Seven Shades of Blue: Coming Home

Seven Shades of Blue: Coming Home

The Moment I Came Home: For the first decade or so of living in Bayfield, all I did was leave. I was writing full time for magazines like National Geographic Traveler, Backpacker, Reader’s Digest, and traveling all over the world to “places.” It was exciting but...
THIS LAND OF LIGHT: An Artist in the Midnight Sun

THIS LAND OF LIGHT: An Artist in the Midnight Sun

(paintings by Margaret Florence Ludwig) THIS LAND OF LIGHT: An Artist in the Midnight Sun To see the world like an artist, spend time with artists. Years ago, I was asked to contribute a chapter to a National Geographic Society book on the national parks of Canada. I...
Fog Visions

Fog Visions

FOG VISION: Some questions only become clear when you are lost in the fog There is nothing to do but watch. Like an avalanche of clouds, the fogbank spills off the peaks of the Brooks Range and swallows us, cutting off the horizons as surely as a shroud. Moments ago,...
WEAVING WATER: The Aesthetics of Rivers

WEAVING WATER: The Aesthetics of Rivers

The light in the canyon at this hour makes the river flow like braided strands of the morning sky. It is early, too early, and I am up and sitting at the edge of the river watching. Behind me, the canoes are pulled far up on shore and turned over; in the dim light...