We’ve been off camping in the Olympic Peninsula’s Hoh Valley all week. Beautiful! But it’s always nice to be back at Camp Tangled Nest. When summer comes, we spend most nights in our plenty-big, extra-cozy backyard tent. Last year we stayed out there into October! Here’s why:
Tom: Despite the occasional raccoon grunting past in the [...]
Tags: seasons, urban nature
My husband Tom, who manages the technical side of this blog, has been watching the search terms that bring traffic to the site. While the random one-off searches can make for interesting reading (today someone found the Tangled Nest by searching for “the world is our tool for love”–I guess that’s good!), certain terms come [...]
Tags: birds, urban nature
Yesterday my friend Kathryn emailed a few photos of the freshly-fledged Bushtits in her plum tree.
That same day, I heard adult Bushtits chirping in our yard, and followed them to the lilac tree and our own little cluster of newly emerged Bushtits. I love how they huddle, all smooshed together in a little group. When [...]
Tags: birds, seasons, urban nature
You don’t have to be a hardcore forager to take advantage of the wild greens that abound in this lovely spring season. Trust me–we are not traipsing about far off-trail, toting a GPS. But we do enjoy gracing the table with simple wild edibles that we glean close to home. My two spring favorites: miner’s [...]
Tags: foraging, recipes, seasons, urban nature
In the summer, we like to set up our tent in the backyard, and move into it. The tent has a wide, screened roof through which stars, moon, warm breezes, and leafy shadows all make their way. Normally we put the tent away when back-to-school time rolls around, but this year we didn’t. And now [...]
Tags: urban nature
We know that attention to the natural world can open our eyes to new ways of seeing. Have a look at this lovely little one minute video. The creator, Brazilian artist Jarbas Agnelli, says, “Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to [...]
Tags: art, birds, urban nature
Guest post from David B. Williams:
Lyanda was kind enough to let me post on The Tangled Nest. By way of introduction, I am the author of Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology, which came out this June. Some of you may have heard of my previous book, The Seattle Street-Smart Naturalist: Field Notes from [...]
Tags: urban nature
I’m super excited to announce that tomorrow, The Tangled Nest will be honored by a stop from David B. Williams on the “virtual book tour” for his new book, Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology. David is a brilliant geologist, an original thinker, a terrific writer, and the author of one of my favorite [...]
Tags: urban nature
My West Seattle neighborhood has been graced, the past few years, by a most unusual crow. Her actual sex is not definitively known, but those who lived on her street and watched her most closely suggest “she,” so I’ll go with that. This crow was famous in her small circle, and everyone seemed to have [...]
Tags: birds, crows, urban nature
I am much too lazy to have a hummingbird feeder. I never manage to keep enough food made, or to clean the feeder often enough, so instead of bringing me joy, hummingbird feeding has always filled me with guilt. Plus our deck, where we want the birds to visit, is in full sun, and the [...]
Tags: birds, urban nature
