In the serenity of a sunny, low-humidity 75-degree afternoon in late June, I stood outside the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, beside Sapsucker Woods Pond in Ithaca, New York.

Dragonflies and red-winged blackbirds darted back and forth as a light wind rustled the foliage of shoreline alder and river birch.
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The tour of 26 gardens around the region is about “looking at the beauty and miracle of nature, with a chance to learn new techniques and to talk with other gardeners,” said Alice Cross, a URI master gardener.

Here in Southern New England, the start of summer denotes the midpoint of the growing season.
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It was hard to visualize that the winding path beneath my feet was an overgrown, dumping ground not long ago.

But Joan, a lifelong and now elderly resident of Olneyville, said that she remembered bushwhacking through that brush and trash decades earlier alongside the first folks determined to one day create a trail that would reconnect the Woonasquatucket River with neighborhood residents.
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One way to contemplate a nature preserve is from one of its trails: what do you find there?

Another approach is the big-picture view: why was this property conserved?

My wife, Karen, and I entered King Preserve, in Saunderstown, via its Boston Neck Road lot and trailhead. The park-like setting harbored twisted, gnarly, lichen-covered trees that reminded us of the talking trees in the children’s television series, H.R. Pufnstuf.
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On a typical February afternoon (cold, but sunny) in Providence, I loitered at the vehicular-and-pedestrian-busy intersection of Smith Street and Academy Avenue.

Any minute, I would meet up with our son, Noah, who was about to leave high school at the end of the school day.
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