Bill Felker

Poor Will's Almanack: May 21 - 27, 2013

Bill Felker — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:35:00 +0000

Like a collector of rocks or a hobbyist or researcher, I take notes about what happens in nature and when it happens. I collect scraps of information from my walks and drives, and I try to organize them. The people who keep track of basketball statistics and other sports records remind me of myself. I have a nephew and a brother-in-law like that. For all of us, there are never enough scraps.

Poor Will's Almanack: May 14 - 20, 2013

Bill Felker — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:35:00 +0000

When locust trees flower, then snow-on-the-mountain blossoms and sweet Williams, clematis, and spiderwort open. White spotted skippers and red admiral butterflies visit the garden. Gold-collared black flies swarm in the pastures. Leafhoppers look for corn. Scorpion flies make their appearance in the barnyard.

Poor Will's Almanack: May 7 - 13, 2013

Bill Felker — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:35:00 +0000

Like love, spring can depend on the slightest movement, the faintest scent, a glimpse of what might happen, an oblique suggestion of fulfillment. And so the sight of one tulip or the first robin fledgling can create sudden spring, spring-at-first-sight. It can also grow and accumulate year after year like long, true love until each corner of its nature and each crevice of its devices are part of us.

Poor Will's Almanack: April 30 - May 6, 2013

Bill Felker — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:35:00 +0000

When apple blossoms have all fallen, then the first sweet rocket, fleabane, sweet Cicely, daisy, fire pink, common plantain, white clover, chamomile, black medic, star of Bethlehem, lily-of-the-valley, sweet William, meadow goat’s beard, May apple, and wood sorrel are almost always open.

Poor Will's Almanack: April 23 - 29, 2013

Bill Felker — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:35:00 +0000

Poor Will’s Almanack for the Fourth and Final Week Of Middle Spring

When I went fishing in South Carolina with my nephew a few weeks ago, I took home with me. We drove for ten hours southeast into the mountains and then down into sun and milder temperatures.

Spring came on quickly as we approached Charlotte, with redbuds along the road and bright yellow Jessamine in the undergrowth. I found violet wisteria in Columbia. At Santee, not far from the coast, dogwoods and iris and azaleas were in full flower.