I don’t get many phone calls, but for the third time in two days, I just received another sales call from some solar company. I support solar power and had actually looked into getting it for our house at one time. I went through the calculations and talked to a salesperson. But we live in […]
Category Archives: family
“So, what’s it like working in a uranium mine?” I asked my neighbor. The neighborhood block party thirty-five years ago was in full swing, square dance music blaring, and the beer from the local craft brewery keeping things lubricated. “Well,” he replied, It’s kinda spooky sometimes. There are some areas where you can feel the […]
A recent study found that having too much idle time makes us just as unhappy as not having enough free time. The research … examined the relationship between our overall life happiness and the amount of discretionary time we have … For people who have jobs, the sweet spot of discretionary time is 2.5 hours […]
I remember the photo on the front page of the Fort Worth newspaper. You’ve seen it. It depicts the first day of integrated school in Mississippi or Alabama in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. Three small black girls in pristine white dresses walk with determination through a crowd of angry white people who were […]
“… the idea of a green awakening seems to be taking root … The concept appeals to a new generation of better-educated Pakistanis, and it has sparked excitement on social media.” ~ The Washington Post (2018) “The level of forest loss we saw in 2019 is unacceptable … 2020 was supposed to be the year […]
“When we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy.” ~ Herman Hesse It starts up sometime around 5:00 am, and continues through the morning. It’s most likely a robin — the shrill whistle/chirp that comes in sets of […]
Out the window I see a flight of swallows, swirling around in a column hundreds of feet high. I suppose they are chasing some small flying bugs caught in the tornado-like updraft, but to me, it looks like they are having fun. Facebook and the internet are full of animal photos and videos, showing the […]
As a kid, I was scared of lots of things. Sometimes, my older brother “worked with me” to overcome my fearfulness by scaring me at unexpected times. He might creep up on me while I slept, grab me by the throat and growl. He might sneak up on me during our Saturday night “Midnight Monster […]
Growing up, I was encouraged to “clean your plate!” It usually wasn’t a problem, my mother was a very good Southern, country cook and we ate well, even when we didn’t have much extra money. My older brother and I were big and had big appetites. One year, when we were in high school. our […]
“Considering that birds provide more than US $1 billion worth of pest control and pollination services annually to US farmers alone, healthy agricultural schemes that promote healthy farmland birds will be essential for securing “wins” for both people and nature.” ~ Christopher E. Latimer and Christina Kennedy Our bird feeder is a joy to watch. […]
Writes of Nature 