Follow the Trail with Bill Reid,
The Last Green Valley's Chief Ranger

I believe every month holds its beauty and wonders, but if we are honest March can be a greater challenge when searching for those bright spots. It is considered one of the dreariest months on the calendar. As we inch towards spring, the winter of…

“Silently, like thoughts that come and go, the snowflakes fall, each one a gem.” William Hamilton Gibson Wintertime tends to bring out the kid in me, or rather brings back so many snowy winter memories from long ago that remind me of when I was…

Today we’ll experience the full moon of February, called the Snow Moon since February is typically our snowiest month of the year. After a relatively snowless January, I am hopeful the Snow Moon brings a bit more of the white stuff. I enjoy tracking animals…

“The solstice past, the year tends toward Spring. But you would never know it. The old saying, ‘days lengthen, cold strengthens,’ is proved in January,” writes Hal Borland in “Beyond Your Doorstep: A Handbook to the Country.” Happy New Year The solstice Dec. 21 was…

“Most Americans observed Christmas – their modern descendants’ most lavish and commercialized holiday season – on a smaller scale, or not at all. Presbyterians, Baptists and Congregationalists, whose Calvinist heritage remained strong, traditionally ignored Christmas completely. It was a day when farmers slaughtered hogs and…

“Darkness comes swiftly in the Long Night Moon of December. At the end of this twenty-first day of the month, this shortest day of the year, this time when, in other ages, men lit bonfires to strengthen the expiring sun, the Silver Strand faded rapidly…

“It is a kind of all-American tree, growing everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains. It is used by most Americans, for sports equipment – baseball bats, tennis racket frames, hockey sticks, bowling alley floors, oars, polo mallets – as well as for tool handles and…

“It has been a glorious winter day, its elements so simple, the sharp clear air, the white snow everywhere covering the earth, and the polished ice. Cold as it is, the sun seems warmer on my back even than in summer, as if its rays…

Every autumn at my house is also, secretly, called “mice-murdering season” when we do battle with families of pesky, albeit cute, white footed mice trying take up residence for the winter. Some years we only have a few, but other years it’s a major incursion.…

On a cool evening recently, I stepped outside to enjoy twilight. The fireplace was lit, dinner eaten, and I took a moment to enjoy the slow descent of nightfall in autumn. As I stood taking in the beautiful evening, I heard the unmistakable short gobble…