Springfield Art Museum

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I’ve been to the Springfield Art Museum several times. There are new exhibits often enough to make it a great activity anytime but particularly on a hot afternoon or a rainy day. I always enjoy seeing the Chihuly piece (glass) in the foyer and Anne Lindberg’s tilted sky (Egyptian cotton thread stretched over a hallway) again.

The first gallery we walked through had appealing vessels – my two favorites are the ones with wavy decorations that reminded me of prairie grasses/flowers.

I experimented with different perspectives of the fountain in the courtyard. My favorite is probably the most magnified…the way the water flattens and swirls once it makes the leap from above.

In another gallery, ceramic swirls caught my attention. Some were 3-D spirals…others more complex interlocked curves.

As we walked outside, we noticed the plantings done to control erosion now that the renovation along Fassnight Creek has been completed.

A butterfly and ladybug were enjoying them too!

Every visit to the museum includes something new – new exhibits or just noticing something that I didn’t during the previous visit.

Neighborhood Ponds – May 2023

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There is always something to notice/photograph during a quick walk around the neighborhood ponds. This month was the first time I saw a turtle outside the ponds. It was on the side of the walkway away from the pond but pointed back toward the pond. Had it already laid eggs?

Further along, I spotted a large snapping turtle swimming just under the water…didn’t manage to photograph it until it stuck its snot out of the water near the shore. I wondered if this turtle decimated the ducklings (i.e. I only saw them once so there was a predator in the pond that got them within a few days). A large snapping turtle could be that predator.

My favorite sighting of the morning was a bullfrog. It was soaking up the sun in some very shallow water. Somehow it still managed to look grumpy and a little intimidating!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 27, 2023

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

See the Breathtaking Ocean Life Found at Deep-Sea Vents – A short video is included…worth watching.

Exploring the underground connection between trees – Trees, fungi, and other organisms…all interdependent but not guided by a common purpose.

Vibrant Fungi Photos Capture the Beauty of Nature and Nostalgic Memories of Foraging for Mushrooms – Images to savor.

Traces of a Neolithic Road Discovered in the Adriatic Sea – Stacked stone slabs that connected a settlement to a man-made island…now under water.

Shifting sand spits – Gauging climate change in a high-altitude watershed.

Air pollution from oil and gas production responsible for $77 billion in annual US health damages, contributes to thousands of early deaths, childhood asthma cases nationwide – Another reason to dramatically reduce the burning of fossil fuels. It’s not just about climate change.

An ‘Epidemic’ of Loneliness Threatens Health of Americans – A mounting problem. Social disconnection has multiple types of cost: economic, health, poorer academic achievement/work performance.

The ocean is hotter than ever: what happens next? – Probably more extreme weather and marine heatwaves…problems for marine life from corals to whales.

Cleanup of inactive Gulf of Mexico wells estimated at $30 billion – The life cycle costs of the fossil fuel industry are much greater than we’ve ever paid (i.e. we haven’t generally paid for clean up costs as part of the cost of fossil fuel based products)…the bill will eventually have to be paid.

Photography In the National Parks: The Invitation of An Intimate Composition – Good tips for more than National Parks! It’s a special kind of landscape photography!

13 'The Spell of…. ' (eBooks)

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The Spell of… books were published in the early 1900s by L.C. Page and Company of Boston – travel books with a few colored plates and drawings…more photographs…of the places they are about. Often the endpapers have scenic drawings. I’ve selected 13 that I have browsed recently for the slice of place and time they represent.

Mason, Caroline Atwater - The Spell of Italy (1909)

Hallays, Andre - The spell of Alsace (1919)

McCrackan, William D. - The spell of Tyrol (1914)

 Anderson, Isabel - The spell of Japan (1914)

Addison, Julia de Wolf - The Spell of England (1912)

Call, Frank Oliver -  The Spell of French Canada (1926)

 Mills, Enos A. - The Spell of the Rockies  (1911)

Call, Frank Oliver - The Spell of Acadia (1930)

McCrackan, William D. - The Spell of the Italian Lakes (1918)

 Mansfield, Milburg Fracisco - The spell of Algeria and Tunisia (1924)

Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium

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The Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium is next to the Bass Pro Shops National Headquarters in Springfield, MO. It’s a place we passed by frequently over the past year but had not toured; the visit from my sister was a good prompt to finally buy tickets!

