Category: PEEC Blog
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Beginner’s Mind in the Forest
Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident I walk through the same part of the forest almost every day. I noticed that the higher portion of this tree had fallen. I saw the fresh, clean area where it had broken, and the part…
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A Modernist Woodpecker
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident A pair of piliated woodpeckers visited our bird feeders for several days on the cusp between fall and winter, favoring the suet. Soon their work appeared on nearby stumps and deadfall. Most prominent among them…
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River Stories from Swarthmore College
In August 2019, ten Swarthmore students and their professor, along with PEEC staff, embarked on a 7-day sojourn along the Upper and Middle Scenic Delaware River. Their overnight camping trip totaled nearly 70 miles of beautiful rapids, mountains, and wildlife. After returning to school and some hard work, they have shared their stories with us.…
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The Rodent of Thor – Addendum
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident It has been brought to my attention that though I had never seen a gravestone with a squirrel motif, many exist, like this wonderful creation at Clover Hill Cemetery, Harrodsburg, Indiana. I am happy that…
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The Rodent of Thor
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident Receiving an oak leaf cluster is a military honor. In heraldry, the oak leaf indicates independence, the acorn fertility. Gravestones have used oak leaves and acorns as decorations, indicating the cycle of life. In mythology…
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Why did the Turkey Cross the Road?
Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident I found turkey tracks in the fresh snow by the edge of the road. Three large toes point forward, one small toe points back leaving barely an indentation. The tracks indicated three birds. One ventured down…
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I’m Dreaming of a Brown January
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident My favorite “White Christmas” is the Drifters’, with Clyde McPhatter on the high part and Bill Pinckney on the low. Now that Christmas is behind us, I’m dreaming of a brown January. There is no…
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Don’t Deck the Halls with Wintergreen
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident I spotted this green ground cover with red berries as my wife and I finished the McDade Trail near route 209. “Is that a variety of holly?” I asked. “No,” she replied. “Wintergreen.” Its deep…
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Some Gall
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident The photo is not of a small planet sitting on my napkin. The day after the last big snow, all was white beneath my feet except for this little brown, round object, one inch in…
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Dangerous Beauty
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident I could easily live the rest of my life knowing that the storm of a couple years ago, featuring a foot of snow and seventy mile per hour wind, was the worst I would ever…