Musings on our connection to nature

Musings on our connection to nature

A couple of books got me thinking about how we depend upon and how we share a relationship with nature. One was Philip Caputo’s The Longest Road, a story of his drive from the southernmost point of America—Key West, Florida—across the continent to the northernmost Alaska coastline on the Arctic Ocean and then back again, a round trip of over 16,000 miles.

Stay safe and get outdoors!

Stay safe and get outdoors!

It looks like we may be socially distancing for a while to come. If the pandemic continues, we will all need to sort out how to stay safe, healthy and sane. For many Vermonters, playing in the outdoors may be the best solution for sanity. Why not take this moment to learn something new about the natural world that lies beyond the reach of our feet or a car trip?

Take the long way home

Take the long way home

The current pandemic has changed a lot of our daily interactions and caused us to take a closer look at what really matters. When the population of our country is struggling to maintain a civil discourse on politics, I have found great solace in my own form of worship: that of nature and all that she offers us.

Book review: Wild at Heart by Alice Outwater

Book review: Wild at Heart by Alice Outwater

Alice Outwater (the younger daughter of Alice Outwater senior) has published her fourth book, Wild at Heart (St. Martin’s Press). In it she looks at the interplay between the natural world that she calls “wildness” and what human nature has done to modify it in order to make parts of it what she terms “wilderness.” We have taken what is wild, exploited it for our benefit, and now, she says, we need to redeem what we have done.

The intertwined depths of art and fly fishing

The intertwined depths of art and fly fishing

The intrinsic values of fly fishing and fine art are intertwined to depths unimaginable to the untrained eye. The rhythm of motion in a perfectly thrown cast and the fluid stroke of a brush. The arcing line of a weight-forward fly line and the loading of a well-structured rod blank imitates the weight of paint on the brush as the artist transfers the subtle nuances of color to the canvas.