Nature in the Margins
Wild life finds the most delightful ways to nestle into all the liminal squiggles where our livings spaces intersect.
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At the moment, I have just returned to the full-time workforce, so the Nature Moments may come a bit fewer-and-farther-between. In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy turning Nature Moments into nature memories, re-visiting old favorites for new insights! Check out the Nature Directory to browse for your favorite moments by subject.
When we first moved onto our little homestead property in 2016, it was an absolutely overgrown tangled wilderness. Two grassy tracks, engulfed by a profusion of exuberant new-growth forest, were all that remained to memorialize what must have been a once-busy driveway to a once-busy home.
And my kids loved that about it! They were small enough to scurry through the bunny tunnels, to dip amongst the roots and branches and explore wild kingdoms guarded by intertwined sentinels that declared, “You must be at least little-kid-small to enter.”
As we slowly inched our living spaces into and out of our natural surroundings, we were ever mindful of our wild neighbors, watching them, watching them watch us, watching them tuck themselves into the new folds of our changing margins in all the most disarming ways.
It’s always a balance. The kids would prefer that we just leave everything wild and tangled! But as it turns out, the new spaces we create simply become opportunities to be amazed in new ways.
Our gravel drive was a project of necessity, a loop carved through the edge of the forest to provide access to the back of the house.
One sunny day, I walked over the grassy hill and was greeted by a rising cloud of Tiger Swallowtails, whirling into a golden shimmer before settling back to the activity that I had inadvertently disrupted. Turns out, the butterflies have adopted the gravel drive as a communal gathering place, a mineral lick - their local watering hole, so to speak, and now we get to observe happy hour ever summer! :)
Ever since we arrived, we’ve been part of the territory of a snowshoe hare. In the winter, she dons a snowy coat and retreats into the forest. She edges back into the profusion of our front yard in summer brown. She often nips at all our pea plants (despite our best efforts at protection) and even-more-often slurps dandelions and clover (which we fully encourage).
This year, our local hare has made our margins even more her own. I watched her one morning as she took a casual lope down the driveway, paused at the intersection, and decided to turn left down the gravel path to the forest trail. Our paths have become her paths.
This morning when I stepped out my front door, she gave me one long look, nibbled a few tasty grasses, and hopped right past me down the side of the house and onto her gravel drive.
Tucked into the margins of the margins, along the forest edge, in a grassy nook formed by two roots of a towering Tamarack tree, a brand new fawn rests, awaiting the return of her nearby-grazing mother. It’s a special time of year, when does and fawns grace the meandering woodland edges, appearing suddenly and silently with their arresting gazes, emerging into clearings gingerly and always ready to dart back into the safety of the deep woods.
On my first day of work, I looked out the front window to see this fawn taking wobbly, curious steps up the front pathway to the edge of our patio, nosing the unfamiliar smells of the edges of our human domain before flying her flagged tail and bouncing away to meet mom in the orchard.
Some of you probably remember the way that the Eastern Phoebes tucked themselves snugly into the margins of our hearts, just as they have tucked their nest snugly into the very most utilitarian of margins, the electrical box on the side of our house beneath the eaves.
We left their nest from last year untouched, uncertain whether they would like to reuse it - and they did! Perhaps the time saved in nest-building is what made it possible for us to watch just a little more magic unfold. Not only did they return for another year, they are currently nesting a second brood! And everyone knows that the only thing better than watching Phoebes fledge is watching more Phoebes fledge!
The warm summer nights have turned all of the forest margins around our home into a twinkling celebration. The crickets sing and the fireflies dance.
As the light fades, the margins become mercurial, convergent, intertwined. Night presses all things nearer and blurs all the lines between. At night, you can really begin to feel a truth that is obscured by the illusion of separation created by the bright light of day, where every line is defined in strong relief.
The truth is, all of the objects are much closer than they appear. We are all, always, intersecting. Life is lived in the margins, all the time. Everything is margin, after all :)
And now I’ve started a new full-time job! I’m happy to be joining Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services, where I’ll be a teeny cog in the big wheel connecting Mainers with state benefits. It’s quite the new phase for our family!
And that means Nature Moments will be moving into my margins. Especially as I navigate the churny waters of settling into something brand new once again, it’s hard to know how often I’ll be able to write. So I’ll be pausing paid subscriptions for now, and just taking a little time to see how things go!
In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy turning Nature Moments into Nature Memories, re-visiting old favorites for new insights. I’ve made some updates to my landing page, and added a Nature Directory so that you can browse your favorite nature moments by subject and keep being amazed! 💚🌿💚
Sydney....I hope that your new work goes well and provides for your family and you in a way that you want. May we always celebrate that love has the miraculous capacity to reach into the margins. Thank you for your beautiful heart.
Congratulations on the new job Sydney! Beautiful photos and I really like the clips of the butterflies, hare and fireflies.