Pica hudsonia is a singular bird. The magpie has introduced himself to us this summer by circling low through the orchard, landing high on the shop’s weathervane, or perching, teasingly, in an apple tree, all the while communicating by a raucous crow—like caw! Or, resting there, mumbling sweet nothings to us, as though reminding us who’s who and what’s what. He—or she—has a nest somewhere nearby, I suspect.

With US politics in a shambles, many of us are looking back on the eras when the world still made sense. And if you’re one of those hundreds of thousands of nostalgia-seekers, we’ve dug out just the…

Devote your attention to one idea a day.

Heat and near drought rule this summer. We haul hoses around, time watering periods for garden, kitchen garden, flower beds, elderberry patches, and row of chokecherries and interlopers—the young boleana tree, Nanking cherries, and honey berries. A pop-up apple start. The yard itself is given short shrift, though I loathe to see it straw-like already, only mid-summer. I accidentally/foolishly left the water on an apple tree overnight last week.

Sometimes, when we write, the words arrive as if someone were dictating them, and we are not entirely aware of how it happens. This is what we call inspiration.  Many writers think of inspiration as a...

Many workers fear machines will supplant them as adoption of artificial intelligence accelerates. But some workplace experts say people have qualities that are so unmistakably human and important, AI can't easily replace them yet.

“Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” becomes lions and coyotes and bears, oh my! A friend sent a short reel of a bear cub, maybe a year old, ambling across her in-laws’ old place in the direction of a canyon that divides the land. We live on the other side. In the hills. Our place sits in a narrow valley, divided by a mostly dry creek, a ponderosa pine ridge facing a rockier rim rock on our eastern side.

Lyrical, visionary, and unforgettable. Set amid the rugged beauty of Wyoming’s Black Hills, Carrier’s richly contemplative book blends literary realism, spiritual mystery, and speculative fic…

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