October 29, 2026
I’ve never been great at book clubs, preferring to choose my own books for my precious reading time. But being new in town, I was open to a book club experience when I heard about Denver’s Habitat Library, an organization whose mission is to connect people to nature and to the land where they live through books and outdoor events.
I attended one of their book discussions, about Buffalo for the Broken Heart, earlier this summer and enjoyed it. On Sunday the group met for a habitat walk on the prairie at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, with al fresco readings of Pulitzer Prize-winning author N. Scott Momaday. I liked the idea of a nature walk combined with literature and signed up.
Prairie habitat advocate Beth Lewis, aka @ourprairiegarden, joined me, and we drove over together. At Arsenal, the morning air was brisk but sunny. The cottonwoods glowed yellow, a perfect match for Beth’s sweater.
The group set out on the Rod and Gun Club Loop Trail, stopping often to examine grasses, admire the golden trees, watch birds and deer, and speculate over scat left on the trail. Well, why not? It’s all part of the story of this prairie landscape.
Little bluestem
Grand old cottonwoods
The trees were just about at peak color, with only a tinge of green left.
Grasses incandesced in the sunlight.
It’s a beautiful place for a walk.
These trees!
“Something of our relationship to the earth is determined by the particular place we stand at a given time. If you stand still long enough to observe carefully the things around you, you will find beauty, and you will know wonder. If you see a leaf carried along on the flow of a river, you might ponder its journey. Where did it begin, and where will it end? What will be the story of its passage? You will discover a thousand ways in which the leaf is connected to the water, the banks, the near and farther distances, the sky and the sun. Your mind, your spirit will be nourished and grow. You will become one with what you see. Consider what is to be seen.” — from N. Scott Momaday’s Earth Keeper
We were led by Jeff Lee and Ann Martin, the married co-founders of Habitat Library and curators of around 7,000 books about the natural world. At times along the trail, Jeff paused the group to read passages from Momaday’s books about forging a deeper relationship with the land where one lives.
The first step, of course, is being outdoors. Listening, looking, smelling, touching. Returning to a place again and again to begin to really know it.
Wetland view framed by a bird blind
“Dusk descends on the late afternoon. A flaming sunset has given way to a darkening old silver sky, and the edges of the landscape soften and barely glow. It is the end of summer, and there is a shiver on the leaves and grasses in the waning light. In the dim distance a coyote moves like the slow shadow of a soaring hawk in the long plain. The earth is at rest.” — N. Scott Momaday’s Earth Keeper
More golden trees
Jeff talking about Momaday’s work
Beth coordinating with the scenery
The walk back
The trees looked like King Midas had touched them.
“East of my grandmother’s house the sun rises out of the plains. Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth, I believe. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. He ought to recollect the glare of noon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk.” — from N. Scott Momaday’s The Way to Rainy Mountain
On the walk, I met people whose work lives centered around nature via the EPA, water quality, horticulture therapy, and more.
People who care about the earth, a good group. Kudos to Jeff and Ann for organizing it.
If you’d like to learn more about Habitat Library or participate, sign up for updates at the Habitat Library website.
One last Midas moment on the way out of Arsenal: a belt of golden trees in front of the Colorado Rapids’ soccer stadium. Ka-pow — what a fall this has been!
I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!
__________________________
Digging Deeper
“Gardens of Texas is not your typical door stop/coffee table book filled with beautiful images of gardens you can never hope to achieve. The photography is definitely inspiring, but Pam’s thoughtful, detailed storytelling and “Try This At Home” features…makes one feel empowered to create similar garden magic….This is what I’ll curl up with on late August afternoons when the mercury in Austin soars and I’m stuck indoors.”
–MomInAustin, a reviewer on Amazon
Gardens of Texas: Visions of Resilience from the Lone Star State is here! It’s for anyone who loves gardens or the natural beauty of Texas. Find it on Amazon, other online book sellers, and in stores everywhere. More info here.
All material © 2026 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
