Antonia Malchik

On a short, easy hike with a friend last week we saw all kinds of delicate, quiet bounty emerging, including one of my favorite native plants, the lovely Arrowleaf Balsamroot.

Holland Creek running out of Holland Lake, Montana All wild waters have a different flavor.

Making tracks next to Black Bear’s in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Montana.

Sergeiv Posad, outside of Moscow, Russia, winter 2005 My father recently sent me a photo from outside the apartment he and my stepmother share in Moscow.

Alpenglow somewhere near home, Bald Eagles somewhere nearby Recently, I stopped at the county landfill to tip my recycling into their dedicated bins.

–or none Bohemian Waxwings’ New Year’s Eve feast: Mountain Ash berries Nearly two decades ago, I had a premature baby.

The North Fork of the Flathead River, northwest Montana.

Bison Bison, free-roaming Buffalo, eastern Montana When I was in sixth grade, ten years old, my family moved briefly to Chico, California.

Lower Two Medicine Lake, Blackfeet Nation, Montana, host of the 2025 black/death metal music festival Fire in the Mountains Some years ago when I still lived I upstate New York, I began working at a sawmill.

True wealth lies in the freedom to roam, and the freedom to leave—and survive.