It's been a long winter, but now we are on the cusp of spring. If you live in a city, the signs of the changing seasons might be subtle — starlight blotted out by streetlights, spring peepers muffled by the noise of traffic and trains. Clare Gogerty's charming and useful "50 Things to Do in the Urban Wild" will help you get closer to the natural world that is all around, no matter how urban your neighborhood.
Most of her 50 activities are suitable for children as well as adults — identifying animal tracks, safely catching (and releasing) moths, studying clouds, collecting fallen leaves, getting up early to listen to the dawn chorus.
A few are fairly complex, such as planting a green roof on a potting shed (and how I wish I had a potting shed) or setting up a beehive. Others are pretty simple, such as putting up a bird bath or walking barefoot in the grass.
"Alienation from the natural world is not how we are meant to live," she writes. "Immersing ourselves in the natural world should not be an occasional outing but a constant state of being."
She makes it easy. Put on your shoes (or, if the weather allows, take them off), pick up this book and go outside.
Laurie Hertzel is the Star Tribune senior editor for books.
Fifty Things to Do in the Urban Wild
By: Clare Gogerty.
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 143 pages, $17.95.
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