Springfield Conservation Nature Center

I took a short break before the Homeschool Fair started last week to look at the plants around the Springfield Conservation Nature Center building. My favorite was probably the American beautyberry! The location was the first place I saw beautyberry when I moved to Springfield. Of course, there were other fall blooming plants and some seed pods as well.

Inside the building I noticed the Mushroom photography exhibit.

I didn’t have enough time look more thoroughly at anything….maybe I’ll make another visit in a few weeks.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 17, 2026

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.

10/06/2026 Smithsonian Magazine New Research Shows That These Ancient Egyptian Servants May Have Been Brutally Sacrificed and Buried Alongside Their Pharaohs - Forensic research has identified deliberate and fatal wounds on skulls from simple grave sites near First Dynasty royal tombs in Upper Egypt. by the beginning of Egypt’s Second Dynasty, around 2730 B.C.E., subsidiary graves had all but disappeared.

10/06/2026 Planetizen NYC’s landfills will soon overflow — expanding them invites health risks -New York City’s trash will exceed its landfill capacity within 16 to 25 years. The landfill is already the single largest source of methane emissions in New York state.

10/06/2026 Yale Environment 360 Caribbean Nations Have Installed Twice as Much Solar as Official Figures Suggest - In the Caribbean, energy shocks are particularly pronounced as island nations with little in the way of fossil fuel reserves are heavily dependent on imports. Renewable energy offers a cheaper alternative. Across the Caribbean, people have installed roughly twice as many solar panels as official statistics would suggest. A new report calls on countries to make it easier for new solar installations to connect to the grid.

10/03/2026 Clean Technica Texas PUC Greenlights Coal Plant Closure & Renewables Construction - The Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) ruled that Southwestern Public Service Company (SPS) can proceed with closing its Tolk coal plant near Lubbock and constructing renewable energy and battery storage to provide reliable, clean electricity to Southwest Power Pool customers. When Tolk closes, it will save abundant water in a drought-prone region, millions of ratepayer dollars, and eliminate millions of tons of harmful pollution every year, making rural West Texas a healthier place to live.

10/03/2026 Science Daily Vitamin C linked to fewer deaths in blood disorder trial - In a phase 2 trial of people with precancerous or low risk blood cancers, daily vitamin C did not slow abnormal cell growth, but it was linked to favorable changes in inflammation and fewer serious complications. An exploratory follow up also found fewer deaths among participants taking vitamin C than among those receiving placebo.

10/2026 Archaeology Magazine A change in Fashion - Ken Hill stands out from the otherwise flat terrain of Norfolk County on England’s east coast. The site is now recognized as having yielded the greatest assemblage of prehistoric jewelry to have been found anywhere in Europe. They may be evidence of a society-wide ritual of retiring an old-fashioned symbol of authority by burying it.

10/07/2026 The Conversation Rising seas threaten the world’s migratory shorebirds - Among the 37 studies that we examined, 21 predicted negative impacts of sea-level rise on shorebird habitats such as declines in habitat area or quality, while 17 predicted negative impacts on shorebird populations or individuals such as decreased survival or abundance. Sea-level rise is expected to drive substantial habitat loss at many sites of international importance for migratory shorebirds. These include San Francisco Bay and Humboldt Bay in the United States, the Colorado River Delta and Marismas Nacionales in Mexico and the Yellow Sea region in East Asia, each of which supports 150,000 to more than one million shorebirds annually. Urgent action will be required to preserve shorebirds and their fascinating migrations for generations to come.

10/7/2026 BBC Future Inside an active Antarctic volcano, gentoo penguins are flourishing with climate change - The global population of gentoos increased by around 11% between 2013 and 2020, with more marked increases along the Western Antarctic Peninsula at 23%. A suite of traits help gentoos deal with climate change. They're not fussy eaters – unlike their two closest relatives, they'll switch their diet from krill to fish and back again depending on what's around. And if their eggs are destroyed by a sudden flood or a freak snowstorm – something growing more common with climate change, Lynch notes – they can simply lay more eggs. Despite its eruptions and industrial past, Deception Island remains a unique wildlife hotspot. The outside of Deception Island is one of the most stunning amphitheaters of penguinness that we have in the Antarctic.

10/7/2026 Clean Technica The Solar Century: Landmark Moments in the History of Solar Energy - Since the creation of the first silicon solar cell 70 years ago, solar leaders have been innovating, improving efficiency, lowering costs, and growing this American-born technology into an essential part of our nation’s energy system. In 2025, solar and storage accounted for 79% of new electricity generating capacity added to the grid, and the industry employed over 260,000 Americans. In May of 2026, solar energy generated more electricity than coal for the first time in American history.

10/7/2026 Smithsonian Magazine A Ship Carrying Stacks of Ancient Dishware Sank Off the Coast of Turkey 2,100 Years Ago. Its Ceramic Cargo Is Still Remarkably Intact - Stacks upon stacks of plates; bowls; and trays purpose-built for different foods, such as nuts, fish and soup. The amphorae were probably made on the Aegean Islands, while the bulk of the plates and bowls were likely manufactured in the port of Rhosus, now the Turkish city of Arsuz.

Life Magazine in 1951

Continuing my look at Life Magazines on Internet Archive….

As I looked at the issues from 1951, advertisements reflected products like Coca-Cola, Mounds candy bars, Bell telephone, airline flights, Life Savers candy, Alice in Wonderland movie, cat food, Avon cosmetics, penicillin by Merck, and Chrismas ads for eggnog and 7Up. There were pictures of construction, the beginning of an avalanche, Yellowstone in winter, the Dalai Lama traveling before he left Tibet to live in India, Korean war, Peary in the Arctic, and A-Bomb tests. They were all part of what the publisher thought was newsworthy in 1951!