My main interest was the Aquarium but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the museum portion – history of hunting, fishing, and conservation with sculpture, taxidermy animals/models in realistic habitats, paintings, artifacts (fishing lures, taxidermy versions of ‘largest’ bears, boats). The animal exhibits were a much-improved version of the Natural History museums I toured as a child and I found myself picking up details of the scenes….enjoying them more than I would a zoo where the animals so often look stressed and uncomfortable.

The aquarium has a living fish, of course, but there were also models of animals too. The sperm whale with giant squid was one of the first that I noticed. There were models of different kinds of sharks on the wall – making it easier to notice the shape and size differences.

One of the larger tanks had a ‘shipwreck’ theme. I took a few pictures as we walked through the aquarium areas. The octopus tank seemed small for the animal…hopefully there was another space that gave it more room to move about.

The jellyfish were probably my favorite exhibit. Their shape and movement are somehow calming…and I’m always surprised at how different they can look.

There was also a smaller exhibit with different kinds of coral.

Toward the end of our tour, there was an area for lesser flamingo and a great egret. It was relatively dark. I liked the picture I took of the egret…but I wondered if the birds were rescues since a dark habitat is not what I associate with these birds. Earlier on we had seen some great horned owls that were rescued birds. Their habitat allowed them to be well away from the people and they seemed calm enough…but probably very different than they were in the wild.

Overall – an interesting place but I’d rather be outdoors. Next time we have someone visiting, I want to visit Dogwood Canyon Nature Park.

Fantastic Caverns

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Local sightseeing prompted by a visitor from out-of-town visitors….we did it a lot when we lived in the Virginia-DC-Maryland area between 1983 and 2022…and we are doing the same now that we live near Springfield, MO. I’ll be posting about some of the places we shared with our guest.

Fantastic Caverns is north of Springfield. It’s a ride-thru cave so works for people that aren’t sure they want to walk a lot. It was discovered during the Civil War (by a dog and then the landowner) but kept secret until after the Civil War. It has always been privately owned (including the land above the cave). The ride-thru tours started in 1962 and have helped preserve the formations – keeping them in view while reducing the risk of people touching them.

Picture taking is allowed and the lighting – while not overly bright – is enough to get interesting images. I used the ‘night scene’ setting on my camera; it worked well when the tram was stopped (since it takes multiple images and then stacks them in the camera for a final image).

There were fossils visible in the ceiling at one stop: starfish and crinoids (Cheerio looking nodules).

Outside there were trays of popcorn for the squirrels and birds between some of the tall trees (popcorn was available inside for people)…

And the peonies were beginning to bloom.

We didn’t hike the trail down to where the water exits the cave this time.

We bought a season pass since we thought we might come back to do the hike and enjoy the cave again.

Lessons learned for us:

  • We were there for the 9:45 tour. When we returned there were a lot of students there (a great field trip for the end of school…and it might be for summer camps as well). We’ll go early when we go next time. They open at 8 AM.

  • It’s a viable activity for a rainy day (if it hasn’t been raining for a long time…the cave has flooded occasionally over the years).

  • The cave is 60 degrees year round….a good activity for a hot summer afternoon!

Lake Springfield Boathouse Meadow

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The two Purple Martin houses near the Lake Springfield Boathouse are very active; there are always birds visible from the balconies. The houses are in the mowed area close to the boathouse and parking area – convenient for the birds to swoop over the meadow or out over the lake. It is very challenging to get the eyes visible with the dark coloring of the feathers!

A little further along the path and across from the meadow...there are periodic bluebird houses. One of the houses was being used by a tree swallow…another by an Eastern Bluebird that was still supplementing the nest inside.

The multiflora roses were blooming under the trees….a non-native plant that was promoted years ago, but is now generally viewed as invasive.

The meadow was mostly green….with a few plants beginning to flower The milkweed was up but not yet blooming.

I was glad I had by bridge camera with its optical zoom to photograph some insects. There were a few butterflies, but I didn’t manage to photograph any of them; they seemed to be moving about in a frenzy.

Many of the places where water makes it way down to the lake have scoured banks…the water trickling through the bottom of a ditch except right after a rain when the banks are eroded making ditch deeper/wider. There was one that was different with lots of vegetation on the banks – not eroded at all. I wondered if it was a new route for the water.

