Seasonal observations from readers across the Middle Atlantic and Midwest — the community of people paying attention to the natural world.
Poor Will’s Almanack has always been a conversation as much as a publication. For decades, Bill Felker has corresponded with readers from across the Middle Atlantic and Midwest — farmers and gardeners who write to report their first hepatica of the year, birders who track the same migration windows Bill has followed for four decades, and nature lovers of all kinds who find in Bill’s writing an invitation to pay closer attention to the world outside their windows.
This category brings that conversation into the open — collecting seasonal observations from readers, letters to Bill, and community nature reports from around the region. It is a place where the almanack tradition of shared observation and accumulated local knowledge lives on in its most communal form.
Have a seasonal observation to share from your corner of the world? Bill welcomes reports from readers across the region. Use the Contact page to send your notes.
Readers who contribute to this category become part of a living network of observers — people who share Bill’s conviction that paying close attention to the natural world is one of the most rewarding and important things a person can do.
Time in Place It is always late September when I make my trip into Kentucky to meditate for a few days at Gethsemani monastery. Since I never see the monastery at any other time of year, my trip takes me out of the circular context of the world of Yellow Springs in which I normally…
Today, I am watching butterflies without an ulterior motive — done with trying to identify and count them, giving in to the confusion of their names and markings. A short essay on letting go of the need to explain what nature is doing.