I Am Not Hamlet

This moss and the deer fur images were taken in Grand Ledge, MI This prickly cucumber husk and the images that follow were taken at Crosswinds Marsh in Wayne County, Michigan.

We're still on lock-down, and while I don't want to downplay the economic devastation this is wreaking, some people like to throw around totalitarian state metaphors. Please, talk to someone who lived under the Soviet regime or other dictatorial states and then tell us how this is like that. Anyway, we are free to enjoy the outdoors. Given that this is spring, much emerges: plant life, insects and amphibians, and the call of reproduction. Frogs and toads call (when the weather isn't too cold) and birds defend territories and put on displays of virility. This group of photos is from 3 April 2020 at Sterling State Park, which is Michigan's only state park on Lake Erie. Get outside before you miss the sounds, the smells of spring. And the ephemerals...don't miss their show. Sterling State Park is part of a delta for Lake Erie so there are plenty of waterfowl, like the scaups above. Last year's investment The American robin is so common I d...

Greetings during the Plague Spring. Most of you probably have Stay-At-Home orders of some kind, but allowances are given to go outside and enjoy the emerging life. Here are some photos from the first phase of this lock-down. The first set are from a visit to Kensington MetroPark in Milford, MI. People may have to slow down and refrain from normal economic activity, but nature does not. This photo and the next two are from the Bishop Lake unit of Brighton State Recreation Area in Brighton, MI, very near the edge of SE Michigan. The Huron River How often have you gone out? What are you noticing that you have never noticed before because you were working? I'll be posting more as I process my photos.

Many years have passed since I posted a list like this. Why am I returning? Let's call it unintentional peer pressure fueled by social media. Anyway, here they are listed in the order they were read. On Trails * Robert Moor Meh. It was OK. He talks about literal trails. Beasts and Saints * Helen Waddell An enjoyable little book about the interaction of saints and animals. I used the story of St. Menno in a talk I gave about loving the created world. A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America * J. Reese Voshell An excellent resource if you are fascinated by and love benthic macroinvertebrates as much as I do. The Silver Chair * C.S. Lewis This has to have been my fifth reading or so of the book. As far as favorites go, it's a toss-up between this and The Last Battle in the Narnia series. An Essay on the Restoration of Property * Hilaire Belloc There are some, but I wish there were more examples of Distributism in action. The Biggest...

I haven't had anything published since 2017, so this feels good. My thanks to Chris at Englewood Review of Books for the opportunity. Here's a book about all the critters in our houses! http://englewoodreview.org/rob-dunn-never-home-alone-review/

I attended mass/liturgy at an ethnic church yesterday-- St. Rafka --in the next town over from me. I had previously attended a Sunday evening liturgy with my family, but this time I was alone. The first time we went it was rather sparsely attended as their festival was occurring in the parking lot, so most parishioners were, I imagine, at the festival. Not to mention that Sunday evening services are only attended by those most serious about their faith. The liturgy was in English, though a few prayers were in Syriac (a dialect of Aramaic--the language Jesus spoke). Did I mention this was a Maronite-rite Catholic church? The Maronite rite is one of many in the Catholic church--known most famously for the Roman rite--that's what everyone thinks of when they hear or think of Catholic church. Anyway, this is a primarily Lebanese rite. Attendance yesterday was substantially more than the evening in August previously attended. And the prayers and songs! Many, many were in Arabic ...

Man lives by plants. Plants live in the soil. The soil is a kind of factory in which the life force of plants, using plant food from earth, air, and water, and assisted by bacteria and the elements of the weather, changes these natural elements into forms that we can eat and wear, manufacture and burn, or use for building material. This precious soil from which we have our physical being is only a very thin skin upon the earth. --J. Russell Smith, Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture