Discovering the world around me.
One summer day, I took some letters down to the mailbox to be mailed. The mailbox sits on the edge of the ditch on the far side of the road. Around it grasses and weeds had grown up thick and healthy. I put the flag up to alert the rural mail carrier that there was […]
Continue reading Queen or Killer: Queen Anne’s Lace
Supper on the deck is one of the summer pleasures these days. We sit as the sun goes down and watch the hummingbirds tank up for the night. We listen to the world of noisemakers from sleepy birds to wind in the trees. Because it’s July, the boom and crackle of distant fireworks accent the […]
Continue reading Racket or Rebirth: Cicadas
When I first bought Owl Acres, raspberries and blackberries were growing in wild, unfettered profusion. They dominated the fence rows, covered over the old storm cellar, and edged the woods with brambles that reminded me of Sleeping Beauty’s bramble-covered castle. I thought I’d try harvesting some of the raspberries at the edge of the woods, […]
Continue reading Summer Sunshine: Berries
The lightning bugs are out, lending their own special magic to a June evening. We used to chase them and catch them in a jar when we were kids. We wondered how they could light up like that, and hoped to watch them do it in the jar. I’m afraid our little captives didn’t fare […]
Continue reading Fireflies or Lightning bugs
Years ago I found myself at a gas station just over the Missouri line. It was around 2:00 in the morning, and we needed gas. The driveway of the gas station was literally covered with a writhing mass of June bugs. When we opened the car door, the bugs started coming in, and my dog […]
Continue reading Clumsy Fliers: June Bugs
Snakes have been maligned for literally thousands of years. If we’re talking about the venomous kinds, they deserve it. But of the 28 species of snake found in Iowa, only four are venomous—timber rattlesnakes, eastern massasauga, prairie rattlesnakes, and copperheads. The other day Bryan saw this fellow in the grass near the shop. It’s a […]
Continue reading Friend, not foe: Western Fox Snake
My favorite flavor in the whole world, more favorite than chocolate, or smoked porkchops, or pecans, is cherries. Those big dark Michigan cherries; those spotted Washington cherries, and yes, the sour cherries that grow here. I love to eat the sweet ones by the handful, reveling first in the beautiful shape of them, round and […]
Continue reading It’s the pits: Cherries
Our mulberry trees are about ready for picking. The fruit is beautiful—cone-shaped, about an inch long berries with stems still attached and full of seeds. It is soft, sweet and fragile, a purple that will stain anything it comes in contact with. The flavor is delicate as well. They make lovely pies and cobblers. […]
Continue reading The Fruit of Broken Dreams: Mulberries
Early in the evening on a blustery April day, I heard a bird singing a melodious but changing song. He sang a phrase twice, then switched to another song. I had just been introduced to the song of the brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) and was ecstatic to actually capture its song on this afternoon. The […]
Continue reading Champion Mimic: Brown Thrasher
After I bought Owl Acres, I loved to come out to the country and enjoy the soundscape, barbecue over a fire in an old washing machine tub we found in the fence row, and think about the house I would build. On one of those beautiful summer evenings I invited the kids to come out […]
Continue reading Things That Go Zoom in the Night: Little Brown Bats