I want to walk daily, through forests and glens, to be among those I feel closest to – the birds, the deer, the squirrels. They don’t hide anything. They don’t judge anything. There is a
Author: Steffany
On my way to the store tonight I saw two red-shouldered hawks sitting on the same telephone wire, about 100 feet apart. The wire sat above an abandoned farm field or an unmowed part of
Okay, so they were birds, not humans, but we saved them. My son and I. Two baby gray catbirds. Saved. Because of us. With one small speaker and a stolen nest. Saved. Today is Sunday
Spring came. Daffodills, tulips, cherry blossoms, crabapple blossoms. Fresh grass. New leaves. Rain and cooler temperatures followed by a few hot days. Then everything peaked. The greenest greens you can imagine. Kelly, mint, sage, lime,
The end of another school year is coming. Thank god. This year has been tough on us teachers, probably the kids too. Kids behaviors seem crazier than years past. The current 6th graders were 3rd
A friend and I talked about perspective a few weeks ago and then last week, I found myself assigning my photography students a project on perspective. The assignment was not intentionally driven by my previous
My friends, it has been too long. Technology is supposed to make our lives better and easier, right? Lately, well actually more like the last 10 years, I find technology and interacting with it exhausting
We have a mama white-tailed deer living in our back woods with her twins. Here they are, right as I walked outside to take their photo. To give you some perspective, the grass is about
Latin name = Troglodyte aedon Translation? Troglodyte = cave dweller, aedon = Nightingale…Nightingale cave dweller. Such a cool name. I wish the translation of my name was as awesome; my name literally translates to Crowned
I write, everyday, in my head. The writing is a constant conversation, lamenting on things I listen to on the radio, other’s words I read online, conversations from work, or conversations I had with my
“The walking of which I speak has nothing in it akin to taking exercise, as it is called, as the sick take medicine at stated hours …but it is itself the enterprise and adventure of
We have a dead tree in the middle of our backyard, a crabapple, which has zero leaves on it and drops dead branches daily, as if someone were trimming her hair. Everyday. Stray branches pile
This week brought the end of the school year, for myself as a teacher in 7th grade science, and for my own children. The weeks leading up to it have been full – baseball games,
In winter, there is a time, specifically at sunrise, when the sun has not yet risen above the horizon, and it is as if the sun has arms, made of the most beautiful pinks and
This week marked the 8th month of the beginning of the quarantine here in Maryland. Although things have ebbed and flowed – restaurants were open, then closed, then open only outdoors, then inside but limited
Heat and humidity have been the daily recipe for weather here in Maryland. We are going on week 5 of temperatures in the 90s. Yesterday morning the air was cooler, slightly crisp and I drank
I grew up in Iowa, where a few hundred years ago, tall grass prairie covered 75-80% of the landscape. Now, the land is mostly farms. Hiking into the woods was not an option. Trees, in
Our little bubble, the one we have been living in for 14 weeks, the one where we ventured into public places as little as possible due to the pandemic, the one where we spent more
(Written during late April, 2020) I don’t know exactly when the stay at home order began here in Maryland, I just know when my own school decided to close, 5 weeks and 6 days ago.
I am grateful. We live in central Maryland, on 2.6 acres with woods and a stream which leads to a neighbor’s pond. This week, my kids and I spent hours in the woods each day
Spring officially arrives in 2 days although while out walking earlier today, I noticed an abundance of birds were chirping, the grass was greener today than yesterday, and daffodils were in full bloom. The deer
A few weeks ago, snowflakes fell in the night, making the morning seem like an Earthly blush. At sunrise, the palest of pinks and peaches filled the sky, warming the world slowly. With only one
Since July my home life has been all about packing/unpacking and moving and painting and fixing and sorting and ordering. Moving is exhausting. At the same time we were moving my work life ramped up
When I was a kid, my family and our best friends would head north, to the woods and lakes of Minnesota. For one week, we fished and swam and played and ate and lived outdoors.
Life at our little house in Maryland has returned to normal. My husband came home, took some time off to spend with us and see his family, and is now back at work. School is