Yew

Years ago I had three Japanese yews growing along the front of my house. They were, in spite of my regular trimming, aesthetically too large for the yard. They did provide, however, excellent cover for birds in the wintertime. From the large window in my living room,...

Taking Down the Tree*

For twenty-seven years my neighbor’s discarded Christmas tree has shown up on the curb on January 2. The same neighbor on the same day also takes down his outdoor Christmas lights. I do not consider this guy to be overly organized, but he definitely has a specific...

Nature During the Pandemic

I recently read a New York Times article about the increased number of people, especially novices, spending time in nature.* The piece opens with a story about a hiker in a German national park who realizes he left his smartphone somewhere back on the trail. He and...

First Ice

Every day last week I rode my bicycle on a trail that runs behind the hospital and then along a side channel of the Mississippi River. Even though it’s been a mild late autumn, fishermen were already on the ice, either putting in tip-ups for bass or jigging wax...

The Gap Between Sean’s and Ruth Ann’s Houses

For longer than a century, there was a single set of railroad tracks running north and south through La Crosse. At either end of the city, the tracks branched out into two parallel sets, but within the city limits, there was only one. Northbound trains and southbound...
Steven Simpson