The Nature of Things

Do you live in an area where there are owls? Barred Owls. Eastern Screech Owls. Great Horned Owls. At this time of year, these birds can be especially active and especially noisy. Particularly those Barred Owls. I can remember well lying in my bed on December nights as a child and listening to two or more of the birds carrying on a loud conversation in the trees outside my window. It certainly sounded like more than two. It sounded like a whole convention of the birds, but it may have been only one amorous pair. If there are owls in your area, you might want to step outside well after dark on one of these clear, cold nights and listen for a few minutes. If you are lucky, you will hear the distinctive call of a Barred Owl - hoo hoo ho-ho, hoo hoo ho-hooooooaawr , which is usually rendered as " Who cooks for you, who cooks for you-all ?" It is perhaps not surprising that this bird should speak with a Southern accent since it is the quintessential bird of Southern swam...

The last day of autumn here was a gorgeous one. The clear sky glowed with golden sunshine and that special shade of blue that seems to come only at this time of year. Autumn blue. Now the sun has set. The shortest day of the year is over and we are embarked upon the longest night, a time that was considered perilous by our ancestors. That is why they invented so many rituals and ceremonies involving light that take place at this time of year. They celebrated light as a way of honoring the sun, flattering it and persuading it to come back and light the world once more. They felt that there was a very good chance that it might not unless they took the appropriate actions. And so, pagans celebrated (and still celebrate) the solstice, the ancient Romans had their Saturnalia, the Jews had (and have) Hanukkah, and the Christians rather arbitrarily designated December 25 as the date of Jesus' birth. But it isn't only these groups. If you stick a pin in a map of the world and g...