I have long been fascinated with fire generated by wood-against-wood friction. Some years ago a friend and I  blundered along, pre-internet days, gleaning what we could from Bradford Angier’s Living Off The Country. We were at least able to gather some proper woods and after much effort, to generate smoke with a bow drill. We had, though, a fundamental...

I had an encounter with wild parsnip (Pastinica sativa) Identification Key  September 4th in the field by the parking lot for Chickering Bog, at the corner of Lightening Ridge and George roads in Calais VT. Not knowing much about this plant, I had contact without knowing I had brushed it. I know a lot more now. Not everyone is...

I wrote this as a piece of fiction for another project and then thought, “hmm, seems not so fictional”: “The world had come to a point of decision, the cusp of light and darkness. A vileness had, for centuries, infused itself into the power structure of virtually every major culture, and many, but not all,...

During a recent trip to Japan I rode the train more than usual with almost daily trips from 45 minutes south of Kyoto, up and back. This and a Shinkansen (bullet-train) trip to Tokyo gave me the opportunity to view plenty of urban, suburban and some rural landscape. A feature that all of these share,...