This week I’ve been diligently working on an environmental day presentation for the first-grade classrooms at a local elementary school. Each year, I am asked back to provide a lesson for their earth day celebrations. Three of the topics I’ve presented were Forest Stewardship: Treating our Forests as our Friend, Monarch Life Cycles and Habitat,…
I’m not in the mood to write today. Yesterday, I felt good, as though I was getting over the virus. Today, not so much. I slept almost 12 hours last night. Although I did that occasionally in my youth, I have not slept that length of time in a very long while. I must have…
Inquiring minds want to know, are you a puzzle person? Recently, puzzles have made a re-entry into our life. Although our family always enjoyed puzzles, we had gotten away from doing them. Now, our interest has been sparked once again! We just completed a 1,000 piece puzzle last night and I already have a new…
In my blog post yesterday (I write daily here at The Apples in My Orchard), I wrote about a pair of cardinals that had been visiting our yard. You can check the post out here: Cardinal Story. My poem today focuses on the same pair of birds, just put into a poem. Cardinal Story: A…
We are fortunate to live in an area with many species of birds. There are majestic raptors like the hawks, eagles, and owls we regularly see gliding over the prairies and dry creek beds with an eye out for a rodent meal. Then, there are the songbirds. Over the years I’ve started to love the…
I’ve forgotten how nice it is to talk to someone (anyone, really) about my conservation work for monarch butterflies. This morning I got to do just that for half an hour! I cannot tell you much yet, but I was interviewed for an upcoming article by a conservation organization. This was something that just came…
Yesterday, I did something that I’ve been putting off. If you read my blog regularly, you know we’ve been cleaning out in anticipation of moving later this year. Sometimes cleaning out is easy. You look at something and think, why did I keep that piece of sh_t? Or, sometimes cleaning out is hard. We all…
This morning I went out to meet a past co-worker for coffee and I heard birds singing! Not just any birds…spring birds! I am pretty sure what I heard were robins! Immediately, I started thinking how the return of songbirds might be a better indicator of spring than trusting groundhogs! From these sounds and thoughts,…
Due to writers and authors from all over the world participating in Poetry Friday, which you can read about here, with the host’s link often going live on Thursday afternoon or evening. I am NEVER ready for this. Never! I usually do not think of myself as a literal person but in this case, I…
We tried a new salad for our Christmas dinner this year. Usually, I make a napa cabbage salad with hot bacon dressing that has been our favorite holiday meal salad for years. We just had it at Thanksgiving and usually serving it is repeated at Christmas. But, I wanted something different. In one of the…