Okay. We’ve been feeling like it was here for weeks, but the truth is, it only officially became summer on June 20 with the summer solstice. The ‘longest’ day of the year, with the sun at the most northerly latitude (The Tropic of Cancer) marks a change of season, although weather-wise, summer seemed to come much earlier this year.

I’d never seen anything like it. Fields of flowers surrounded by green grass. Native bison (commonly called buffalo) grazing nearby – not eating the
flowers!

It seemed odd. Coming as I did from western Oklahoma, I was used to the way that cattle ate everything in sight, munching grass and flowers alike down to the very
roots unless the animals weren’t moved on to another pasture.

But bison don’t eat wildflowers. And so, a sure sign of a …

Whoa – trees don’t have knees! Do they?!
Yes, and these trees with knees are known as baldcypress. Their knees are limbs that protrude from the ground, not roots. The baldcypress is actually in the same tree family as the giant redwoods!

Leaf cards are an easy way to begin to learn how to identify the different species of trees in your yard or around your neighborhood. This is part 2 of our first summer Arts and Crafts project, Leaf Cards. (See the blog post on June 11 for Part 1, if you missed it.)

A seer? What exactly does that mean? Here is a passage from Thoreau’s Walden that gives me a hint.

Green leaves are everywhere! And if you haven’t noticed, leaves from different types of trees look entirely different! Today’s activity is the first of a two-part activity. It is both an art activity and a lesson on tree identification.

My brain is hard at work designing a blog with lots of good content for those who love nature and… Read more Blog Details

Have you ever seen a wild cat? This elusive creature is capable of slipping away into the twilight so that you wonder, did I see that? Was it really there?

Images of summer are all around us now. And many great writers have shared their images of summer with the world. Read on…

“In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenest against Natre not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven
and earth.” – John Milton, Tractate of Education

“Summer afternoon – summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two …

Today marks the beginning of summer on my calendar – what about yours?