Hacking. Butchering. Murdering. These are all terms we hear when the subject of pruning comes up. These words betray a widely held belief that pruning is an act of brutality. […]
SURFING
After the Shipwrecks, Joy
Is it right to feel so happy in the very place where sadness dwelled?
Often, when I am sitting out in the ocean, snug in my thick wetsuit, warm against the ripping wind and salt spray, I think about all the souls that have […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
The Zen of Moss
Vibrant magic in the gray winter woods
The woods are a thousand tans, reds, and browns. Furrowed bark every shade of charcoal. Snowfall in the woods, in the low winter light, a cast of blue. The muted […]
SURFING
Localism Is Surfing’s Dark Side
A protective instinct that unites us and can drive us apart
You’ve heard a lot about the wholesome, soulful side of surfing. That’s what draws most of us in. It is the current that runs strongest through surfing. It is the […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
The Snowy Woods Drive
Winter nights reveal the hidden forms and footprints of this place
When I was a little kid, the first snowfall of the year meant something more than the arrival of winter. It signified the beginning of the season for a quiet […]
SURFING
Like a Big Family
The collective joy of watching someone catch his first wave
The waves were perfect for learning to surf. Knee to waist high, soft and gentle, breaking slowly over an old flat reef now buried in fine white sand. The water […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
Structure and Shape in the Winter Garden
Reminders of the bones required to support summer’s softer beauty
I used to rent a small house with large windows. The windows overlooked a meadow of grasses and wildflowers framed at its edges by low oaks and autumn olive. In […]
SURFING
At Home in a Portuguese Surf Town
The tide and the wind are the same in any language
The sun is warm on my shoulders. The salt is starting to pinch the skin at the corners of my eyes as it dries. A small white cup of coffee […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
The Rewards of Caring for House Plants
The basics are simple: soil, water, light, nutrients, and love
Frost etches the margins of the grass in the early morning. You can see your breath when you step outside at night. The bin of winter clothing has been pulled […]
surfing
The Whale: Enlightenment on a Sand Bar
Dissolving the line between flesh and water
The alarm always comes too early. An anxious dream cut short of its unpleasant conclusion. The body knows that at any moment the sound will come, and so it is […]
on the landscape
The Grasses Tell Us to Be Quiet
Plants to create spaces that borrow from the textures of woods, fields, and dunes
Shhhhhhhh. The wind is given voice by the grass. The wind has no sound if not for the things it passes through, around, within. It is not the sound of […]
ON THE LANDSCAPE
The Sculpted Masterpieces of Our Sandbar
If Cape Cod were to secede, the pitch pine could be its emblem
If I were asked to describe one image that most aptly represents the character and feel of the Outer Cape, it would be a gnarled, wind-sculpted pitch pine clinging to […]
on the landscape
The Woods Find Their Way
Two years after the gypsy moths, an altered landscape emerges
There is a trail I follow through the forest behind my house, a winding old fire road grown narrow over the years. I have walked these woods for most of […]
