Nature surrounds us with an amazing variety of animals, insects, birds, plants, and topographic features. To refer to and distinguish the entities in this bounty, we assign them names — often two: one for common use and one, a two-parter, for scientific identification. Usually, the person credited with discovering or …
Part of the pleasure of visiting new places is learning about local customs and tasting homegrown foods. Who hasn’t at least wanted to try haggis in Scotland, say, or “cod cheeks” in Newfoundland? It’s a way of immersing yourself in all that an adventure in a new land has to …
“Wish you were here.” It’s the archetypal message on a picture postcard, sent from a friend or family member in some far-off holiday or vacation spot. In fact, the expression has become so cliché that you can now find postcards with the sentiment already preprinted. Despite the commonness of it, …
The long waits now common at airports do have one advantage: they give us a chance to catch up on our reading while getting to and coming back from our travel destinations. Anticipating such a delay at one point or another during a recent trip, I went to my bookshelf …
Like a soft, stretched-out sweater you’ve had for decades or a faded, well-worn jean jacket, I have a favorite pair of slacks. They earned my esteem not because of a fantastic fit, a comfortable fabric, or a trendy style. I like them mostly because of a small label that’s sewn …
Sitting on a pretty hilltop on the Bonavista Peninsula of Newfoundland, there’s a little bed-and-breakfast in the quiet, seaside village of Trinity. I stayed there one night, in the summer of 2007, surrounded by meadows and the Atlantic Ocean. The room I occupied had polished-wood floors, a down comforter on …