Tag Archives: Colorado
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Bonfires in the soul
Last week, as Martin and I flew into Denver on our way to the Aspen Summer Words literary festival, we could see giant billows of smoke from the High Park fire outside Fort Collins, about sixty-five miles to the north. … Continue reading
Posted in More
Tagged alternative medicine, Aspen, Aspen Writers Foundation, Colorado, curanderismo, fire, Luis Urrea, medicine, Orion, T. S. Eliot
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A father’s legacy
Heather’s father Henry E. Catto Jr. died on December 18, 2011. The following is an adaptation of remarks she delivered at his memorial service at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in San Antonio on January 7. My friend Mimi Swartz wrote … Continue reading
Being still
We have spared no expense in securing the services of an ace guest blogger this week while we recuperate from our thirtieth college reunion in Massachusetts. Below, Thea Kohout offers some reflections on the importance, and scarcity, of stillness. I … Continue reading
“Sit. Stay. Stay! I said STAY, dammit!”
Despite the temptation to give myself over to ululations for the natural world in light of the recent midterm elections, I will be brave and strong. In fact, I’ll look to our dogs for clues about how to move ahead … Continue reading
Posted in More
Tagged aoudad, armadillos, bison, Colorado, dogs, Madroño Ranch, porcupines, walking
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Of mothers and mountains
I’ve just introduced myself to the pleasures of Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There. Called the father of wildlife conservation in the United States, Leopold heard in the revving of the great American economic and … Continue reading
Posted in Nature
Tagged Aldo Leopold, Colorado, Henry David Thoreau, Isa Catto Shaw, Jessica Hobby Catto, John Catto, mountains, salvation, wildness, wolves
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Made for you and me: thoughts on private property
Last week I went to Woody Creek, Colorado, to visit my father, sister, and brother and their posses. Among the many pleasures I find at the family place are my early morning walks up a trail that runs behind my … Continue reading
Posted in Nature
Tagged Colorado, Ellen Davis, gift, land ownership, Lewis Hyde, private property, Roaring Fork River, water, Wendell Berry
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Home with the armadillo: a love letter to Texas
Recently we and our three kids went to Martin’s native San Francisco to help celebrate his father’s eighty-fifth birthday. The five of us spent an afternoon walking along the cliffs of Point Reyes National Seashore, where the ground was springy, … Continue reading
Posted in Place
Tagged birds, Colorado, Point Reyes National Seashore, San Antonio, San Francisco, South Texas, Texas Hill Country, Thunder Heart Bison
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A mother’s legacy
The first sparks for the idea of Madroño Ranch: A Center for Writing and the Environment were kindled about a year ago in conversations with my mother, Jessica Hobby Catto. She has listened carefully and thoughtfully to my sometimes wildly … Continue reading