"Wilderness isn’t pristine and doesn’t exist somewhere ‘out there’ away and distinct from humans; it is a force that is perpetually integrating, adapting, and thriving." Chaney Hill reviews A NATURAL HISTORY OF EMPTY LOTS by Christopher Brown. @timberpress.bsky.social

For today’s #LayoverLibrary, I’m reading ‘A Natural History of Empty Lots’ by @christopherbrown.bsky.social. The book follows the author’s exploration of Austin’s urban wilds and advocates for their preservation in the face of irresponsible development.

Waiting for take-out and reading the paper here in the Tropic of Kansas: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Wednesday evening I'll be teaching an online class for @writersleaguetexas.bsky.social on nature writing in the 21st century—as both genre in its own right and essential element for writers in any genre. It should be a lot of fun—details & sign-up here: writersleague.org/calendar/wri...

A beautiful Sunday morning read by @christopherbrown.bsky.social full of rain and fog fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/an-ofrenda...

A walk in the forgotten wetland under the overpass, a father-daughter outing to an active shooter event, plus rain lilies, film photos, and a kitchen counter moth promising a Roger Dean dream, in this week's Halloween x Todos Santos Field Notes: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/an-ofrenda...

Got some film back

Ambient kingfisher saying thank you for the rain 🌦️🙏

enjoyed this (esp lengthy discursion on the American way of dealing with leaves), as i always do when i read Chris

Hard to beat “seeking the hand-blistered zen of the rake.” Always an enjoyable read.

Went to a great @litquake.org program w/ Josh Jackson & his new book THE ENDURING WILD www.forgottenlandsproject.com/the-book. A clear-eyed take on the beauty & degradation of public lands. It pairs well with @christopherbrown.bsky.social ‘s work on urban wildlands, to my mind. Rays of light & hope.

Some Field Notes from the beginning of autumn in Texas, with leaf blower wars, cryptids, river clean-ups, and the politics of yard work: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/blow-force...

I found this a really illuminating thread on what demonstrations do and why they matter.

For his Texas Highways debut, @christopherbrown.bsky.social encounters spectral forces in Marfa. texashighways.com/culture/comi...

“...the only rest stop in America that promises an experience of the paranormal along with a place to pee.”

100% TRUE STORY!

Face-to-Face with the Chupacabra by Chris Brown aka @christopherbrown.bsky.social / I was there texashighways.com/culture/comi...

About that time we went looking for ghost lights and found a different kind of specter—fun piece to get to write for Texas Highways: texashighways.com/culture/comi...

Returning these library books today, great couple of weeks of reading just completed @christopherbrown.bsky.social @kashana.blacksky.app @elongreen.bsky.social

Great stuff! But a bird never flew on one wing. 🙂Another wonderful interview with Chris... for the Sustainability Agenda with sound by Cat Byrne, Clapton edgelands (i), gathered in the Lea Valley, Clapton, London, during November 2024. www.thesustainabilityagenda.com/podcast/epis...

Here's the conversation we had about A Natural History of Empty Lots when it was first released: plutopia.io/christopher-...

The paperback edition of A Natural History of Empty Lots is out today from Timber Press @hachetteus.bsky.social! Thanks to all the readers who have picked up the hardcover and ebook over the past year (or listened to the audiobook) and spread the word 🙏📖💚

Two books, How To Love A Forest by @howtoloveaforest.bsky.social and A Natural History of Empty Lots by @christopherbrown.bsky.social, examine our place and responsibility in a changing world. Here’s my review of the two of them: transfer-orbit.ghost.io/forests-tree...

Coming to Tachyon 30th Anniversary shindig this Sun Oct 5 12-5 #SanFrancisco Public Library main branch? You can hobnob with most of the staff & authors Peter S. Beagle, @joerlansdale.bsky.social, @samtasticbooks.com, and others! FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC! buff.ly/6Wbvy1u #sfpl #tachyon30

Very much liked this book —

Austin folks: please join us Tuesday night at Alienated Majesty Books for the paperback release of A Natural History of Empty Lots (and a month-long celebration of this amazing bookstore's second birthday): alienatedmajestybooks.com/events/34023...

Excellent and insightful piece here from @christopherbrown.bsky.social on nature and nativism. Homelands and Hybrids fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/homelands-...

Grateful to the editors of @nplusonemag.com for the clarity and force of this editorial. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...

Next week! Paperback launch with a short documentary screening + a wide-ranging conversation about the path to a greener and more just furniture. Hope to see some Austin friends there—RSVP and details at the link: alienatedmajestybooks.com/events/34023...

buttondown.com/perfectsente... this week in sentences: crows, exhausting, teeny-weeny, Star Wars, rhythm of, personal weather, surface, idol factory, Algol, sweet bigotries, slightly more, navy blue, Nero, demons, needs to shout, dance, chlorinated, fire, percolation

“Last week researchers at UT-Austin announced the discovery of a new bird – a hybrid of two species of jay... [which] historically had no overlapping range. Global heating has changed that, and now the green jay... and the blue jay... have found each other...”

Field Notes from September in the so-called "Homeland," with epic moons, coral vine, killer bees, Instagram propaganda, and new species appearing in the suburban edges of Texas: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/homelands-...

Got summoned home to help this bird get out of our living room, where it had inadvertently flown through an open door. Yellow warbler, I think?

I put off reading this because I was on a weeklong wildfire assignment (one that was slightly more depressing and frustrating than usual) and it was great to come home to another funny & inspiring & thought-provoking Field Note, a great recharge, thanks.

Fun afternoon readings by @williamledbetter.bsky.social, Matthew Bey, @christopherbrown.bsky.social, and @markfinn.bsky.social, between my panels

When the armadillos are out foraging before sundown, it’s a sign cooler temps have arrived in Texas

Suggestion: Tune in today (Wed September 10) to watch the online encounter between Robert Smithson’s only two remaining eartworks: Spiral Jetty (1970) in Utah and Broken Circle/Spial Hill in Emmen, the Netherlands landartlives.nl/en/smithson

Who among us hasn’t been there? Tho in my case it was accidentally sending a sheriff’s dept a photo of the Point Pleasant Mothman statue instead of my dad’s retirement information.

"RFK on the line for you"

Tfw you get invited to give a public talk at a prestigious venue for a modest honorarium, and when asked to submit a copy of your photo ID for the vendor authentication form, instead (accidentally and unknowingly) upload a creepy photo of a partially skinned animal skull you found by the roadside 😬.

Tiny kaiju, ambient Peckinpah, lost CDs, and a stewardship walk through the unevenly distributed future, in these Field Notes from the week preceding the full moon: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/an-anthem-...

TGIF

At least 25 species of parrots have become naturalized in the US, which are just a fraction of the 1,500+ kinds of wild birds that Americans imported as pets. We've mostly forgotten about the wild bird trade, but the 1950s-80s was an unprecedented shuffling of biodiversity.

I wrote about everything the global trade in parrots brought to the US, and everything it took from the rest of the world, in my latest piece. Read it here: birdhistory.substack.com/p/parrots-go...

Here's a stunning piece, "At Harper’s, Lewis Hyde on “The Geological Sublime” (long read on butterflies, deep time, and climate change)." @christopherbrown.bsky.social turned me on to it in his most recent newsletter. fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/dogs-days-...

Another remarkable episode in our ongoing series We Actually Watched As It Happened But Nothing Got Done

New Jersey trails.

Happy Celestial Birthday to Alice Coltrane -A Creator of Beauty and Transcendence August 27, 1937 – January 12, 2007 ❝The music is within your heart, your soul, your spirit, and this is all I did when I sat at piano. I just go within.❞‬