So magnificent is the autumn foliage spectacle in New England that writers have struggled for centuries to capture its essence in words.

Well, you have a once in a generation celestial event, especially one that comes at a comfortable time – late evening – and you better not miss it. Last night’s total eclipse of a “supermoon” may not, from my perspective anyway, have been as spectacular as some of the media predictions, but it nonetheless was pretty cool.

I like to say that rivers are the lifeblood of the landscape.

Here in Connecticut, as in so much of the developed world, we haven’t always treated them well, lifeblood or not.

Wild ginger is an interesting wildflower that blooms in May in Connecticut woodlands. The flower is almost secretive, blossoming at ground level and hidden by two heart-shaped leaves.

The hike to Lions Head on the section of the Appalachian Trail that passes through Salisbury is high on my list of the best half-day hikes in Connecticut. If you like to hike and haven’t done this one, well, it is a must-do.

It was 51 degrees and windy when I arrived atop Mohawk Mountain about 9:45 yesterday morning. Sitting on a rock was an older woman, wearing warm clothes and gloves.

Visiting the Hartland Historical Society in Vermont, historian Bill Hosley of Enfield, Ct., came upon a paper written in 1907 by a prominent local farmer, Byron P. Ruggles.

It was a hand-typed, 10-page manuscript with the less-than-compelling title “Modern vs. Conservative Dairying.” Hosley began reading

If it were possible to calculate an index of happiness, two numbers ought to be part of the formula – rivers explored, trails hiked.

I do not know exactly how many trail guides and river guides I own. Glance over my shoulder and I see seven shelves of them in my study.

More than 10 years ago I devoted two mornings searching for the red-cockaded woodpecker in ideal pine forest habitat in north Florida. I don’t recall seeing a woodpecker either time, never mind the red-cockaded, which is an endangered species now found in only 11 states mostly in the southeastern U. S. The U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service estimates there are perhaps 14,000 of the birds, a tiny fraction of what their numbers were centuries ago and a dangerously small number for a bird species.