Clippings: A different Lenten practice is woods walking

This year for Lent, my wife Deborah has not been fasting. Instead, she has decided this Lent to take a walk in the woods every day.

“Views of Mount Orford opened up in front of us, topped with a slow clinging cloud and illuminated in afternoon light.”

“Parc national du Mont-Orford boasts 50 km for classic skiing and 26 km for skate skiing over a range of beginner, intermediate and advanced terrains.”

Be part of a free workshop with author and artist Matthew Dickerson, Feb. 21.

Matthew and McKenna Dickerson will show their photographs and paintings at Jackson Gallery in Middlebury on Feb. 3.

“Luci loved the natural world, and over her life as a poet she practiced what it meant to be attentive.”

“In at least one important way, reading is like outdoor sports. Both of these depend on, reward, and help to foster attentiveness.”

“In the Champlain Valley, where the baseline has changed so much in just the first quarter of this century, you need to find some nostalgic old person like me to remember those days of 15 to 30 below zero.”

Matthew Dickerson reflects on “Writing Rivers,” a class he teaches that gets first-year Middlebury College students outside.

“Fall is a delightful time to fish in Vermont.”

On the final night of a three-night, four-day visit to Quebec’s Eastern Townships, Matthew Dickerson hiked through an illuminated forest.

“My overall impression of the Eastern Townships was of a people who value lovingly and thoughtfully prepared food, art and culture, and the region they call home.”

“Nestled between mountainous bluffs on the Tennessee River Valley…Chattanooga is an amazing city for lovers of the outdoors.”

My wife and I discovered a new outdoor team sport this summer. We call it Extractigating. Though some know it by its older terminology: Invasive Plant Removal.

When I was young (and my definition of “young” now includes anything less than a half century) I assumed that outdoors and comfort were mutually exclusive. Not so now that I’m not so young.