Pilgrim at Topanga Creek (Google Books ⧉, Amazon ⧉, Bookshop ⧉)

The Tortilla Curtain

There, in the silence of the empty house, Delaney worked out the parameters of his monthly column for Wide Open Spaces, a naturalist’s observations of the life blooming around him day by day, season by season. He called it “Pilgrim at Topanga Creek” in homage to Annie Dillard, and while he couldn’t pretend to her mystical connection to things, or her verbal virtuosity either, he did feel that he stood apart from his fellow men and women, that he saw more deeply and felt more passionately—particularly about nature.