The Bloom — nature

  There’s a lot to love about the transition from winter to spring and then spring to our beloved summer. For many of us, it’s the moment when cold and snow and worse are replaced by warmth and sun and a lot to look forward to. And one of the things we look for most are the songbirds that return to our neighborhood trees. They’ve been missed, and we wonder: Where did they go in the first place? Would you believe coffee farms? Over 40 species of migratory songbirds—everything from warblers and Orioles to tanagers and thrushes— love coffee as...

I don’t have the greenest thumb in the world, but I like to make things grow. So I keep lots of plants in my windows, potted herbs on the kitchen counter, and during the summer even a few larger containers outside. With the days getting warm, it’s time to decide what to grow in those containers this year. I’m thinking about green onions. Maybe carrots. Definitely tomatoes. (Gotta have tomatoes!) It doesn’t really matter. For me, it’s not the harvest. It’s the planting and the tending I love most—the journey not the destination and all that. I just like to...