Winter Solstice Postcards

Week 42: First Frost (William Cullen Bryant, Hannah Arendt, Homer C. Sampson, Thomas Hardy)

Fig. 1. [Frost] (circa 1910). Wilson Alwyn Bentley. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Last Quarter Moon; November Cross-Quarter Day Headnote We interrupt this fall’s journey through the northeast...

Week 41: Ghost Pipe (Emily Dickinson, Merlin Sheldrake)

Fig. 1. Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) (1926) Mary Vaux Walcott. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Waxing Gibbous Moon - Full Tonight; 7 Days to Cross-Quarter Headnote I felt nearly obligated, given...

Week 40: Staghorn Sumac (Cole Swanson, Katherine Lee Bates, J. Francis Macbride)

Fig. 1. Emil Carlsen. Staghorn Sumac (1883). Privately held. First Quarter Moon; 14 Days to Autumn Cross-Quarter Headnote Is it a bush? Is it a tree? Is it a poison? Is it lemonade? In the lower gaps...

Works in Progress

Cover: É. L. Trouvelot. “Aurora Borealis: As Observed March 1, 1872, at 9h. 25m. P.M.” Plate IV. The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1881–82. Barely New Moon; 27...

Week 39: Common Pawpaw (Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Daniel H. Janzen and Paul S. Martin, A.C. Whitford)

Fig. 1. “Asimina triloba” (1924). R. G. Steadman. USDA Pomological Watercolors. National Agricultural Library Special Collections. Waning Crescent Moon - 6 Days to New; 34 Days to Fall Cross-Quarter...

Week 38: Shagbark Hickory (Carl Sandburg, Vladimir Nabokov, Charles S. Sargent)

Fig. 1. Bertha E. Jaques. Young Leaves and Blossoms of Hickory Tree (c. 1910). Smithsonian American Art Museum. [Read more.] Waning Gibbous Moon; 40 Days to Fall Cross-Quarter Day Headnote Few trees...

Week 37: Northern Red Oak (Susan Fenimore Cooper, George Francis Heath, James George Frazer)

Fig. 1. Piet Mondrian. Field with Oak Trees at Dusk (1907-1908). “Owned” by some rich person. Waxing Gibbous Moon - 6 Days to Full; 2 Days to Fall Equinox Headnote Welcome to the woodlands. There is,...

Week 36: Watermelon (Sylvia Plath, Pliny the Elder)

Fig. 1. “[Man Cutting Watermelon]” (c. 1898-1903). Johnson Photography Studio. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New Moon; 12 Days to Fall Equinox This week's post is dedicated to my dad, who always...

Sharing My Archive

Cover Image. From Francis Macbride. Autumn Flowers and Fruits (Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, 1924). 103. A Look Back I hate to miss a beat in the weekly species studies, but sometimes...

Week 35: Cucumis (Robert Hass, Marcus Aurelius, William Cowper)

Fig. 1. Fede Galizia. Still Life with Apples, Pears, Cucumbers, Figs, Plums, and a Melon (c. 1625-1630). Waning Gibbous Moon — 11 Days to New; 23 Days to Fall Equinox Headnote Which is messier, the...