Peace of Wild Things

Year Three Kicks Off!

Oh, the places we went! (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Year three of my blog kicks off tomorrow, June 6. I initially chose the date because that’s when Samwise came to live with me. As you know from the most recent post, I had no idea how that would go, but half a dozen years later, it feels like it was meant to be. And so does this blog.

I’m writing to you on this perfect summery day from the river’s edge. The sky is blue, and the white clouds are whipped to perfection. A breeze stirs the leaves and keeps the black flies away.

For some reason, I’ve been thinking of our desert friends today. I pictured them with us when we waded across the river this morning and entered a vibrant tunnel of green. It’s shocking, really, when you consider the landscapes we wintered in—from the high dunes and empty beaches of Cape Cod to the red rock and (mostly) treeless landscapes of southern Utah, from the saguaro cactus of the Sonoran Desert to the persevering Joshua trees of the Mojave. We walked …