Geoff Wisner
@geoffwisner.bsky.social
Author of A Basket of Leaves (2007). Editor of African Lives (2013), Thoreau's Wildflowers (2016), Thoreau's Animals (2017), A Year of Birds (2024), and George Templeton Strong: Civil War Diaries (January 2026!).
The eternal lure of the cardboard box.
December 8, 2025 at 7:40 PM
The eternal lure of the cardboard box.
Not only our peas and grain have their weevils, but the fruit of the indigo-weed! Almost every seed-vessel, which contains half a dozen seeds or more, contains also a little black six-legged bug which gnaws the seeds...
[Wild indigo by Richard W. Holzman, Baptisia seed-pod weevil by Kate Redmond]
[Wild indigo by Richard W. Holzman, Baptisia seed-pod weevil by Kate Redmond]
December 8, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Not only our peas and grain have their weevils, but the fruit of the indigo-weed! Almost every seed-vessel, which contains half a dozen seeds or more, contains also a little black six-legged bug which gnaws the seeds...
[Wild indigo by Richard W. Holzman, Baptisia seed-pod weevil by Kate Redmond]
[Wild indigo by Richard W. Holzman, Baptisia seed-pod weevil by Kate Redmond]
Thoreau, Dec. 7, 1856. The swamp white oak leaves are like the shrub oak in having two colors above and beneath. They are considerably curled, so as to show their silvery lining, though firm. Hardy and handsome, with a fair silver winter lining. [Photos Heritage Seedlings, YourLeaf.org]
December 7, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Thoreau, Dec. 7, 1856. The swamp white oak leaves are like the shrub oak in having two colors above and beneath. They are considerably curled, so as to show their silvery lining, though firm. Hardy and handsome, with a fair silver winter lining. [Photos Heritage Seedlings, YourLeaf.org]
[Union Station in Providence was designed by Thomas Tefft, who was 21 when the building was completed and died at age 33. Photo taken at age 20.]
December 6, 2025 at 12:50 PM
[Union Station in Providence was designed by Thomas Tefft, who was 21 when the building was completed and died at age 33. Photo taken at age 20.]
Was struck with the Providence depot, its towers and great length of brick. Lectured in it. [Union Station in 1857 and 1886]
December 6, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Was struck with the Providence depot, its towers and great length of brick. Lectured in it. [Union Station in 1857 and 1886]
March 4, 1854
Found a geiropodium (?), its globe now transparent, with the vermilion-colored remnants of others (?) lying in jelly about. In dry pastures I see that fungus — is it? — split into ten or twelve rays like a star and curved backward around a white bag or inner membrane. [sketch]
Found a geiropodium (?), its globe now transparent, with the vermilion-colored remnants of others (?) lying in jelly about. In dry pastures I see that fungus — is it? — split into ten or twelve rays like a star and curved backward around a white bag or inner membrane. [sketch]
December 5, 2025 at 4:38 PM
March 4, 1854
Found a geiropodium (?), its globe now transparent, with the vermilion-colored remnants of others (?) lying in jelly about. In dry pastures I see that fungus — is it? — split into ten or twelve rays like a star and curved backward around a white bag or inner membrane. [sketch]
Found a geiropodium (?), its globe now transparent, with the vermilion-colored remnants of others (?) lying in jelly about. In dry pastures I see that fungus — is it? — split into ten or twelve rays like a star and curved backward around a white bag or inner membrane. [sketch]
The description seems to match the stalked puffball-in-aspic (Calostoma cinnabarinum), sometimes called gyropodium in his day.
October 7, 1852
Did Russell call my red globular fungus geiropodium [?], etc.?
October 7, 1852
Did Russell call my red globular fungus geiropodium [?], etc.?
December 5, 2025 at 4:38 PM
The description seems to match the stalked puffball-in-aspic (Calostoma cinnabarinum), sometimes called gyropodium in his day.
October 7, 1852
Did Russell call my red globular fungus geiropodium [?], etc.?
October 7, 1852
Did Russell call my red globular fungus geiropodium [?], etc.?
