Saving Bees

My garden is a hang-out for bees of all kinds — honey bees, native bees, carpenter bees.  I love watching them going about their business and am glad to help out keeping them fed.  Bees are important pollinators.  Pollination is essential for most of our food crops. 
The honey bee population has dropped dramatically in recent years, and scientists [...]

Monarch Watch Spring 2009 Open House

My friend Deb buys some tropical milkweed at the Monarch Watch Spring Open House at the University of Kansas on May 9. Monarch Watch Director Chip Taylor, at left in the yellow hat, and many volunteers were busy as the crowd snapped up the pollinator-pleasing annuals and perennials. The sale is a fund-raiser for Monarch [...]

Earth Day 2009

 This is one of my first posts on this blog, first published April 19, 2008.  I’m re-cycling it, in honor of Earth Day on April 22.   It is still a good, somewhat patched-up, usable post with some wear left, I hope. 
The economic meltdown since I wrote this has focused more attention on cutting back, recycling, making-do, re-using, [...]

Bush Fires in Australia

My heart goes out to the people of Australia as thousands of acres burn, taking the lives of more than 200 people and millions of animals.   A few weeks ago we visited the beautiful state of Victoria, the air fragrant with eucalyptus and other exotic perfumes.  The aromatic oils that produce the delicious fragrances are also what make [...]

Orange Sulphur Butterfly on a Sunflower

Here’s a bright scene for a cold winter day.   An Orange Sulphur butterfly sips nectar from a sunflower in a field in September.  The field was mowed a few weeks later, and the remaining short stubble is brown and lifeless, showing no sign of the lively community of insects, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds that once lived there.   A [...]

Monarch Butterflies Complete Annual Migration to Mexico

Dec. 3 – Millions of butterflies have found sanctuary in Mexico as they complete their annual migration from North America, according to a Reuters News report.
The Mexican government has plans to massively expand the sanctuaries in the coming years, according to Monarch Butterfly Reserve Director, Concepcion Miguel Martinez.
A news video about the [...]

Awesome Utah

 

A thunderstorm rolled in, splashed Zion Canyon with a little rain, and soon transient waterfalls streamed in narrow ribbons down the sheer walls of the canyon.

Not much can top the Grand Canyon in Arizona for an awe-inspiring example of geology, but southern Utah comes close.  It’s one awesome view after another.   Sorry for the adjectival pile-up, but it’s incredible, monumental, [...]

Autumn Leaves

“Autumn Leaves” was one of the songs I had to learn to play when I took piano lessons as a grader schooler. It was torture! Not because it was a bad song — it’s gorgeous — but because I have two left hands when it comes to making music.   
I make better music with my camera. [...]

Batty About Birds, Bees and Butterflies

 
My enthusiasm for bees sky-rocketed last year when I discovered that I wasn’t getting any squash, because I had no bees to pollinate them.  I had to do the job myself with an artist’s paintbrush.  My harvest? Ten squash.  I’m a terrible match-maker! It’s easier to attract bees to do the work.  They know what they’re doing. [...]

It’s Not Easy Being Green

 
This is the Year of the Frog.  Although it’s late in the year, it’s not too late to raise awareness about the serious problems facing amphibians.  Scientists believe that one-third to one-half of the earth’s 6,000 amphibian species, which have thrived for 360 million years, are in danger of extinction.
Habitat destruction is one serious threat, [...]