Throughout the winter you may have your eye on some of the most well-known year-round resident Passeriformes – also known as perching birds and songbirds. These may include the Black-capped Chickadee, Northern Cardinal, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Blue Jay. You may also observe several varieties of woodpeckers including Downy, Hairy, Red-bellied, and Pileated. But there may…
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If you didn’t feel it already, November marks summer’s end with the holiday Samhain (pronounced Sow-wen). This is the time of year when you bring in the last of your harvest – all that will sustain you through the dark months ahead – hopefully. What are the things you need to help you weather the…
I eagerly admit that the America Crow (Corcus brachyrhynchos) is one of my most favorite birds. Lumped into the order Passeriformes with other songbirds, they form the Corvid (Corvidae) family in which they share with Ravens, Fish Crows, and Blue Jays in the Commonwealth. Crows are not only clever, they have demonstrated intelligence. They use…
Ah, summer! As the days heat up delightful floral scents permeate the air. And some of the most delicious scents are coming from roses. My favorite is the beach rose (Rosa rugosa), a squat, deciduous shrub standing 3-6 feet tall, in the family Rosaceae, having dark green leaves, and flowers ranging in color from white…
“Here, I pray all day long and with my whole body, for my limbs are a moving benediction to the Holy Wild.” ~ Danielle Dulsky, The Holy Wild It’s true. I bit into the forbidden fruit. I even dipped it in forbidden honey, fresh from the wild hive, outside the garden, but within tantalizing reach.…
Humans are Part of Nature On a scientific level I think many of us humans have come to recognize that we are part of Nature; that we exist only because the circumstances meet the needs of oxygen-based lifeforms. But on so many other levels we consider Nature separate – either wilderness to protect from us…
Queen of the Fall She is no monk, hiding her face from the sun; her hood brazenly pushed back daring you to come in closer. Though she is the bane of every living mammal she stands defiant in the face of death. Frost covers her cloak yet she breathes in the waning light. She presides…
Autumn is about letting go; being present in the release. You don’t forget the past; you let go of its hold on you, and it becomes mulch for your growth. The Law of Return You can learn quite a bit about your own processes by looking at Nature’s processes. Flora consume nutrients throughout the growing…
Monarch lovely Queen of the Fall you have more strength than you know. Savor the bounty of Autumn’s harvest and allow yourself to rise in the heady scents of goldenrod and aster for sweetness powers your wings. Aloft, you fly on a scrambled trail still you make sense of the chaos and create beauty as…
Heroes and villains are in the eyes of the beholder and the writer of the story. Guy of Gisbourne, notorious villain – right? Morgaine of Avalon, evil sorceress and half-sister to King Arthur – her legacy was lost in the mists – correct? Whose stories are written down and saved is determined by those in…