Couldn’t resist. It’s Leap Day!

And that only happens every FOUR years. It is our way of correcting our calendar, and using up the solar time that we have not been able to fit into the usual 24 hour per day, 365 day per year
calendar. (Those pesky 6 hours of day each year have to be added together and put someplace!)

So, what does it all mean? Simply put, we are synchronizing the calendar year with the astronomical or seasonal year. …

Ooooh, I’m almost too late for this one! The Bradford Pears are blooming and so are the native crabapples. There is
color in the woods, and in our yards, and it’s not even MARCH!

I wanted to talk to you about Eastern Red Cedars! They are the ‘christmas’ trees that grow so easily throughout Oklahomak, adding spots (or blotches) of green to our otherwise brown winter
landscape. Snow drapes on their branches, and little birds flit in and …

“Being aware of the splendor of the seasons, of the natural world, makes us understand man’s critical need for wild places. Living with familiar
things and moving in the seasons can fulfill that profound need common to us all: a sense of place.” – Jo Northrop, Country Matters

I can sense it. Spring. I feel it in the rustling of the wind and the warmth of the sunrays. I smell it in the air, and see it in the blooms of …

I’ve always been lured to the mystery and romance of the Old South. Half of my brain accepts that the Old South is no longer there, but half of it is
consumed with the idea of ghostly plantations with stately buildings and beautiful gardens. In February 2011, I had the opportunity to visit the Old South and actually spent the night on two
former plantations. The experience was, in some ways, bittersweet for someone with the mind of a …

I have an alien penpal. I don’t know what that penpal looks like. I don’t even know if “it” is male or female. “It” has never seen Earth, doesn’t really know what our mountains are, or oceans, or grasslands. “It” has never been to Oklahoma. But I have learned that my alien penpal has five sense – can see, smell, touch, hear and taste. I have learned that our languages are the same – they actually speak English.

“For each home ground we need new maps, living maps, stories and poems, photographs and paintings, essays and songs. We need to know where we are, so that we may dwell in our place with a full heart.”
Scott Russell Sanders, “Buckeye”
“The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust, “Remembrance of Things Past”
I’m passionate about Sense of Place.

As a nature lover, I struggle with desert. Of all the types of ecosystems, I find the least beauty there. What is there to love about desert? So, I’ve put my own theory to the test. Can I “connect” with desert, when I find little of beauty or attraction there?

Nature prepares creatures for the cold weather. In my earlier post on Winter Survival, on January 18, I focused on survival facts, interesting behaviors and physical characteristics that keep animals alive in the coldest months.
We put on heavy clothes, snuggle into our houses, and consume warm/hot foods and drinks. Likewise, animals of all kinds do the best they can to survive. Here are more interesting survival tricks.

“Perhaps I am a bear or some hibrnating animal underneath, for the instinct to be half-asleep all winter is so strong in me.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
So true. When it is dark and cold outside, in late November, December and January, all I want to do is put on warm sweaters and cozy up to a roaring fire in the fireplace. Add something that warms my insides as well and I’m happy, and half asleep.

If you were living in northern Oklahoma during February 2011, you remember “The Blizzard. ” Just over three years before, we had the Ice Storm of 2007, when thousands of residents lost power for days and days. Power was lost during the 2011 Blizzard, too, but the biggest thing about the blizzard was that many of us couldn’t even get out of our driveways after 14 inches of snow overnight on Jan. 31/Feb. 1.