartoon kind. The really big kind with the waspy waist. They rarely sit still enough so you can see their bumble faces, but you always get …
[dropcap]Traveling to Ladakh[/dropcap] was all accident that summer. One morning, while dithering about where to go, my eye drifted up the map to a dot marked Leh. A small name for a giant dream. I had always wanted to travel there, the capital of the ancient Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh. Remote, virtually unreachable, a land …
The Seattle Aquarium has a volunteer beach naturalist program — they send good natured sea-life loving nerds down to the shores of Puget Sound when the tides are low to educate us plebeians about what lives in our tidal zone. I adore these people. Dressed in safari vests and red Beach Naturalist baseball caps, they …
Limited time value media wonkishness ahead. You can read this, or hey, for a better use of your time, read this story by Clementine Wamiraya who fled the Rwanda massacres. Man, what a read. I’ve seen worse contributor plans than Hearst Publishing’s The Mix. You apply to be a contributor and if you’re approved, you’re …