As the coronavirus pandemic ushered people into their homes, worlds contracted to the ecosystems contained within four walls and whatever nearby landscapes one might encounter on a walk. Confinement didn’t quash curiosity, though, and many people became diarists of their own humble, local wildernesses. Some chronicled the way that buds gave way to flowers. Others picked up binoculars and met the neighborhood birds. More humans logged interspecies encounters on the iNaturalist app last year than ever before. Many of us doted on houseplants, but probably not the way that Solomon…
