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 [...]
Entries Tagged as 'urban nature'
Backyard Camping: Sleeping Out in the Urban Wilderness
September 24th, 2009 · 4 Comments
Tags: urban nature
A New Kind of Birdsong
September 16th, 2009 · 5 Comments
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
Urban Geology: It’s Not Just a Facade
August 21st, 2009 · 5 Comments
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
Urban Geology: Coming Tomorrow to The Tangled Nest
August 20th, 2009 · 7 Comments
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
Leucy, A Most Unusual Crow, RIP
August 3rd, 2009 · 9 Comments
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
Homegrown Hummingbird Feeder
July 26th, 2009 · 4 Comments
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
A Bird in the Hand (Will NOT be Abandoned by its Parents!)
July 12th, 2009 · 6 Comments
The other day Tom pulled down a House Sparrow nest lodged in an outdoor electrical box, assuming the birds were done with it. But many resident birds, those that don’t migrate, will attempt a second brood of chicks later in the summer. These birds first nested in a corner of our gutter, but their nest [...]
Tags: birds, urban nature
Magical Cottonwood Snowfall
June 7th, 2009 · 3 Comments
This week we Seattle-ites experienced record high temperatures for the first week of June. On one of those 90 degree evenings, Tom turned up all sweaty from his bike ride home and said, “I’m taking you girls to see some snow.”
We live at the top of our watershed, a couple miles uphill from Longfellow Creek, [...]
Tags: urban nature
Western Tanager and the Morning Cup
June 4th, 2009 · 5 Comments
This morning while I was sipping my morning coffee in the backyard, a Western Tanager dropped from the sky into a corner of our little pond. No matter how many tanagers I see in my life, I will never cease to be startled by their glowing presence. Western Tanagers are bright yellow with black wings, [...]
Tags: birds, urban nature
Crow Planet Art, and Dive-bombing Crows
April 24th, 2009 · 4 Comments
Yesterday I was out hanging clothes on the sunny line as the crows in the neighbor’s Douglas fir worked on their nest. So I just had to share this image from my new book, Crow Planet. Amazing local artist Dan Cautrell created gorgeous lino-cuts for each chapter. This one is called “Dwelling,” and I think [...]
Tags: clotheslines, crows, urban nature
