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

New Year’s Day is Friday and each of us will welcome 2021 in our own way. I will be happy to see 2020 in the rearview mirror. The challenges this past year were unprecedented in my lifetime, and, even with the turn of the calendar…

The snows of winter arrived early this year, even before this week’s storm that covered The Last Green Valley in significant inches. Despite the recent arrival of the white stuff, winter actually starts Dec. 21 at 5:02 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Welcome to the Winter…

As the holidays approach I have been thinking about what gifts to purchase for family and friends. I try to shop at smaller local businesses as much as possible and in recent years have focused on giving “experiences” rather than things. This has led me…

Two years ago my wife Julie and I were driving through Hartford on the way to visit our daughter in West Hartford. We had crossed the Connecticut River and were through the city when suddenly the sky was full, and I mean full as in…

“Each pine is like a great green feather stuck in the ground. Myriad white pine boughs extend themselves horizontally, one above and behind another, each bearing its burden of silvery sunlight…” — from Henry David Thoreau’s journal, Nov. 30, 1851 Today’s column is the third in…

There are many seasonal and holiday foods that appear on supermarket shelves throughout the year. Halloween and Valentine’s Day bring out candy. There is lamb for Easter and corn beef and cabbage for Saint Patrick’s Day. Thanksgiving is all about turkey, and I know folks…

No matter the time of year I always discover something fascinating when on a woods walk. Every month of each season the forest gives up its secrets for us to encounter and admire. On Nov. 3 (following an early morning visit to the polls) I…

I was very fortunate to grow up on a three-acre wooded hill. Beyond our lot were acres of woods and suburban forest. The neighborhood kids knew all the secret paths and shortcuts leading us to small streams and ponds, deeper woods and a myriad of…

“Now the hours of daylight are shortening noticeably. Dusk and dark advance minute by minute as these November nights close down.” – Edwin Way Teale, from “Circle of the Seasons, November 7, The Darker Days” Today’s column is the second in a series about finding…

“Farewell vain world and friends that weep for me Dust and a shadow these I leave with thee” From the epitaph of Joshua Manning, the great Windham carver, cut by his own hand. One might think the reason for this column is that Halloween is…

“A jellyfish, if you watch it long enough, begins to look like a heart beating. It’s their pulse, the way they contract swiftly, then release. Like a ghost heart — a heart you can see right through, right into some other world where everything you…

It was early October last year when our back yard was visited by a large flock of birds that at first I didn’t recognize. They looked to be a bit larger than robins and were busy gleaning sunflower seed drops from under the feeder and…