Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

In Praise of Meadows

Good things happen in the grass.
(Not lawns; nothing happens in a lawn.)
The meadows leap and rebound with life. They sing out with life, too.
Leafhoppers, grasshoppers, meadow katydids, crickets.
Spiders!

The annual WordPress bill comes due this time of year. Which is why I solicit donations for this blog. It costs about $400 for domain and hosting per annum, so thank you for your past, present, and future support.

I recommend Annelien De Dijn’s Freedom: An Unruly History, a look at how freedom and liberty have been defined and contested over for some 2500 years in the Western European tradition. It’s helpful in explaining the anti-democratic forces at play today in the Republican Party–they have deep antecedents in counter-revolutionary thought.

mthew

2 responses to “In Praise of Meadows”

  1. Chuck McAlexander

    Meadows are great. Lawns make a good place to bury the anti-democratic forces you mention. In time, those lawns could be returned to meadow biomes. Solves two problems simultaneously and no birds get hurt in this scenario.

    Reply
  2. ewakozyra

    Glorious!!

    Reply

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