White desk with pink notebook, roses, keyboard, and gold paperclips that Francesca Varela uses to write environmental fiction

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  • Fall Light

    1–2 minutes

    The wind parts the leaves like a hand brushing back a curtain, yellow and diaphanous in the low tide of the sun. There they are, the Ash and cottonwood, the young maple, long bands of light tethered in the furrows of their bark. Their leaves are coaxed loose, and they fallas slow as particles of

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  • How To Find The Summer Constellations

    3–5 minutes

    Finding Lyra – The Lyre Vega is the brightest star in the summer sky, so it’s a great starting point to orient yourself amongst the constellations. After dusk, look straight up and slightly to the east. See that bright, yellowish star? That’s Vega in the constellation Lyra. Lyra is one of the three constellations that

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  • By The Salmon River

    1–2 minutes

    The water pulls in all directions, folding and unfolding, layered with white foam that spreads like spider-webs. It flickers against the cedar trees, painting dappled sunlight over their trunks, bathing them in the same milky quality as light threaded through fog. And on the shore there are fine-haired stalks of cow parsnip, and spiraled bracken

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  • Oregon’s Native Edible Berries And When They’re Ripe

    3–5 minutes

    One of the best things about summer is harvesting local berries! There are so many here in Oregon that I had to narrow it down to some of the best tasting and most common. Let me know if you try any of them, and always be careful when eating wild foods—if you’re not 100% sure

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Learn more about Francesca Varela's novels