The small access television station where I work is located in a basement. I have little social contact down there, and right now, I am the boss and the only worker. This was ideal during COVID—no worries about isolating. If I saw someone while coming into work, they were already halfway to the other side of the building, and we had a brief conversation mediated by our masks.

One other thing. The phone rarely rings. The basement was initially designed as an emergency shelter, so cell signals are often unreliable. sometimes these days I wander upstairs just to say hello and break the isolation.

On Mondays and Tuesdays, the Town Conservation Agent is present, and I look forward to engaging in interesting discussions about native plants, forests, and wetlands. In the past several weeks, we’ve been comparing sightings of early spring ephemeral flowers and their later replacements. The conversation often turns to invasive species and how to control them.

These topics are of great interest to me because I live adjacent to an Audubon sanctuary, and have been involved for many years in re-wilding a part of the back of my property. You might not get excited by yellow ragwort, but this spring I was. In the re-wilding process, I’ve planted many species. Some have taken and some have not. Golden ragwort was not one that I introduced. It was an exciting moment to realize that nature was now taking a hand in the process of regenerating that bit of woodland.

The bright yellow flowers added a cheerful look to what’s been a gloomy, grey and damp spring.