Bill Felker

Poor Will's Almanack: June 11 - 17, 2013

Bill Felker — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:35:00 +0000

I got up at 4:30 in the morning, haunted by a troubling dream. I listened for birds at my window as I got dressed. Not a sound, not even a car passing on the street. And then I went outside with Bella, my border collie, to walk in the dark.

I started south at 4:50. I heard birds by the time I reached a streetlight: At first just sporadic chirping of robins, then their rhythmic singsong.

Poor Will's Almanack: June 4 - 10, 2013

Bill Felker — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 12:35:00 +0000

The sky seems so very far away, and moon and stars and planets so out of reach, constellations hidden often by clouds and haze. But really a person might simply look around to find the heavens. The land has a galaxy of signs, astronomical resource of delicate and fragrant detail.

Poor Will's Almanack: May 28 - June 3, 2013

Bill Felker — Tue, 28 May 2013 12:35:00 +0000

Yesterday was the 103^rd birthday of my friend Ruby. Now I have received numerous notes and messages from Ruby through the years. She is a fine observer, and since 1992, she has informed me about kettles of buzzards, flocks of gold finches and pine siskins, early snowdrop blossoms, the first fireflies, the first autumn juncos, the songs of snowy crickets among many many other things

She loved to drive and one day not too many years before her 100^th birthday, she invited me out to ride around the countryside.

Poor Will's Almanack: May 21 - 27, 2013

Bill Felker — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:35:00 +0000

Like a collector of rocks or a hobbyist or researcher, I take notes about what happens in nature and when it happens. I collect scraps of information from my walks and drives, and I try to organize them. The people who keep track of basketball statistics and other sports records remind me of myself. I have a nephew and a brother-in-law like that. For all of us, there are never enough scraps.

Poor Will's Almanack: May 14 - 20, 2013

Bill Felker — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:35:00 +0000

When locust trees flower, then snow-on-the-mountain blossoms and sweet Williams, clematis, and spiderwort open. White spotted skippers and red admiral butterflies visit the garden. Gold-collared black flies swarm in the pastures. Leafhoppers look for corn. Scorpion flies make their appearance in the barnyard.