Follow the Trail with Bill Reid,
The Last Green Valley's Chief Ranger
Signs of early spring and a full “pink” moon
It is no surprise to those of us who have lived all or large portions of our lives here in southern New England that spring likes to tease and entice us. We have marked the start of spring with cold snowy days, and days like…
A Bigelow Hollow State Park Hike Around Breakneck Pond
I have hiked around Breakneck Pond at Bigelow Hollow State Park in Union many times and in all seasons. This past month I was there on two occasions, and I want to share my experience about the hike in hopes that readers might venture to…
Beavers: Nature’s Eager and Industrious Engineer
Last week I traveled to New Hampshire to walk the forest lands my grandparents purchased in the early 1930s. In the woods are beaver ponds, each in a different stage of use or abandonment. March is a perfect time to get a close look at…
Signs of Spring in The Last Green Valley
“In our latitude the first day of spring is only occasionally a spring day. The calendar spring, the astronomical spring of the vernal equinox, may arrive under sullen skies with cold rain or with a blizzard hurling its snow from the north.” — Edwin Way…
Remembering Rachel Carson and Silent Spring, 60 years Later
Rachel Carson published “Silent Spring” in 1962. In honor of Women’s History month and the 60th Anniversary of Carson’s seminal work, I wanted to look back at this remarkable woman and her life’s work. “Silent Spring” represented a watershed moment for what became our modern…
Nesting Owls in Winter
There are sounds of nature that make me stop what I am doing and listen intently, as if drawn into a deep wildness that is both awesome and yet unnerving. No sound does this more for me than the call or hoot of an owl,…
The Civil War Connecticut 29th Colored Regiment
History is not static. Our understanding of it grows and the picture of the past can shift as we do more research and dig deeper. “It’s like peeling back the layers of an onion, one thin strip of membrane after the other, the deeper layers…
Tracking in Winter: A Fun Family Activity
Last weekend showed us all how fickle southern New England weather can be. Saturday we had visions of spring as temperatures soared into the 50s. Sunday we woke to a dusting of snow and some of us saw as much as six inches. On that…
A “Snow” Full Moon
“Silently, like thoughts that come and go, the snowflakes fall, each one a gem.” – William Hamilton Gibson January reminded us of what winter can really be like here in Southern New England when it dumped one to two feet of snow on The Last…
Mourning Dove in Winter
I first noticed the large gathering of mourning doves under our bird feeder earlier this winter. We frequently see a pair year-round, but this winter we were visited by a flock of more than 15 for the first time I can remember. It was fun…
Exploring The Last Green Valley’s Eastern Hemlock Trees
“The way a crow Shook down on me The Dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I rued.” –“Dust of Snow,” by Robert Frost When the hills and valleys are…
Life Under the Snow: The Meadow Vole
On Jan. 7 we woke to almost a foot of snow and the first good dump of the white stuff of the new year. My week kept me busy with no time to walk around our property in the snow until Jan. 14. By then…