Typically, we are quiet people. Rarely is there a television on in our home before 8 p.m. and only occasionally is there music playing. I like the quiet, but I do like the sounds of nature. Recently, we’ve been cooler in the midwest. This is especially true of the temperatures at our cabin this past…
It’s August! The monarch butterfly season is in full swing! Soon, the monarchs we see flying through our yard will be on their way to somewhere else, and it’s not just the next yard! It will be on to the next state, and the next, and the next until they reach the over wintering grounds…
Today is Silent Sunday, a day when I offer my own photographs on a theme of my choosing. There is no permission to duplicate in any form. Thank you!
Last night, I finished reading Butterflies in November by Audur Ava Olafsdottir. It is a novel set in Iceland by an Icelandic author. I found it to be a quirky tale without a lot of plot, but entertaining to read. The ending was awful, as it just abruptly stopped, as if the writer said, “okay,…
In Writer’s Circle, over four weeks, we have worked on haiku, nonets, clerihews, free verse, and now couplets. Out of all of these types of poems, I found my students stymied at the couplets. In part, I think this is because I spent less time explaining them. The poor couplets were squeezed in at the…
Today, I returned to volunteering. In preparation, I watched videos on YouTube, took an online orientation from Monarch Joint Venture staff and familiarized myself with forms as well as how data was to be recorded. I am now an official volunteer for the IMMP or Integrated Monarch Monitoring Program run by Monarch Joint Venture. But,…
The alert went off on my phone. Heeding it immediately, I told my husband and dog. We had to go to the basement. County M and W. Route 108. Stevenstown. I know the area well. It’s not far away. Possible rotation. Green and red pixel colors mixing on screen. Dark storm clouds fill the sky….
A few years ago we let a bordered garden bed in which we used to grow pumpkins and other vegetables go unplanted. I was learning about native plants and the importance of prairies, so I had an idea to let this garden be a mini-prairie patch in our yard. The space is 36 feet by…
Our yard is starting to look beautiful, as it does mid-summer. We’ve been fortunate to have owned three properties in Wisconsin, all with good sized yards. One of these is our cabin, “up north” that sits on a lake. Most of that 2 acre lot is wooded. We’ve never lived there as a primary residence,…
This is pollinator week. July 21st – July 27th, 2021, has been designated as a week to celebrate, learn about, and act to help our pollinators. My hope is that by sharing some information about pollinator week, more people will see the need to take action in the field of conservation. When I was in…