Shortly after moving into our house — over forty years ago — we created a vegetable garden that stretched across the entire width of the back of the yard with a wire fence to keep the dog out. There were a couple of elderly rose bushes that we removed to other parts of the yard, […]
“Two Roads diverged in a yellow wood…” ~ Robert Frost When I was a kid we spent lots of time hunting and fishing on farmland or ranchland owned by my father’s Texas clients. We’d fish in the farm ponds, man-made reservoirs sometimes big enough to swim or boat in, but mostly serving to water […]
I was a little surprised when my wife complained about my grumpiness recently. I know I’m about to turn 75, and I can’t do some of the physical things I used to, I forget stuff frequently, and most mornings I ache when I get out of bed. I admit that I also feel that the […]
The summer camp I attended in central Texas had special events for returning campers. My brother and I were regulars each summer, maybe only partly due to the fact that our uncle Bob was one of the camp operators and lived on site at Inks Lake. In college, he and our father had been on […]
Our yard tends to be shabbier than most of our neighbors’, even now that we use a regular mowing service. Dandelions proliferate, and crabgrass competes with the clover. However, for the most part, it seems to be healthy, if not too closely managed. The crabapple and sand cherry trees, and the lilacs, butterfly and bridal […]
Visitors are common in our town. Situated along the Front Range with plains to the east and mountains rising suddenly to the west, Golden is divided by Clear Creek gushing out of the mountains and sheltered from the Denver metro area by two mesas to the east. On the west side, big Lookout Mountain has […]
Reporter Justine McDaniel talks about air pollution: “A rising number of Americans — nearly 2 in 5 — has been living with unhealthy levels of air pollution, while the United States experienced a record number of days between 2020 and 2022 with very unhealthy or hazardous air, according to a new report … More than […]
If you get too excited, “Just take a slow deep breath,” they say. The sense of cool, clean air entering our lungs has a calming effect on anyyone. But what if the air we breathe is neither cool … nor clean? The BBC’s Melissa Hogenboom reports, “Emerging studies show that air pollution is linked to […]
When I was in junior high, we moved into a new house much larger and nicer than the one I grew up in. It had a bigger yard and my dad installed a couple of dog pens for his birddogs. My brother and I had to mow the yards, but on my dad’s instructions we […]
Well, it’s late April, nearly Earth Day, and I think that Mother Nature is just showing off. It’s been pretty mild this spring and we’ve really enjoyed the massive blooms on the crabapple and the small, scatteredblossoms on our very old, very tall pear tree. Many of the shrubs are just coming in bloom. But, […]
Writes of Nature 