Curious About Nature, Astonished by Human Drive
When I chose to study the ecology of western poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum, also known as Rhus diversiloba), I knew I would have to learn how to minimize the risk of “getting poison oak” and of causing other people to get it (11, 12, 13, 14). Here I describe the nature and seriousness of the... Continue Reading →
[Please also see my blog on how I worked with poison oak and my webinar--starts at 51:00--on poison oak.] Chorus frogs are peeping, the trillium blooms have turned from white to purple, and leaves of all the deciduous plants are bursting forth in an orchestrated unfolding, filling, and spreading. And among the most beautiful displays... Continue Reading →
I am writing about herbicide here, and I am aware that my discussion may alienate some people, and yet I believe that in some circumstances when managing lands, herbicides are the best alternative. Note, however, that I’m not an expert on this. My brief statement of support for the sparing use of for herbicides in... Continue Reading →
ludic (adjective): (Of play) spontaneous and without purpose; (of behavior) undirected and spontaneously playful. I need the occasional ludic break to get through the day. Ludic is running through the park with a young son. Ludic is playing tug-of-war with the dog. Ludic is arranging blueberries on the rim of my plate; it’s humming or... Continue Reading →
Who goes there? I am usually too ignorant to even know someone is passing by. And when I do pay attention, I am astonished to learn the extent of transit, variety of travelers, and breadth of cargo that moves in my neighborhood. I live near a residential home for women in rehabilitation, and I see... Continue Reading →
Great glory, wonderful day! I’m astonished how good it feels when the sun finally shines, when grasses show as mounds in unmown lawns, and cherry petals start to grace the ground, reminding me to look up. Dogs walk faster, squirrels linger with more derring-do, college kids talk louder as their masses move up sidewalks. At... Continue Reading →
Our weekend cabin is about a mile off the paved road. It has sunlight and wind, the music of two creeks, and a wood-fired hot-tub. It has indoor water and electric wiring. But it’s off-grid. Off-grid means complications for keeping a refrigerator cold (and I have sagas about our propane fridge.) Off-grid means a diesel... Continue Reading →
You are Barb-the-Tourist-in-Thailand. Switch. You are Barb-the-Resident-in-Oregon. No, not so quick! You cannot switch from one Barb to the other, not in a matter of days. And yet you do. You wake up at some point and check your clock. You are all by yourself in an Airbnb. You check your phone for messages, brief,... Continue Reading →
I slide open the window, the adrenaline shoots through my spine, and I reach out to put the first clip on my dripping shirt. I’m squeezing it so hard it will wrinkle. I put on a clip, and another, and another--six clips on one light shirt. With every new clip, I still grip the fabric... Continue Reading →
“Why do you have to step in the mud?” Sharon complained over the drone of the generator. She had come to the door to greet Delmita, but now glared at the imprint of Delmita’s boot in the February mud. “Because I kind of like walking through it,” Delmita said. “Course, not that I want... Continue Reading →
A week from today I will go to Thailand to visit my daughter who lives there. We often talk on phones or computers a few times a week, and we message and use e-mail. There are periods when I think we are caught up, and periods in which we lose track altogether. I cannot wait... Continue Reading →
Challenge: Take photos of all the letters of the alphabet in nature. Do not move except to get the camera into position. Do not alter images other than cropping them. See what I learn from the challenge. Outcomes: A bunch of photos. Pleasure while pondering views and images. Skills in photography. Skills in imagining features... Continue Reading →
My son and his wife have been together for almost eight years. For the moment, and maybe forever, they have no human kids, but they do have five chinchillas. When their winter-break sitter fell through, they asked if I would step in. And I knew: it was time to get to know my grandchillas. They... Continue Reading →
He asked me to come see the tractor close up. I followed. He invited me up into the cab. I climbed up and into the one seat with him. What else could I do?
When I was twenty, I took a year away from college. I was a Californian, but I’d been going to a small, extremely intense liberal arts college in the East, and it felt right to leave for somewhere for a while. My first move was to France for a semester abroad. I recall that our... Continue Reading →
Maple syruping: that’s my topic this week, although it had stiff competition with landmark events and astonishing everyday occurrences. Landmark events? Early in the week I finished the first draft of my second novel. I was travelling, but not for work, which gave me the time to concentrate. Another landmark event: My dad turned 92. My... Continue Reading →
When she opens into a smile, I feel like the sun breaks through a cloud.
