Category: Ozarks

  • First of April.

    First of April.

    I had a dream a golden stonefly exuvia drifted down between my legs and so I woke up and went. Could’ve called John or Paul but it’s Good Friday and I didn’t know I was going until I was in the car and I didn’t know where I would park until I got to the…

  • Spring’s still out there.

    Spring’s still out there.

  • First of October.

    First of October.

    I can’t recall katydids creaking all the way into October.  It was ninety-two on the second before air temperatures dropped thirty degrees for a couple days. Had I been more thoughtful, I would’ve sloughed off work Thursday, too. A fat fox squirrel crosses the blacktop and I’m glad I brought my shotgun along in the…

  • Dog day smallmouth.

    Dog day smallmouth.

  • In defense of the streamside siesta.

    In defense of the streamside siesta.

  • Last Best Streams: #2403.

    Last Best Streams: #2403.

    Early explorers traveling by water can be forgiven for misappropriating the term “mountains”.  Once you’re up out of the river valleys you see the region for what it is: a broad, flat plateau, lifted nearly in place a couple million years ago, judging by the nearly horizontal bands of sedimentary rock exposed along roadcuts.  The…

  • Last Best Streams: #751.

    Last Best Streams: #751.

    There must be a word coined by some obscure 19th century naturalist for the simple species conjuring wild spaces. I just need to find it. Not wolves, not bears, not moose, not the cuddly or the charismatic. The meek. The easily overlooked. Like whippoorwills.