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The power of unlearning
A mental model is a representation of the world, made in our minds. We form them based on our environment, experiences, beliefs, values, memories, expectations, and cultural influences (e.g., news,...
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NATURE’S TURN: My neighbor and I grow the ‘Homegrown National Park’ for...
Between my neighbor’s house and mine, there is a wonderful rocky outcrop that forms a high forested ridge of mature red oak and hemlock. Even though we reside about 100 feet apart, our properties have...
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Education and the future of humanity
Editor’s note: We are happy to welcome Cheryl Heller, Ph.D., to The Edge as a columnist. Heller is an artist, writer, designer and entrepreneur who works with leaders at every level to imagine and...
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NATURE’S TURN: Harvest sunlight to feed, sustain soil life: plant cover crops...
Closely reading the landscape of late-summer and early-autumn food and flower gardens, the gardener responds to growth, flowering, fruiting, ripening, setting seed, and the call to harvest. Soil life...
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NATURE’S TURN: Late-season, extra-long-season native flowers and botanical...
Atop the magenta aster, pictured above, a honeybee, sporting a small collection of yellow pollen on its leg, sips nectar. A frenzy of mostly bumble bees work the aster blossoms as October mornings...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Hunter’s Moon lights the way, with planet Jupiter, tonight...
A poetic pairing, planet Jupiter, a sparkling gem, follows the Full Hunter’s Moon from dusk today until dawn tomorrow, October 29. Observe the moon wane ever so slowly and rise about half an hour later...
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NATURE’S TURN: Boundless beauty, pressing responsibility
Our lives are nourished by the beauty of the natural world. A welcome first snowfall painted the forested Taconic Mountains and plateau on October 31, prompting me to harvest rosy-pink Hong Vit Radish...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Celestial spring—Arcturus, Leo the Lion all night
Spring Equinox, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere, arrives on Monday, March 20. Our star, the Sun, rises due east along the horizon and the setting Sun marks due west. A new balance...
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NATURE’S TURN: Coyote, elusive Song Dog
“Not only did western Indians select the coyote, among all the animals available to them, as a deity responsible for the creation of the world, he also functioned as an avatar—a stand-in for humans in...
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EYES TO THE SKY: International Dark Sky Week meets Earth Week
“Earth Week Live” began Friday, April 14, and programs conclude on Earth Day, April 22. Celebrate Earth Day everyday by joining educational, arts, and activist events either in person or virtually....
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NATURE’S TURN: Showy native shrubs through the seasons–food for our senses,...
Landscaping our home environments with native, flowering shrubs and small trees introduces wild beauty and vitality through the seasons. A diversity of pollinator moths, bees, butterflies, and...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Summer stars rising, east. Planet Venus reigns, west. Public...
In the western sky, during evening twilight, brilliant planet Venus and dimmer, red Mars highlight setting winter constellations and their bright stars. The season’s brightest star, radiant orange...
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NATURE’S TURN: Flowering Berkshires — Enchanting native plants in the wild...
Deep beneath the flowing forest canopy of these Berkshire hills, a succession of spring-flowering shrubs blooms in the understory, and ephemeral spring wildflowers flourish on the forest floor. A...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Summer night life with Swan, Scorpion, Eagle, Luna and...
Celestial wildlife unique to summer skies are in full view in the east to southeast as evening twilight deepens at summer solstice time. Two avian constellations appear in the Summer Triangle, which...
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NATURE’S TURN: Meadow in a garden bed, border
When plants self-sow, we may look at their offspring as weeds or as gifts. Recently, while appreciating robust stems of perennial pollinator plants emerging in a well-established border, my gaze...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Venus—at greatest brilliance—and Lion set tonight
Planet Venus, at peak brilliance in its current evening apparition, reached magnitude -4.47 on July 7. (The lower the magnitude number, the brighter the celestial body.) Begin to seek out the singular,...
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NATURE’S TURN: Explore New World Plants—A Berkshire ramble on the Appalachian...
