The last few tomatoes from the summer crop had taken turns ripening slowly on the kitchen counter over the fall. Every year when the first frost comes on, I harvest all the tomatoes, red and green alike and lay them out on the counter. The ripe ones don’t last too long — salads and sandwiches […]
Tag Archives: community
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,We learn from all your beauty;O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,We learn from all your beauty.Your bright green leaves with festive cheer,Give hope and strength throughout the year.O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,We learn from all your beauty. ~ George Strait Tales of sacred plants — and their keepers […]
“The amount of contamination that plants can remove from aquatic environments depends on the amount and type of pollution, the plant species used, and the size of the floating wetlands.” ~ Susan Cosier When I was a kid in Texas, we used to go out to farms and ranches owned by our dad’s clients. My […]
“For those that might still claim that skyscrapers are symbols of progress, the evidence is clear they now represent progress towards societal collapse.” ~ Architects Declare Growing up in Texas and spending time in Oklahoma, I saw that our big cities tended to be predictably alike — tall buildings in the center amid a […]
It was windy and cold with constant rain alternating between sprinkles and torrents. Walking on Cannon Beach was not particularly comfortable, but watching the waves from the fireplace in our vacation rental house’s living room by was pretty great. If you go to the Oregon coast in November, you must expect early winter weather, and […]
Quite a mix of birds has collected around the bird feeders outside our kitchen windows this year. The Chickadees and Juncos vie with the House Finches, Nuthatches and occasional Sparrow for a place at the trough. Lately, the big birds – Robins, Doves, Flickers and Jays – have become more aggressive in getting their share. […]
Bird hunting in Texas involved covering a lot of ground, pushing through brush and mesquite, following behind the dogs looking for quail. We wore brush-resistant pants and jackets, but still ended up with plenty of scratches and cuts. We tried to avoid the prickly pear and cholla, but the dogs were hard to control. My […]
“Blue spaces are outdoor environments, either natural or manmade, that feature water prominently and are easily accessible to people. They can be anything from an ocean coastline, river, or lake, to a town pond, a harbor, or even a fountain. They are the aquatic equivalent of green spaces, a subset of the broader concept of […]
“Plastics typically are made through human industrial systems. Most modern plastics are derived from fossil fuel-based chemicals like natural gas or petroleum; however, recent industrial methods use variants made from renewable materials, such as corn or cotton derivatives.” ~ Wikipedia “Indeed, a recent study in the journal Science, authored by the researchers associated with the Pew report, estimated that some 11 million metric tons of plastic […]
“We should design man-made objects and products in such a way that we’re not destroying the resources, but that we’re basically borrowing them for a certain amount of time … And that we can take them out in their pure form and put them back into the system.” ~ Professor Dirk Hebel, Karlsruhe Institute of […]
Writes of Nature 