Before I got home the whole atmosphere was suddenly filled with a mellow yellowish light equally diffused, so that it seemed much lighter around me than immediately after the sun sank behind the horizon cloud, fifteen minutes before. [Art by Julius John Lankes]
December 5, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Before I got home the whole atmosphere was suddenly filled with a mellow yellowish light equally diffused, so that it seemed much lighter around me than immediately after the sun sank behind the horizon cloud, fifteen minutes before. [Art by Julius John Lankes]
Two other boys asked leave to ride, with four large empty box-traps which they were bringing home from the woods. It was too cold and late to follow box-trapping longer. They had caught five rabbits this fall, baiting with an apple.
December 5, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Two other boys asked leave to ride, with four large empty box-traps which they were bringing home from the woods. It was too cold and late to follow box-trapping longer. They had caught five rabbits this fall, baiting with an apple.
Thoreau, Dec. 5, 1853. I rode home from the woods in a hay-rigging, with a boy who had been collecting a load of dry leaves for the hog-pen; this the third or fourth load.
December 5, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Thoreau, Dec. 5, 1853. I rode home from the woods in a hay-rigging, with a boy who had been collecting a load of dry leaves for the hog-pen; this the third or fourth load.
Dec. 4, 1854. Already the bird-like birch scales dot the snow. [Photos by Jennifer Brockway, Susan Pike] www.somersetswcd.org/woodlands-bl...
December 4, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Dec. 4, 1854. Already the bird-like birch scales dot the snow. [Photos by Jennifer Brockway, Susan Pike] www.somersetswcd.org/woodlands-bl...
George Templeton Strong, Dec: 21, 1867, Saturday. C.E.S. off for Providence by the Shore Road. R.R. travel is a solemn business, witness the frightful slaughter at “Angola”, a station 20 miles west of Buffalo.
December 3, 2025 at 8:57 PM
George Templeton Strong, Dec: 21, 1867, Saturday. C.E.S. off for Providence by the Shore Road. R.R. travel is a solemn business, witness the frightful slaughter at “Angola”, a station 20 miles west of Buffalo.
Thoreau, Dec. 3, 1856. How I love the simple, reserved countrymen, my neighbors, who mind their own business and let me alone, who never waylaid nor shot at me, to my knowledge, when I crossed their fields, though each one has a gun in his house! [Art by N.C. Wyeth]
December 3, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Thoreau, Dec. 3, 1856. How I love the simple, reserved countrymen, my neighbors, who mind their own business and let me alone, who never waylaid nor shot at me, to my knowledge, when I crossed their fields, though each one has a gun in his house! [Art by N.C. Wyeth]
When I broke it with my fist over each in succession, it was stunned by the blow. I put them back through the hole; else they might have frozen outside. [Photo Tom Murray]
December 2, 2025 at 1:30 PM
When I broke it with my fist over each in succession, it was stunned by the blow. I put them back through the hole; else they might have frozen outside. [Photo Tom Murray]
Thoreau, Dec. 2, 1857. Measuring Little Goose Pond, I observed two painted tortoises moving about under the thin transparent ice. [Photo Larry Weber]
December 2, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Thoreau, Dec. 2, 1857. Measuring Little Goose Pond, I observed two painted tortoises moving about under the thin transparent ice. [Photo Larry Weber]
Grant, Sherman, Thomas, &c may be great strategists, but I am not aware that they ever did that thing. His talk is pleasant, & that, with the presence of the two beauties, & with Ellie’s unfailing tact, made our symposium agreeable.
December 1, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Grant, Sherman, Thomas, &c may be great strategists, but I am not aware that they ever did that thing. His talk is pleasant, & that, with the presence of the two beauties, & with Ellie’s unfailing tact, made our symposium agreeable.
But his eye & his mouth shew force, & of all our Chieftains he alone has displayed the capacity of handling men in actual shock of battle, turning defeat into victory, rallying a broken fugitive mob & hurling them back upon the enemy.
December 1, 2025 at 10:41 PM
But his eye & his mouth shew force, & of all our Chieftains he alone has displayed the capacity of handling men in actual shock of battle, turning defeat into victory, rallying a broken fugitive mob & hurling them back upon the enemy.