Hiking the Appalachian Trail (A.T.), the first National Scenic Trail, is pivotal in the lives of people who have experienced walking almost 2,200 miles in the Appalachian Mountains from Georgia to...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Perseid meteor shower – sublime fireworks from outer space
In a dark sky lit with stars a streak of bright light appears and is gone in one inspired breath. Then, a brushstroke with a long and lasting trail carries our spirit on a sublime ride. A meteor is...
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NATURE’S TURN: ‘Diet for a Small Planet’ 50 years evolving — Are you in?
“To help save the planet, quit wasting food and eat less meat. The conservation nonprofit Rare analyzed a sweeping set of climate-change mitigation strategies in 2019. It found that getting households...
View ArticleSeven techniques to get yourself organized
As the summer comes to an end and you start thinking about starting a new season, ask yourself some questions: Is your life, or your home, encumbered with too much stuff? Would you like to organize...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Sun speeds south, dark skies brushed with cosmic Milky Way
“The sun is a star, a hot ball of glowing gases at the heart of our solar system. Its influence extends far beyond the orbits of distant Neptune and Pluto.” — NASA “It astounds us to think about how...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Evening stars, morning stars — Let there be darkness
A week past the autumn equinox, darkness has gained 20 minutes over daylight, and darkness gains an additional 20 minutes every week during the rest of October. Evening stargazing begins earlier, and...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Orion the Hunter and a tale of two suns
Orion the Hunter, a quintessential winter constellation, travels the sky all night as autumn turns toward winter. Recognized as the essence of a human figure reclining on the east-southeast horizon at...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Short day Sun, Long Night Moon
At the turn of the year, our star, the Sun, beckons all to admire as its incandescent orb traces its shallowest arc of the year these Winter Solstice days. From sunrise above the southeast horizon to...
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NATURE’S TURN: Power plants of the northeastern ecoregion
Power plants that generate biodiversity—a leap of the imagination and a pivotal moment when every reader is urged to establish at least one beautiful “power plant” in one’s home environs. Many of us...
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EYES TO THE SKY: The Milky Way Galaxy is our home — no ceiling, no walls...
We live in a spiral galaxy. In the image, above, of the Milky Way Galaxy, we find our Sun below the galactic center. Planet Earth is part of our Sun’s solar system in the sweep of stars and planets...
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NATURE’S TURN: Thinking like a mountain, the Town of Mount Washington...
The Town of Mount Washington, on the South Taconic Plateau, is nestled within magnificent forest preserves. Mount Washington State Forest, Mount Everett State Reservation, and Bash Bish Falls State...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Glorious starry nights
Following a wearily long interlude of cloud cover, a recent succession of starry nights and mornings reinvigorated irresistible prompts to rendezvous with nighttime’s winter constellations, warm to...
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NATURE’S TURN: Think like a mountain — Aldo Leopold Week, March 1–8
Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf … I was young [when] … I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean a hunter’s...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Great North American Eclipse, April 8, 2024 (Part One)
In 23 days, on the afternoon of April 8, Earth’s moon will totally eclipse (hide) the sun for a short time along a narrow path from Mexico to Canada. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes...
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THE BODY SCIENTIFIC: Measles again! But why?
The measles vaccine was licensed in 1963. It is a live-attenuated virus vaccine that provides lifelong protection with few side effects. It does not cause autism. The virus is extraordinarily...
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NATURE’S TURN: Power plants generate biodiversity
While writing January’s NATURE’S TURN: Power plants of the northeastern ecoregion, I pondered what readers would think about the play on words: the image of industrial power plants—coal, oil, wood,...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Great North American Eclipse, April 8, 2024 (Part Two —...
On Monday, April 8, at 2:12 p.m., under clear skies, the barely perceptible beginning of The Great North American Solar Eclipse is happening in the environs of Great Barrington. It progresses to a...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Planet Jupiter, winter stars setting. Eclipse reflection
A partial eclipse of the Sun was experienced with an outpouring of exhilaration and awe here in the Berkshires. I travelled back home, near Burlington, Vt., to be on the path of totality. Here is my...