My phone and Bluetooth remote shutter control were used for some macro shots.

I was glad the boathouse had a small store since I had forgotten my water bottle. The day had started humid and a little cool, but the sun was out and the temperature rose pretty fast – an excellent morning to observe the meadow (glad we didn’t wait for the afternoon).

Macro Photography – May 2023

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The flowers I brought inside in May made great subjects for macro photography with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S10E) and Bluetooth remote shutter. The irises were my favorites. The translucent petals with prominent markings remind me of chiffon fabric. I also like the fuzzy ‘beard’ that looks like a caterpillar, the gentle color (pink and purple in thise case), and the curves.

The alliums lasted longer in a vase than the irises. They were also harder to photograph; it a challenge keep enough in focus with the magnification.

The pine limb that I cut was also long lasting. I liked the greens and yellows and browns. The stem between the needles was shaggier than I anticipated.

There were a lot of breezy days in May which reduced the opportunities for outside macro photography; but I did manage two shot shoots. The first was a flower (vine) in my daughter’s garden. It came up on its own, planted by a previous owner to climb the arch of their garden gate.

The second is the young Kousa Dogwood planted in the front of our yard. The blooms are smaller than I thought they would be. I liked that the ‘petals’ are tinged with green.

Overall – it was a good month to remember that I have the equipment for macro photography with me almost all the time…and it is easy to use!

May Yard Work

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There is a noticeable uptick in yard work in May….always something to do. The temperature is warm enough – and there is sufficient rain – for the grass to need to be mowed (weed eating/edging) weekly. Most of the time my strategy is to do the front yard one day and the back the next. In the back I am realizing it was a mistake to plant alliums in the grass since they are not done yet….so there is a patch of taller grass along with them.

There was one week that had a lot of rain in the forecast, so I opted to mow everything in one day before the rain. I took a little break after I used up the batteries…only a little left to go and I needed some down time anyway. When I started again, the most robust pine in our yard was in my path. When I bumped it – yellow pollen swirled through the air – and I diverted to give it wide berth. Some of the grass near it did not get mowed! The allergic reaction didn’t start until somewhat later – one of the worst of the year so far; I didn’t even realize I was allergic to pine pollen until now.

One of our other pines is problematic. It is leaning toward other landscaping and our house – the ground freshly heaved upward. The arborist says it can’t be saved so they will come soon to take it down.    

Both rose bushes appear dead. They are older but the landscaping fabric/rocks were added by the previous owner before she put the house on the marker and they might have caused them a problem. I’ll start cutting them up and burning the sticks in my chiminea fire pit soon – a better solution than cutting them up and taking them to the recycling center (yard waste) since the thorns making handling hazardous.

I cleared away rocks and landscaping fabric from an area and planted sunflowers, black eyed susans, cone flowers, gladiolus, and a wildflower mix in the big plan and some mini-pumpkin seeds in a smaller area nearby.

I sprinkled the area with spent flowers and empty edamame pods as a kind of celebration of the bed after I finished. I’ll be collecting seeds from the things that grow this year (except for the gladiolus) to plant in other areas next year. Creating places to plant has been hard  work (rock is heavy and landscaping fabric is tough).

Realizing that the weight of the rocks might be a problem for some of our other plants, I raked rocks away from the small cedars that have looked sick from the beginning. And there are more plants that might need the same help. Always something else that needs to be done in the yard!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 20, 2023

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

These four challenges will shape the next farm bill – and how the US eats – Thought provoking. Will the author’s dream priorities for investment (organic agriculture as a climate solution, infrastructure to support vibrant local and regional markets and shift away from an agricultural economy dependent on exporting low-vale crops; and agricultural science and technology research aimed at reducing labor and chemical inputs and providing new solutions for sustainable livestock production) be funded….or will Congress stay entrenched in continuing agriculture as it is today.

The Energy Revolution in 5 Charts – 1. The energy transition is a technology revolution (it’s not a brown to green caterpillar…it is a caterpillar to a butterfly; we are moving from a commodity (fossil fuel) to technology-based system). 2) The renewable revolution is exponential, not linear (and we are at or past the knee in the curve). 3) The renewable revolution is led by China (with the US and Europe recently enacting policies to compete). 4) This is the decade of change (exciting times for heat pumps, electric vehicles, solar, and wind). 5) By 2030, the debate will be very different with the renewable revolution obvious to all.