George Templeton Strong, Nov. 11, 1867. Home by 6th Av: R.R. & then Gen: Sheridan dined here, also his Aid Col: [John Schuyler] Crosby, who’s among the handsomest young men, or boys, I ever saw. Also Charley Post, & Miss Minnie Vail & Miss Fanny Smythe, both very beautiful charming & gracious.
December 1, 2025 at 10:41 PM
George Templeton Strong, Nov. 11, 1867. Home by 6th Av: R.R. & then Gen: Sheridan dined here, also his Aid Col: [John Schuyler] Crosby, who’s among the handsomest young men, or boys, I ever saw. Also Charley Post, & Miss Minnie Vail & Miss Fanny Smythe, both very beautiful charming & gracious.
[Cyrus Hubbard, 1792-1865, was a surveyor as well as a farmer, which may have increased Thoreau's respect for him. Survey from Concord Free Public Library.]
December 1, 2025 at 1:44 PM
[Cyrus Hubbard, 1792-1865, was a surveyor as well as a farmer, which may have increased Thoreau's respect for him. Survey from Concord Free Public Library.]
Thoreau, Dec. 1, 1856. I see the old pale-faced farmer out again on his sled now for the five-thousandth time, Cyrus Hubbard, a man of a certain New England probity & worth, immortal & natural, like a natural product, like the sweetness of a nut, like the toughness of hickory...
[Art by N.C. Wyeth]
[Art by N.C. Wyeth]
December 1, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Thoreau, Dec. 1, 1856. I see the old pale-faced farmer out again on his sled now for the five-thousandth time, Cyrus Hubbard, a man of a certain New England probity & worth, immortal & natural, like a natural product, like the sweetness of a nut, like the toughness of hickory...
[Art by N.C. Wyeth]
[Art by N.C. Wyeth]
...though in fact the dogs may have been a quarter of a mile ahead or behind their master. The dog rosette identical which is spotted all over Greece. They go making these perfect imperfect impressions faster than a Hoe's cylinder power-press.
November 30, 2025 at 1:09 PM
...though in fact the dogs may have been a quarter of a mile ahead or behind their master. The dog rosette identical which is spotted all over Greece. They go making these perfect imperfect impressions faster than a Hoe's cylinder power-press.
Thoreau, Nov. 30, 1858. We see the tracks of a hunter & his hounds who have gone along the path from the Dell to the Cliffs. The dog makes a genuine track with his five toes, an honest dog's track, & if his master went barefoot we should count five toe-prints in his track too...
[Photo Dreamstime]
[Photo Dreamstime]
November 30, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Thoreau, Nov. 30, 1858. We see the tracks of a hunter & his hounds who have gone along the path from the Dell to the Cliffs. The dog makes a genuine track with his five toes, an honest dog's track, & if his master went barefoot we should count five toe-prints in his track too...
[Photo Dreamstime]
[Photo Dreamstime]
...and not just because she says nice things about my "Six Reasons to Vote No."* You don't have to have watched Corinne's three previous videos to understand the points she makes in this one.
*There would have been more reasons if not for the 250-word limit.
*There would have been more reasons if not for the 250-word limit.
November 28, 2025 at 4:44 PM
...and not just because she says nice things about my "Six Reasons to Vote No."* You don't have to have watched Corinne's three previous videos to understand the points she makes in this one.
*There would have been more reasons if not for the 250-word limit.
*There would have been more reasons if not for the 250-word limit.
Nobody knew what the people on the stage were supposed to be doing & nobody cared to enquire. The grand feature of this specimen of the Lyric Drama & of “High” old “Art” is a white goat — a real live goat — that trots across the stage now & then & is watched by the audience with keen interest.
November 27, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Nobody knew what the people on the stage were supposed to be doing & nobody cared to enquire. The grand feature of this specimen of the Lyric Drama & of “High” old “Art” is a white goat — a real live goat — that trots across the stage now & then & is watched by the audience with keen interest.