Discovering the world around me.
On a frigid evening in late winter, I love to sit in my favorite chair beside a blazing fire in the fireplace. Dave lies on my feet, and I revel in the warmth, and the popping, fizzing, roaring, chuckling, murmuring of the fire. The wood we’re burning is a mix of things gathered from downed […]
Continue reading Teeming with Life: Hackberry
One day last fall, we were making a batch of apple wine from apples we’d harvested from our tree. We mixed the must, put in the apples, and set the buckets on the basement floor where it’s cool and out of the way. Within minutes, a column of ants was lined up to harvest the […]
Continue reading Super Women: Carpenter Ants
There’s an old shed on Owl Acres. It has board and batten siding, and a dirt floor. It’s in need of paint. Many creatures lived in that shed during the time we were away. Firewood was stored there along with other things. With the possibility that the firewood might contain some undesirable elements, we were […]
Continue reading Unto Dust: or, Powder Post Beetles
There’s an amazing, sophisticated, and unwelcome creature who has made its way into the house. It’s not very big—only about half an inch long. It’s sitting on the kitchen counter. It’s looking around with its astonishing set of optical tools, contemplating its universe. Without warning, a giant dome comes from nowhere and traps the creature. […]
Continue reading Audacious Hunter
On a bright Indian summer day, we took our tandem bicycle to a nearby rail trail for a 20-mile bike ride. The trees had begun to turn, and the combines were out in the fields harvesting the corn. Along the trail we saw squirrels on personal business, a snake basking in the sun, a confused […]
Continue reading The Weather Forecast
Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys) Harvest is underway, and the nights are getting colder. All the little creatures, including stink bugs, are looking for someplace to spend the winter. A few have managed to get into the space between the windows and the screens, and one or two have made it all the way […]
Continue reading This Stinks!
Tomato Hornworms, Hawkmoths and Parasitic Wasps Early last spring, my sister gave me an heirloom grape tomato plant. I hadn’t done anything about a real garden by then, but had a space next to the front porch that I thought would do. I planted it, and it began to stretch and grow in all directions. […]
Continue reading Monsters in the Garden
Black Walnuts Fall has arrived on this early October day. Standing in the yard I hear several walnuts tumbling through the branches and plopping softly in the duff of fallen leaves and grass beneath the tree. As I walk through the yard, they squish and squirm beneath my feet. Owl Acres is studded with black […]
Continue reading The King of Nuts
Broad-Winged Tree Crickets It’s 10:00 on a late summer evening. Dave and I are out for the final walk of the day. The soundscape is complex and varied, with individual crickets here and there and a background of buzzes and whirs of katydids. The cicadas have gone to bed, but one other sound dominates the […]
Continue reading September Night Song
One Sunday in late August, an amazing ballet grabbed our attention. In the front yard a swarm of dragonflies whizzed around, filling the air from three to 50 feet above the ground. Outlined against the bright afternoon sky, we watched them hunting, each dragonfly pursuing its own quarry. What were they hunting? Closer inspection revealed […]
Continue reading Hunters’ Ballet