A Northwoods Companion

A Northwoods Companion Spring and Summer By John Bates Item Number: 75 Description: A Northwoods Companion is the edited compilation of over seven years of biweekly columns that I have written for the Lakeland Times in Minocqua, Wisconsin. The column, called “A Northwoods Almanc,” has tried to capture the phenology of the Northwoods. The study of phenology, or the orderly timing and progression of natural events, produces and awareness of the cycles of life around us. Observing over the years that wild strawberries almost always come ripe around June 20, or that the first male redwinged blackbird can be expected to return right around March 20, provides a sense of orderliness to the natural world and a feeling of very pleasurable expectancy. This book tries to bracket natural events in the Northwoods into two-week periods when it is reasonable to expect the events may occur. pages