nature – Anthrow Circus

Land as the Canvas of Memory

BY HEATHER M. SURLS

Sitting in my parents’ yard on the foothills of the Tehachapi Mountains in California, I’m distracted. I haul my journal, a book, and a cup of tea to the splintering porch swing, intending to read or pray. But once I settle down and let my eyes pass over the 5 acres around me, I’m flooded by memories.
Before me stands the house my family built during an El-Niño year. I was approaching middle school and angry about leaving our suburban life two hours away in Ventura County. Alongside my parents, I tied intersections of rebar in the house’s foundation, picked up nails and swept sawdust during framing. My sisters and I recorded construction progress in composition books—homeschooling at its best.

What Happened When I Tried to Like Arizona

STORY BY HEATHER M. SURLS

PHOTOS BY MARY VENDEGNA & KAMI RICE

Rain spattered the windshield as Austin turned into the Water Wheel Trail parking lot. Driving the two-lane highway here from Payson, we had seen charcoal clouds emitting a fine scrim of rain, but we’d decided to hike even if it were sprinkling when we arrived. In the passenger’s seat, I folded down my striped socks, pulled on my sneakers. We would not be stopped. Not when our boys were overnight with their grandparents for the first time. Not on our first getaway in two years.

View From a Pandemic: Marking Time as the Bird Flies

TEXT AND IMAGES BY ELEANOR MARTINDALE

Today, I saw some storks. Three, to be exact, flying over the Western Mediterranean marshlands where I live, heading to their breeding grounds further north. Late January and a presage of spring already, accompanying the mimosa trees that have suddenly burst into flower as though a child has taken a pot of the brightest yellow paint she could find and splashed drops all over a wintery canvas. It was just as the spring migration was beginning last year that France entered its first lockdown.

Walking Just Might Help You Meet Your Goals

INTERVIEW BY MIRTHE SMEETS
TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH BY SOPHIE VAN DEN AKKER

With winter’s arrival it has gotten colder, wetter, grayer, and gloomier outside. And yet, it is still wise to go outside—whether you’re a job seeker thinking that you should instead be sending out another application letter today or if you just have little energy. Walking coach Tini van de Wetering from Shofukan Coaching is convinced that everyone benefits from a daily walk.

Familiars: A Book of Poems, Admissions

POEMS BY HOLLY WREN SPAULDING

Read Holly’s poems “Lark” and “Blackberry.”

Familiars: A Book of Poems, Testimonials

POEMS BY HOLLY WREN SPAULDING

Read Holly’s poems “Poppy” and “Bullock.”

Familiars: A Book of Poems, Foretellings

POEMS BY HOLLY WREN SPAULDING

Read Holly’s poems “Dandelion” and “Cheetah.”

View From a Pandemic: Locked Down Alone in Sarajevo

TEXT AND IMAGES BY KATIE MCCRAW

I panicked. Full-on panic-attack-style, feeling-completely-stuck panic. It was a couple of days after lockdown had been announced in Bosnia-Herzegovina. We had felt the decision coming, as we closely followed news from Italy and Spain and as cases rose in neighboring Croatia and Serbia. My Dutch friend and I had started to make plans to move in together so we wouldn’t be alone for however many weeks lockdown endured, but suddenly she was required to return to the Netherlands. With this, a rift began to destabilize the contingency plans I had made. My mind then went into overdrive, and I fast-forwarded the next few months: living alone, with no physical contact, my family thousands of miles across the other side of Europe, with work ground to a halt, and so many unknowns ahead. And I panicked.