National Park waterfalls being honored on US Postage Stamps – Beautiful places. Would like to see (and photograph) more of them!

The Camouflaged Looper: This Inchworm Makes Its Own Flower “Costume” – Another reason to take a closer look at flowers….the small creatures that might we living (and munching) there!

Our tropical fruits are vulnerable to climate change. Can we make them resilient in time? – The work to help our food plants tolerate and thrive with climate change. The post is specific to Australia but has applicability elsewhere. Techniques have already been successfully applied to chickpeas to make them more drought resistant, survive higher temperatures, and produce better yields!

Commercial Rooftop Solar on Warehouses Could Power All of Them – Commercial rooftop solar on America’s warehouses could provide 185 TWh of clean renewable energy every year. Hurray! Power produced near population centers where it is used….and avoiding taking farmland for solar panels (unless the plan is to grow crops under the panels).

Water arsenic including in public water is linked to higher urinary arsenic totals among the U.S. population – Not good…and water pitcher type filters do not remove it…..it takes reverse osmosis, activated alumina, or ion exchange (anion) resins to do that.

Fashion World Remembers Mary Quant, the Miniskirt Pioneer – I was old enough in the ‘60s to remember wearing Mary Quant type dresses!

How do you stay optimistic in spite of it all? 6 hopeful souls share their secrets – Thought provoking…maybe we all need to think about the ways keep ourselves positive….not let the pessimism around us overcome us.

The clean energy milestone the world is set to pass in 2023 - Greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector, the largest source of the world's emissions, are expected to fall for the first time!

George Catlin eBooks

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George Catlin is well-known for his portrayals of Native American customs and individuals in the mid-1800s – at a time they were already being impacted by European cultures but were still living in much the same way as they had in the past. I have featuring 4 Catlin books available on Internet Archive; there are more than these four…all worth browsing. The books blend history and art!

O-Kee-pa : a religious ceremony; and other customs of the Mandans (1867)

Illustrations of the manners, customs, & condition of the North American Indians V1 (1876)

Last rambles amongst the Indians of the Rocky mountains and the Andes (1868)

Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium (1852)

George Catlin also published Shut your Mouth (also available from Internet Achive) based on his observations of Native American practice of encouraging nose breathing over mouth breathing…and that their teeth were always straight. He is quoted: “there is no person in society but who will find... improvement in health and enjoyment..." from keeping his or her mouth shut.

Windowsill Photography

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I enjoy flowers in tall narrow vases on the windowsill in my office. Recently – the contents have been alliums and iris from my garden. I decided to try some creative photography with them on a couple of mornings when the sun shines through the window for a short time. The alliums made some interesting high key images even if the screen showed in some of them.

I opted to take advantage of a ‘sparkle’ effect that the screen caused for two images. Sometimes it’s fun to just use the artifacts created by the camera’s response to the environment as a creative prompt!

I took a picture of an iris bud that was outside with water droplets – on the other side of the screen….more sparkles!

Now for the iris…lovely colors and curves. I like to zoom enough to fill the frame with the flowers. This is the my first time for pink irises; the previous owner planted them on the west side of the house….not visible from any window but lovely to cut and bring indoors.

The two photography sessions satisfied an urge to do something a little different than my normal flower pictures….and reminded me how much I like my office in this house!

Finding Puzzles

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My parents have seemingly gotten more adept at finishing puzzles this spring. For the past decade they have been enjoying working on jigsaw puzzles on a high table in their garden room; they can work standing or sitting…and enjoy the view of their garden/birdfeeder outside the windows. There is always a partially assembled puzzle on the table. They began to get frustrated this year; the 1000-piece puzzles were taking too long so they asked that we skew the mix toward 500-piece puzzles. Now that my sisters and I have done that – they need more of puzzles! They are completing more than one per week even with their increased activity this time of year outdoors and away from the puzzles.

Last time I was in Carrollton, they were completely out of puzzles they had not assembled previously.  I bought 8 and they are still working on those but I am being proactive – buying 8 more. I happened to find them on sale at CVS and used all the coupons I had…so the price was good. And I like the pictures. One of my sisters will pick up the baton for the next round…but we must pick of the pace of our acquisitions a little. The puzzles are a great way to add some mental challenge to their daily routine!

