Years ago, I looked for a blog dedicated to Nashville nature observations, so I could compare notes and learn and share and get a grasp on the sliding seasons. I couldn’t find one, so I started “Look Around: Nearby Nature,” which proved too much to say, and so became “Sidewalk Nature.”
Sidewalks are a big deal in Nashville. Most people don’t have them. I do, because I live in an old streetcar suburb with a walkable grid. So I walk and walk, every day, rain or shine, year ’round. I see things. I hear and smell and pocket and sometimes taste things. I notice seasonal changes and patterns.
I see what neighbors do with their lawns, which is another kind of pattern.
Urban nature is nature that is already here. We don’t have to go somewhere else to find nature, and to connect with it. And when we connect with it, maybe we can help.
Nature needs help. Habitat loss is the #1 reason over 1/4 of all birds have disappeared since I was in Kindergarten, and the reason for our Insect Apocalypse. Our yards and neighborhoods are critical habitat now, can you believe it? If more people believe it, maybe we can tweak a few standard practices to be more sustainable? Fewer pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers. Less concrete. More green space. Bird-safe windows. Fewer all-night security lights, and year-round yard sprinklers. Many, many more native plants.
But the first step is to Look Around.
Clues on the sidewalk can teach you Where and When you are.
Here, for example, are some clues for September:
-Hemlock cones sliding to the storm drain.
-Orion overhead before dawn.
-Passionfruit on the Interstate bridge.
-Shumard oak acorns, nipped and thrown away by squirrels.
-Chinkapin oak acorns, nipped and stored by squirrels.
-Black walnuts downhill.
-Osage orange fruit downhill.
-Hackberry drupes almost ripe.
-September elm pollen.
-Goldfinches twisting seeds from sunflowers.
-Carpenter bees dying on passionflowers.
-Skippers on Black-eyed Susans.
Look Around.
What do you see on your sidewalk, street, yard right now?
About the author:
Joanna Brichetto is the author of This is How a Robin Drinks: Essays on Urban Nature, forthcoming from Trinity University Press. She is a naturalist in Nashville, the hackberry-capital of the world, and her essays have appeared in Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, Ecotone, Fourth Genre, Hippocampus, The Hopper, Flyway, The Fourth River and other journals. Find her at SidewalkNature.com and on Instagram @Jo_Brichetto, where she writes about everyday wonders in everyday habitat loss.
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Sidewalk Nature 
Enjoyed and learned so much yesterday on the Herb Society tour. Thank you!!!
I had a great time and learned a lot, too! Thanks for having me! I just sent Judy a doc with a hand-drawn map of our route and our field notes, in case you fancy going back to see how the trees change with the seasons.