Time for another round of “What’s the Difference?” Maybe you’ve always wondered about something in the natural world, two things that seem to be so
closely similar – why do they have different names?  Let’s investigate.

What’s the Difference between a TORTOISE and a TURTLE?
Actually, they are both turtles, the only shelled reptiles. Turtles have been around for about 18.5 million years. The
seven basic kinds of turtles are mud and musk turtles, pond and marsh turtles, …

“Nature, as we know her, is no saint.” – Henry David Thoreau, Essays

Any writer knows that there are only a few possible major conflicts available when writing fiction: Man against Man, Man against Himself, and Man against Nature. Only within the last
fifty years or so has mankind in the developed nations of the world truly been able to insulate himself/herself from the power of nature. We rarely encounter animal predators, we maintain
temperatures for our comfort, and food is (for the most part) readily available. …

Along the same line as last Friday’s post on National Parks – today’s post is about some of my favorite Oklahoma Parks; one of them is a
former National Park, while another is a federal Wildlife Refuge.

The Chickasaw National Recreation Area, near Sulphur, in east central Oklahoma, used to be a National Park. But just because it no longer is doesn’t mean it’s not worth a visit.
Once famous for it’s ‘healing waters’ the 640-acre site adjacent to …

I walk, drive, run, jump and play on the earth all day every day, but how often do I look, really look, at the ground beneath my feet?

As a child, I learned the basics of geology. (Do you remember learning about sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rock?) I learned about our planet’s core, and the formation of the continents, and
maybe something about earthquakes and volcanoes. The teacher probably talked about how soil forms and how rivers change their paths over time, how lakes and even …

Today I borrow part of a poem, author unknown. It was read as part of a eulogy for a wonderful friend of mine who passed
on earlier this month. Carol Eames was the first Education Curator at the Tulsa Zoo. She touched the lives of numerous adults and children alike in her work there, as well as during
her volunteer efforts after her retirement in 2000. She was a compassionate, intelligent, caring woman who stood up for …

The United States has an amazing system of National Parks! These special places offer an opportunity to visit unspoiled nature – to camp, hike,
boat or just enjoy nature’s majesty! I’m a big fan of National Parks – a legacy that was begun by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872 with Yellowstone National Park. President Woodrow Wilson
signed the National Park System into being in 1916, and a long legacy of preservation and conservation began.Most individual states also …

Time for more great information on what’s happening now in the skies above and on the earth below, with full-blown spring all around us!

SPRING SKY –
MidnightSun – By mid-May, the Sun is up 24/7 at all latitudes above 70 degrees north. It will not set until September!

SolarEclipse – The annual eclipse of the Sun will occur on May 20; it will be visible from China, Japan, the Pacific, and western North America.

…

“We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been
traveling is deceptively easy; a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. the other fork of the road – the one “less traveled by” – offers our
last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of our earth.” …

Am I still in Oklahoma? This thought had to have been in the front of my mind the first time I ever made it down to the rugged forested land in the
southeastern corner of Oklahoma, the corner that is close to Texas and to Louisiana as well as Arkansas.

There, in the midst of the Ouachita National Forest and the Kiamichi Mountains, near the McCurtain County Wilderness Area,  lies a magical place on Lake Broken Bow known as Beavers
…

Okay. We mostly don’t like them. They have six legs, and overall, they are annoying. But this week, let’s look past all that. Just for a moment,
remember that many insects are beneficial. They pollinate our fruit trees and vegetables. Without them, our food choices would be much less colorful, not to mention that we would have no nuts
or berries. And the other good thing, they mostly eat EACH OTHER! Just one more reason to keep …