On this warm, sunny day in Littleton, my wife and I decided to clean out the garage. Amidst all the junk were boxes of "momentos" for each member of our family. Mine included photos, documents and "appointment books" from grade school through my early practice years, a collection spanning about twenty years of my life.
Of course, this collection brought back many fond (and some not-so-fond) memories of people and events that shaped my formative years. Most had stayed with me but some had been lost to the march of time. Nevertheless, it was an unexpected treasure chest of the past that provided a couple hours of entertainment after a morning of steady work.
Among the momentos was a nature diary that I wrote during our years in Glendale, Ohio. There we lived in a historic neighborhood with large yards; adorned with a broad diversity of plants, they attracted a fascinating variety of wildlife. The diary, inspired by the books of Hal Borland, Edwin Way Teale and others, was composed of brief entries related to the weather, the resident plants and animals and the seasonal changes on our property. Written almost exactly twenty years before I initiated this blog, it provides a look back at my early years as a naturalist; now rescued from a dusty box, it will be a welcome source of nostalgia and reflection during the autumn of my life.