My sister is saving a lot of the puzzles – storing them in her attic – for when she gets older. Maybe my sisters and I will enjoy them when we are in our 80s and 90s!

Wouldn’t it be great if libraries could organize to checkout puzzles just like they do books?

Rhododendron

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We’ve never had a rhododendron before….so I watched the buds carefully this spring at our new home in Nixa MO…wondering when they would open. I already knew from seeing rhododendron in public gardens and in other yards that it would be the “plant of the month” whenever it bloomed. May is its month!

The buds opened very quickly once they got started! I went out after a light rain one warm afternoon about a week ago…and found that many had opened…and flowers were unfurling.

The plant is between two windows – with the wall that is the gas fireplace on the inside making a bland background. Now the remaining question is - how long the blooms will last? There still seem to be a lot of buds that haven’t opened.

Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge in April 2023

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I was on my way home from Carrollton when I stopped at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge shortly after 7 AM. I stopped in a pull off to get my camera handy…planning to use my car as a blind for some bird photography. Looking up as I finished my preparation, I saw some Northern Bobwhite…realized I would have never seen them in the grass if I hadn’t been stopped already.

A red-winged blackbird was displaying – flashing his colors and screeching.

There are always a few Great Blue Herons…year-round residents.

The egrets (great and snowy) were in breeding plumage. I wondered where they were roosting (and maybe raising young).

There was a white-faced ibis getting breakfast.

Later in the drive, I saw a group of the birds in the reeds along with some Northern Shovelers (I was surprised that the shovelers had not already left for their nesting grounds in the north).

A flock of long-billed dowitchers were feeding in the shallows – probably refueling before continuing their migration.

The morning light was good for some zoomed images of vegetation as well.

My favorite image of the morning was a snowy egret with a pensive stance. The morning light caught the patterns in the water.

Next trip to Hagerman when I go to Carrollton in May, I’ll visit the native plant garden near the visitor center (spend a bit more time on plants).

Springfield’s Artsfest

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Last weekend we enjoyed the Springfield, Missouri Artsfest. My daughter has enjoyed it in years past and I’ve been on the receiving end of some of her purchases; we missed it by about a month last year when we moved to the area in June. So – we anticipated a great spring outing this year.

The day we went was forecasted to get to the high 80s, so we chose to go in the morning before it got too warm. There were enough people around to make it a festival but not too many to impede browsing the arts. Artsfest is held on a street with older houses that are now businesses and (Missouri State University) student housing. Food trucks and canopies for artists lined the street (that had obviously been closed to traffic). It was a great opportunity to buy local!

We wandered all the way down the row enjoying the artists on the right side then worked our way back as we looked at items on the other side. I bought some earrings for myself right away…before my daughter reminded me that she intended to buy my Mother’s Day present at the fest!

She bought the next pair from an artist that upcycles glass; the glass I the ones I bought is from a jam jar!

My husband bought a turned wood plate for my daughter and son-in-law (they seemed very drawn to it…we were happy to indulge them)!

I found am stainless steel yard ornament that I plan to give to my mother next time I go to Carrollton. I chose to get one with pink speckles to pick up the color of the oxalis and hydrangea in her garden.

After a little more than an hour at the Artsfest, we made the decision to find a restaurant rather than getting something from the myriad of food trucks and sitting on a curb to eat it! Overall – an excellent outing!

Later in the day, the Allen, Texas mall shooting occurred. It put a damper on the joy of the day. We are reminded again and again that mass shootings are unpredictable…can happen anywhere (evidently more frequently in the US than anywhere else in the world, and more frequently when there are few/no limits on guns). Thoughts, prayers, and more guns aren’t reversing the trend. If something does not change dramatically, we will eventually modify the way we live to make ourselves less vulnerable (i.e. not gather in larger groups, order items to be delivered rather than shop or go to an Artsfest, interact differently (or not at all) with anyone we don’t know)….a dystopian vision for the future.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 13, 2023

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The chemistry of the coronation crowns – Not included in other reporting of the coronation in the UK…

Surging Brain Activity in Dying People May Be a Sign of Near-Death Experiences – An observation that surges of gamma waves occurred in the brain of two comatose patients when they were taken off life support and their heart stopped. Not enough evidence yet to know if this is a mechanism that happens more frequently at death…but it is an intriguing possibility.

