Design

I don't always have as much of a chance to visit our wonderful natural areas in the Blue Ridge Escarpment and Western North Carolina as much as I'd like in spring.  It's a busy time for programs, classes, and school field trips. But our botanical gardens, parks, and close-by 'semi-wild' places have a lot to offer, too.  There's usually a lot of nature in your neighborhood, if you look for it. The Children and Nature Network (an offshoot of Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods and just now featuring his recent book The Nature Principle ) has been promoting activities for folks to get out there and be involved with nature.   There's a lot of good to be had in being outside and connecting with the natural world. Let's get out there and play.

I've been having a blast in my CU Field Ornithology labs (it's great to not have the id quizzes count for a grade).  But it's also been great to go out in the Garden with Patrick McMillan , the new director at the South Carolina Botanical Garden. It's so valuable to be able to focus on learning about birds (and listening to their songs and calls) with folks who can help you distinguish between the Chipping Sparrows, Pine Warblers, etc. that are tough to figure out, without practice.  I'm practicing! We're picking up new migrants in the Garden everyday, as well as departing winter residents, singing their songs (ruby-crowned kinglets are a good example). It's well worth taking advantage of birding excursions, botanical forays, or any other excuse to get out there to connect with nature.

It's a delight to share full moons with others.  It's a gift to follow the phases of the moon, however you can see it.  At the Garden (where I work), I like to do a lovely walk through the meadows (at dusk), drop into the forested areas near the stream (as it becomes dark), and emerge up to the Arboretum just about the time the moon rises. We catch glimpses of the full moon as it rises, through the trees, and if it's clear enough, see the full moon from the meadows. It's magical.

Time away and then an earlier-than-expected family visit have rearranged my routine over the last few days. But it was a good time, and the raised bed gardens are growing vigorously without my attention. I'm hopeful of LOTS of tomatoes;  there are many large green fruits, so I'm anticipating a good harvest this summer, but you never know. Beets and swiss chard continue to be stand-outs and the squash is flowering and the beans are growing rapidly.  I'm looking forward to fall beets;  the young spring beets and their greens have been so delicious, I can't believe that I haven't figured out how to grow them successfully before. (Basically, it's deep fluffy soil in the raised beds and plenty of water and nutrients...not the usual 'tough love' gardening approach that is my usual mode.) Thankfully, afternoon and evening thunderstorms have brought ample rain, so with added water for seedlings and greens, it has been a good spring (now summer). We're lookin...

Hummingbirds have been seen for weeks around us, but not one had stopped by our feeder until today. Perhaps we missed early scouts simply by being at work or elsewhere, but it was great to hear the familiar chhirring-chip of a hummingbird this evening. It almost seemed like he/she (I didn't get a good look) was looking for the feeder that normally hangs on the crepe myrtle near the potting bench, but that's probably fanciful thinking. Shortly thereafter, I saw him/her visiting the porch feeder, just before flying up to perch in the big oak, a favorite hummingbird circuit. The photo posted above was taken last summer at the venerable Campsis radicans -covered arbor that overlooks the terrace at Biltmore House, in Asheville, NC.

I have a very old sweatshirt with these words (Ralph Waldo Emerson's) accompanied by an embroidered leaf on the front. I was poking around today on previous blog posts to see if I'd written about this quote before. It turned out that I had referenced it in this post , which reminded me of a magical morning seeing spider webs in the Garden. And that experience was 2 1/2 years ago. This quote is on my mind again, as I'm percolating thoughts about a newsletter piece about using cool apps, software, and digital technology to enhance nature observation and appreciation. I'm totally convinced that direct experience and observation of nature is what's most important and compelling; what I like about current technology is the ability to learn more easily and immediately, complete with visuals and/or audio, whether it's at my study desktop (most often), or through some other sort of digital technology. My guess is that our ability to learn about nature and natural hi...

It was a lovely and mild fall day (exceptionally mild, to be sure, for the end of October). My morning 'work' involved taking new SC Master Naturalists around the Garden for a couple of hours. Woo-hoo! I wasn't behind my computer in the office (darn), and I was delighted with the opportunity to share the Garden with these folks. Gardens are wonderful places for people to connect with nature in a friendly place (ours is almost 300 acres and includes not only managed gardens, but also woods, streams and ponds, meadows, and an arboretum). And gardening is more often than not a portal into an expanding interest in nature and wildlife. Birds, butterflies, bees, toads, garter snakes, woodchucks (hmm), rabbits, beneficial insects, other insects, etc., etc. visit a wildlife-friendly garden. Natural habitats have become more and more fragmented and disturbed, so our wildlife-oriented gardens, especially those that are full of native plants, become important connections between...

Fall color, red berries, and seasonal change were the themes of a fall color walk last week. Family groups, surprisingly, made up most of the audience. I was totally delighted to see this photo , from photographer Jessica Nelms from upstate.today (Seneca Journal/Daily Messenger) on the front page of the print version of Friday's local paper last week.

How much green do you need? I know I need a lot. Visiting with a friend today, who's looking forward to a move to a wonderful area that has a summer-growing climate (unlike our practically four season one), she said that she might be quite happy in a condominium or a townhouse, if she could grow vegetables in a community garden. This was premised on being surrounded by easy access to public green space. It's totally appealing, to be sure, especially with LOTS of green space, natural or created. It's thought-provoking; I wonder whether my gardening companion and I (as two plant ecologists) would have been inspired to become gardeners, if we hadn't been faced with an acre and a half of (soul-deadening) lawn when we moved to South Carolina. It was a pretty barren environment: for us and any other sort of wildlife (birds, mammals, toads, butterflies, dragonflies, mice, etc.) In a previous research life, I studied the biology of weedy species, partly I think, because I w...