A long time coming, it came like a winter flood. After six months idling in the backwaters, our house sold one day, and it carried us away for a month. Only a month? My body says a year. My body says: go for a walk. A sanity-preserving suggestion. We’ve landed in a gangly elbow of … Continue reading Home Again: A Photo Essay
Aftermath
I haven’t been through my canyon since the last big storm. Some things have changed. The route, for one, and I’m wearing the wrong pants for the detour. A douglas fir - average size - has snapped off near its base and splintered along the path. Chickadees are chasing each other through the rubble, a … Continue reading Aftermath
Dear Reader
The goal of Trail-A-Week was 52 essays. In August of 2015, I realized that I wouldn't be a writer until I let my bones show. I'd already understood - gradually, after 24 years of doing it - that I am not fully living unless I am writing. But aside from a few (utterly nerve-wracking) published bits, I've written … Continue reading Dear Reader
Right Work
This week's essay was written for the Columbia Land Trust, a conservation group that serves the entire Columbia River region. The topic was suggested by a conversation I had with the Trust's Volunteer Coordinator last weekend, while we were surveying for non-native grass incursions. You can read the original post on the Trust's blog here. *** It … Continue reading Right Work
Puffin Day
Today I went to see the work of a Portland artist who spent 3 months in Antarctica drawing birds. She was actually researching a bird I’ve never heard of, the Snowy sheathbill. But I was captured by her depictions of a single Arctic tern - a forceful little seabird with which my only direct encounter … Continue reading Puffin Day
Tara K. Shepersky 