This week, we’ve dealt with smoke from the wildfires in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota and Canada drifting down to infuse our air with haze, pollutants, odors, and sometimes ash. Our air quality index was as high as 500, as it was last night. Just so you understand the scale, 00-50 for an air quality…
Please do something to help our pollinators! Stay tuned this week, Pollinator Week 2026, to read about pollinators, their plight, and what we can do to help them. Since my article in 2021, I’ve become a Certified Pollinator Steward through Pollinator Partnership, planted three native beds, moved to a more rural and Northern Climate, and…
We returned from Scotland last Sunday after two weeks of being abroad in this gorgeous country. It was a great trip with a lot of walking, hiking, and sightseeing, visiting Fort William, the Isle of Skye, Inverness, and Edinburgh. I hope to write more about it soon. I did accomplish a Medium.com article earlier this…
As many of you already know, I’ve been creating native gardens for bumblebees. This project started in February 2023 when I took a course from Pollinator Partnership to become a certified Pollinator Steward. The process ends when I make a community presentation on my habitat and the type of bees it is attracting. I plan…
There was always an indication of the end of summer when I was growing up, and it was our town’s Fireman’s Carnival. All the towns in our area had them, and we went as a family to several. There was always a parade with marching bands and firetrucks from the host town, as well as…
Knowing only politics makes us ignorant. My husband was the one who saw the news brief on his phone yesterday morning. He told me that a wildfire had destroyed the lodge at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and that part of the park was closed. Searching my phone and social media, I couldn’t…
Happy Poetry Friday! This week’s round-up is hosted by children’s author and poet Buffy Silverman on her eponymous blog. Thanks for hosting Buffy! My husband and I spend May 28th – June 3 in three of our National Parks. We first went to Yosemite for four days, followed by Sequoia and Kings Canyon for two with…
It’s Friday again! How the heck did that happen? Time just moves too fast! Last week, we brought home a trailer load of boxes that had been in storage since our move to the cabin in 2022. We meant to get the totes out before now, but – as you know, life happens. When I…
If you’ve followed my blog for any time, you’ll know that I’ve been an active monarch conservationist for the last 25 years. Over that time, I’ve taught hundreds of community members and thousands of school-aged children about the Monarch Butterfly, their life cycle, habitat, and migration. For me, trends in monarch conservation have come and…
One of the things I learned about when I worked at a local land trust was spring ephemerals. Going into the job, I didn’t know much. I knew a lot about other topics, but spring ephemerals had escaped my attention. After I worked at the Mississippi Valley Conservancy in 2019, I learned to look for…