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NATURE’S TURN: Re-awakening wonder, instinct to protect the natural world
A spring ephemeral, trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens) is an alluring and secretive plant that is blooming now. Although it may require seeking out, its influence was large in 1918 when it was named the...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Leo the Lion’s graceful springtime stride
In evening twilight, sketched in stars, the figure of a regal lion strides near the top of the sky, south of zenith. The arc of Leo the Lion’s great head and mane, known as “the sickle,” is connected...
View ArticleCONNECTIONS: The discovery and fate of Typhoid Mary
She was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1869. She emigrated to the United States in 1884 at the age of 15. She died in New York City in 1938 at the age of 69. You never would have heard of Mary...
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NATURE’S TURN: Town of Mount Washington’s ring of summits — two State Forest...
The center of the Town of Mount Washington, Mass. is at the base of Mount Everett (2,602 feet), the highest summit of nine that ring the village on the Taconic Plateau, a sub-range of the Appalachian...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Here, in the Milky Way galaxy, fireflies flash, barred owls...
“Galaxies, averaging an estimated 100 million stars, range in size from dwarfs with less than a thousand stars, to the largest galaxies known — supergiants with one hundred trillion stars, each...
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NATURE’S TURN: North America’s Eastern Phoebe — reliable tenant, engaging...
A pair of Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) returns to my house and garden every spring. The couple furnishes their attached apartment with exquisite taste, are models of industriousness, and exhibit...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Stargazing supreme — dark skies, warm nights
Our Sun, a modest-sized star, is one of an estimated 100 to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way, our home galaxy. When naked-eye stargazing (looking without the aid of binoculars or telescope) in dark...
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NATURE’S TURN: Painted Mountain corn for a changing climate
Descending from 70 rugged native North American heirloom Indian corns, Painted Mountain is a ro-bust, multi-purpose, high-protein and highly nutritional food corn. Dave Christensen began its...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Arcturus and Vega, evening’s brightest stars. Little brown...
In the pale blue sky of evening twilight, the crystalline light of Arcturus, -0.07 magnitude, summer’s brightest star, emerges above the forested ridge to the southwest, halfway to zenith. Minutes...
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NATURE’S TURN: Sleeping bees awaken, Fritillary pollinator of the month
Photograph © Judy Isacoff. See the sleeping bumble bee atop a six-foot-tall spire of Blue vervain (Verbena hastata). Another bee slept in a neighboring spire. This photograph was taken an hour and a...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Brilliant planet Venus follows sunset. Brightest star,...
As we awaken to summer’s turn toward autumn, Sirius, the brightest star visible from Earth, appears close above the southeast horizon in early morning twilight, marking the change of season. Sirius the...
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NATURE’S TURN: Feeding the living world around us — late summer garden and...
“Gardens have a power beyond being beautiful for us, healing for us, a power and efficacy for engaging all species, for taking care of the planet and the creatures around us that give us the gift of...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS visits Earth’s skies amidst setting...
The Voyager 1 spacecraft took 35 years to leave the sun’s magnetic influence. It’s traveling one million miles each day. At that speed, it will take 300 years to reach the inner layer of the Oort...
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NATURE’S TURN: Moose — bigger than a horse and smaller than an elephant
A photograph of a bull moose at the edge of a forest in early autumn colors, recently circulated amongst neighbors on the Taconic Plateau, compelled reflection on how this landscape supports what has...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Awe-inspiring Milky Way nights. Summer stars set
In the following night sky maps, the Milky Way is drawn as a red-purple brush stroke that represents billions of stars and interstellar gases. From dark-sky locations—in the absence of overbearing...
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NATURE’S TURN: Good medicine
Bright pink leaves paint a wild blueberry bush in a small meadow adjacent to my polyculture garden. A line of meadowsweet, Spiraea alba, in autumn gold, stands in front of the blueberry. A profusion of...
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