It’s cool the first morning of fall; 11 C, and cloudy. Yesterday at this time the temperature was rising into the 20s, and my shirt was sticking to me, the humidity was so high. But autumn blew in last night, right on schedule, and today is completely different. On the…

Some say they purr. Some call the cry unearthly. What I hear is hope. Spring begins for me around the first of March, when the early migrants return. As a child, it was the Vs of Canada geese, honking their way north, coming down to feed in corn stubble and…

I was extremely pleased (to put it mildly) to have a chance to talk to David M. Perry, one of the authors of the brilliant new book The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe. …

London Clay: Journeys in the Deep City, by Tom Chivers All my life I have had recurring dreams of paths, of underground tunnels and caves, of the liminal space between land and water. And so I am drawn to explorations in prose of these places, other writers’ experiences. London Clay: Journeys in the Deep City is one of these books. …

The boardwalk, 8:30 a.m. Mallards explode from the swamp, quacking; they don’t go far before they settle down again in the water. I was hoping for wood duck, but I’m out of luck. Above me, chickadees are feeding in the maples, accompanied by ruby-crowned kinglets and one or two yellow-rumped…

About 50 kilometers south of Oban, on the west coast of Scotland, a low, rocky hill rises in a series of natural terraces. Not a very high hill: only 54 m — and yet an important hill, in both history and my life. In the early 80s, both my husband…

For nearly fifty miles across the UK county of Norfolk, the Peddars Way runs (arrow-straight for the most part) to end (or begin, take your choice) at Holme-next-the-Sea on the coast. I’ve walked a good deal of it, not all. …

“I want to go to Hadrian’s Wall in March,” I said. My husband, to his credit, didn’t flinch. …

I am, by nature, a wanderer, an explorer, restless if confined too long. Foot, bicycle, car — any will do, although the scale and focus of the exploration changes with each mode. Foot was first, and I was closer to the ground then. Cicada shells were at eye height; so…