A special omega-3 fatty acid lipid will change how we look at the developing and aging brain – Perhaps something that will develop into a treatment to help sustain myelin sheaths of our nerves better as we get older.

The puzzle of Neanderthal aesthetics – More evidence that Neanderthals might have been capable of the kind of complex symbolic concepts and behaviors that characterize our own species.

A Brighter Future for Attwater’s Prairie Chickens – Native to the coastal plains for Texas and Louisiana. Overhunting (commercial markets and shooting contests), land development, fire ant invasion…by the 1990s, fewer than 100 birds remained in the wild. Captive breeding began with some success. Hurricane Harvey wiped out nearly 90% of the wild population in 2017. Landowners have enlarged the habitat available to the birds…and there are now at about 250 wild birds.

Busts Provide New Insight into Spain’s Tartessos People – Carved of stone…dated to 5th century BC. Not much is known about the people except that they were goldsmiths.

Supreme Court Slaps Down Fossil Fuel Companies — Five Times! – Good news….the power of litigation as a tool for climate action can continue to move forward.

People who think positively about aging are more likely to recover memory – There is a power in positive thinking!

What causes the scum on tea? – Calcium and bicarbonate ions are the culprits. Adding lemon juice can be the cure!

Six ways to lower your carbon emissions quickly – The easiest one for me is to not fly; my husband and I haven’t flown for the past few years (since before COVID-19)!

Mound City Glass (historical catalog)

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The 1889 catalog of the Mound City Glass Company in St. Louis, Missouri showcases ornamental glass offerings. They did beveling, sand blasting and embossing….as well as having a stock of plate glass.

Catalogue from the Mound City Glass Co.

 Old catalogs reflect the availability and popularity of wares…become a historical record of consumerism of the period. In the late 1800s, the country had a wide range of housing from sod structures to the first skyscrapers. People needed windows to provide light inside those structures so improvements in plate glass production during the 1800s was welcomed. The type of glass produced by the Mound City Glass company must have been popular for anyone with enough money to purchase it…letting light in along with providing a decorative element.

There isn’t much information about the company other than the catalog. The address on the catalog was in downtown St. Louis…maybe the offices/showroom rather than where the glass work was done.  I assume that the ‘mound city’ in the name came from Cahokia mounds which are on the eastern side of the Mississippi across from St. Louis. There are places in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and South Dakota named Mound City; the one in Missouri is on the other side of the state - north of Kansas City close to the Missouri River; the one in Illinois is in far southern Illinois on the Ohio River which is their border with Kentucky; it doesn’t seem likely that either one would have been the location of the original manufacturing facility.

Carrollton Yard – April 2023

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I took pictures between rain showers…tended to do zoomed images because it was too breezy for macro photography. The irises were past their peak…but there were still plenty to photograph.

What a difference light makes! The two images below were taken less than a minute apart with clouds moving rapidly through the sky.

The glass orb among the oxalis and Queen Anne’s Lace just missed being spotlighted in the same situation!

Other flowers were blooming as well. The white daisies were photographed with different lighting…but enough to freeze their movement caused by the breeze.

It was still cool enough for roses to be blooming too.

Of course – there were the ‘always there’ subjects…dandelions and red yucca pods.

Overall – lots of beauty in the yard to photograph…cool temps and rain made it a little harder to be out and about.

Pocket Prairie/Josie Ranch

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When I was in Carrollton, Texas in late April there were a lot of rainy days…but I managed a brief visit to the Josey Ranch area one morning. The Pocket Prairie area suffered last summer and the gardeners have done work to restore it this year. A bluebird was sitting on a post as I got out of my car…a great start to my visit.

A few flowers were beginning to bloom. I could tell that the rain garden area was planted to be better than ever.

When I retraced my steps toward the car, I noticed Canada Geese in the distance: a pair with 5 goslings! Hopefully everyone will give them space…avoid being attached by the parents!

The lake seemed relatively empty…between seasons. There was a Great Blue Heron preening in the shallows. The cattail area that had dried out last summer seems to be back to its normal watery condition.