Our picket fence was built to perfection during a dry Oregon summer several years ago, but in the winter, it goes out of plane. The pickets are still vertical, but it’s as if they’re nailed onto a ribbon. And it’s because of the wood quality of the horizontal part of the fence, the crosspieces, technically... Continue Reading →
This time of year, the natural beauty in our part of Oregon is in the textures of branches and barks, and the patchworks of greens showing through yellows and browns of fallen leaves. It’s in mists that rise and fogs that settle. It’s in sun that glows, white not yellow. And nothing botanical is gloriously... Continue Reading →
We arrived in the morning. We usually arrive the night before. We started the woodstove, and then put together beans and corn and olives and tomatoes and chili powder so they’d meld by dinnertime on the stove. My husband made us each a cup of coffee. It was still morning, after all, and there was... Continue Reading →
So many things were astonishing this past week, including a brilliant rainbow on our drive home from the cabin that was so close it was in front of the trees, but the Most Astonishing Award goes to a bushy-tailed woodrat. Bushy-taileds are incredibly cute. They have soft-looking fur that folds and parts like a chinchilla’s.... Continue Reading →
We’re back from vacation, and as I’d hoped, my dog and I are overjoyed to be together again. The salmon are spawning in the creek, the chestnuts are falling in the driveway, the jays are emptying them, and the dog is growling, pawing, and barking at their spiny casings. But the topic of this week’s... Continue Reading →
We’ve been on vacation in Hawai’i for two weeks, and in spite of wondrous experiences, I miss my dog. Birds and flowers are impossibly red. Fish, which slosh back and forth in my mind even when I close my eyes, look to be designed by children with fabric scraps and no instruction on practicality. With... Continue Reading →
Out the plane window, Daria considered the resemblance of the wind-whipped ocean surface to a meadow in a breeze. In both cases, the waves and the troughs between them seemed tickled along by the wind. The mechanisms, however, were quite different, as she’d shown with a post-doc several years back. Just for starts, wind energy... Continue Reading →
I was astonished by many things this week: the gentle friendship of my 91-year-old dad and his 84- and 94-year-old visitors, who’d flown up just to see him. A stunning garter snake with a very orange head. My sourdough starter popping the lid off its container. The thickness and rigidity of a cherry leaf on... Continue Reading →
I gave up something that I loved. Voluntarily. Friday was my last day of university teaching. (The fine print is that this is retirement, but I’ll work on contract at reduced pay and eventually at no pay, to finish a dozen papers, serve on handful of grad committees, and organize an international conference.) Yes, yes,... Continue Reading →
1. NORGs are well-meaning. Nice Old Retired Guys gave me lots of advice. I was NORGed for all of the nineteen years when I was the only female faculty member in my department, which shows that NORGs don’t actually target young faculty, just faculty who were younger than them. If I closed my door so... Continue Reading →
We got a hollow potato from the garden this afternoon. We’re pretty continuously reminded that we’re the guests out at our cabin. Bushy-tailed woodrats defy our live traps, but skitter in parts of the roof that shouldn’t exist (if we understand the construction). Mice leave droppings like the frost fairies left ice trails in Fantasia--and... Continue Reading →
I found an old friend at the cabin this weekend. I’d known it first from the California chaparral when I was growing up. I would have brought a sprig to the house, crinkling my nose at its medicinal smell. I’d have pored over my field guide, skipped the italics, and called it “yerba buena.” Its... Continue Reading →
I had to grease our tractor this morning because a while ago we had it hauled to the shop--65 miles each way--and the guy said we’d save a lot of money if we’d grease it. And also because it spent three weeks in a formerly unknown slough, which had the result of us getting to... Continue Reading →
“Some of them like it; some of them don’t.” That’s what a future landlord told me years ago on the phone while describing the firehouse he was renting. (It turned out it was a farmhouse; I hadn’t understood his New Hampshire accent. And I liked it.) We had a cold winter this year in the... Continue Reading →
On Friday my dad had to go to the clinic. I took him there. They said his blood pressure was low--really low, and I should get him an ambulance for the ride to the emergency room half a mile away. But I drove him instead. I parked, slammed my door, ran for a wheelchair, rotated... Continue Reading →
I’ve made soup with them, abused them with the weed-whacker, tiptoed through them in shorts, taught their anatomy to renewable materials students, photographed their male and female flowers, and watched their cycle of growth from the tender re-sprouts in the spring to the silvery senescence over winter. But I’ve never made yarn from them, until... Continue Reading →
Barb Lachenbruch 