“For gardeners, this is the season of lists and callow hopefulness: hundreds of thousands of bewitched readers are poring over their catalogues, making lists for their seed and plant orders, and dreaming their dreams,” ~ Katherine S. White, A Romp in the Garden, The New Yorker Magazine Every winter the Nichol’s Garden Catalog arrives to […]
Think of the cave drawings that tell a story or capture a moment from some year BC. Someone meticulously scratched images on a rock wall to immortalize the event. Men with spears, mastodons, cave bears, big cats or buffalo tell the tale of a hunt and survival. Later, colors were added to better and more […]
“Wild thing (bam, bam bomp!) You make my heart sing (bam, bam bomp!) You make everything … groovy.” ~ The Troggs My sister reports from San Antonio that she has made friends with a neighborhood possum. She occasionally puts food out for it, mostly leftovers of some kind. Possums are omnivores, so they eat […]
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark!” ~ Hamlet by William Shakespeare I’m not sure how I started composting. Maybe it was just a result of not wanting to have stinky things in the trash so I didn’t have to take it out so often. I also dislike the idea of raking up […]
I caught movement from the corner of my eye, and saw numerous shadows cross the trees and yard. Sometimes when that happens, it’s troubling, like seeing a shadowy figure in the night. A few beats later, I saw the flock of geese fly low over my house, and if the windows had been open, I […]
They are scattered around town in vacant lots or overgrown, undeveloped tracts: The characteristic white box, about three feet square and maybe somewhat taller, is spotted where there’s plenty of sage or other floral shrubs. I never know whose hives they are, but most seem to be well tended. A couple of times over the […]
“The idea behind agrivoltaics is simple: use the ‘empty’ space beneath solar panels to grow stuff.” ~ Gabe Allen and Tyler Hickman On the hills above my town, there are some solar panels placed in the grassland. I’ve noticed that in spite of the panels, the shaded areas are full of vegetation that periodically require mowing. […]
“Two bees or not two bees, that is the question.” ~ Apologies to William Shakespeare’s Hamlet One of the most important species for continued human and animal survival upon the Earth is a small, flying insect that buzzes around our heads and can sting us painfully — the bee. Conservation Specialist Stefanie Steele notes, “Our […]
“I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss …” ~ Elton John, Your Song When I’ve been in downtown areas, particularly in the summer, I try to walk on the side of the street in the shade, since the temperature on the sunny side rises considerably. On the other hand, in the […]
I try to be diligent about keeping potential recycling materials out of the trash. We compost non-meat or -dairy food wastes and use it for our gardens, and our town provides bins for recycling as part of our routine trash collection. Among my weekly chores is taking out the trash, recycling and compost. I do […]
Writes of Nature 