Life Magazine 1951-01-01 - Cotton stockpile

Life Magazine 1951-01-08 - Coca-Cola through 65 years (advertisement)

Life Magazine 1951-01-15 - 50 year ago – Spindletop in Beaumont, TX

Life Magazine 1951-01-22 - Cinderella never had it so bad (outside London)

Life Magazine 1951-01-29 - Mounds Coconut (advertisement)

Life Magazine 1951-02-05 - Castle Geyser new Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park

Life Magazine 1951-02-12 - Career girl, 1965 (Bell Telephone advertisement)

Life Magazine 1951-02-19 - Jungle Gardens in Louisiana (swampland refuge)

Life Magazine 1951-02-26 - Glow of A-bomb explosion

Life Magazine 1951-03-05 - Air pipeline to Korea

Life Magazine 1951-03-12 - Young avalanche in the French Alps

Life Magazine 1951-03-19 - Pumpkin-like house

Life Magazine 1951-03-26 - Dark days in Iran after premier’s murder

Life Magazine 1951-04-02 - Blooms in central California

Life Magazine 1951-04-09 - Grandma flying (TWA advertisement)

Life Magazine 1951-04-16 - Delaware Memorial Bridge construction

Life Magazine 1951-04-23 - Dalai Lama traveling

Life Magazine 1951-04-30 - Modern church design

Life Magazine 1951-05-07 - Refugees in China

Life Magazine 1951-05-14 - Peary’s fellow discoverers at the North Pole

Life Magazine 1951-05-21 - Earliest humans

Life Magazine 1951-05-28 - Paratrooper

Life Magazine 1951-06-04 - Worse main street (in Bellevue, OH)

Life Magazine 1951-06-11 - Children in peril (from narcotics)

Life Magazine 1951-06-18 - Pep-o-mint Life Savers (advertisement)

Life Magazine 1951-06-25 - Martha’s Vineyard from above

Life Magazine 1951-07-02 - US House Statuary Hall

Life Magazine 1951-07-09 - Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (advertisement)

Life Magazine 1951-07-16 - After flood, mud (in Kansas)

Life Magazine 1951-07-23 - North Korean soldier reaction to photographer

Life Magazine 1951-07-30 - Paris on her 2,000 birthday

Life Magazine 1951-08-06 - Insects survive by mimicry

Life Magazine 1951-08-13 - Drought cracks Arizona

Life Magazine 1951-08-20 - Festival of Britain

Life Magazine 1951-08-27 - W.R. Hearst – a quiet end

Life Magazine 1951-09-03 - Puss’n’Boots Cat food (advertisement)

Life Magazine 1951-09-10 - California lights

Life Magazine 1951-09-17 - Children without clutter

Life Magazine 1951-09-24 - Fantastic weapons

Life Magazine 1951-10-01 - Largest helicopter

Life Magazine 1951-10-08 - Pelicans at West Palm Beach

Life Magazine 1951-10-15 - Avon Cosmetics (advertisement)

Life Magazine 1951-10-22 - Plasma storage

Life Magazine 1951-10-22 - The wonder of penicillin (Merck advertisement)

Life Magazine 1951-11-05 - Port of New York

Life Magazine 1951-11-12 - Yale’s 250th autumn

Life Magazine 1951-11-19 - Baltimore’s Friendship airport

Life Magazine 1951-11-26 - The American road

Life Magazine 1951-12-03 - Stream pollution – an Ohio creek

Life Magazine 1951-12-10 - First underground A-bomb blast in Nevada

Life Magazine 1951-12-17 - Borden’s Egg Nog (advertisement)

Life Magazine 1951-12-24 - Christmas (7up Advertisement)

Life Magazine 1951-12-31 - Hillside farms in Japan

Linden’s Prairie

I had visited Linden’s Prairie in May 2025 (blog post here). My first fall visit was last week! My daughter was driving so I took some pictures as the roads got more narrow and then unpaved as we got closer.

The asters and goldenrod…a few sunflowers and azure blue sage….were the flowers still blooming (and there were a few pollinators – bees and butterflies).

I was pleased to recognize goat’s rue and lead plant from the leaves! In the springtime it is easier with their flowers.

There were woody plants to observe too: black cherry, winged sumac, and post oak (with galls).

The most numerous was winged (or shining) sumac. Some of the plants still had green leaves…others were already red. The prescribed burns might make them less dense…but doesn’t take them out completely!

It was an hour well spent!

Afterward my daughter and I went out to lunch and there were maples around the parking lot beginning to change color. We’ve had a very dry summer so are anticipating a muted fall.

Later we both had allergies…something that made our eyes and nose very watery. Both ozone and ragweed pollen were high – so it could be that combination.

4th week of Master Naturalist Core Training

The classroom session during the 4th week included lectures on soil, flora of the Ozarks, and fungi. It was the most sedentary class of the whole series, but the lectures were so good that no one complained!

The field trip was to a place than I had not been before – land/home of a fellow master naturalist. The drive in was a clue to the special place that it is.

The topic of the field trip was to learn about invasives. We started with short hike first – noticing the natives…remembering the invasives that we would come back to remove. I took pictures of things we’d leave and the creek that was dry because our area has had so little rain this summer.

The focus was on bush honeysuckle, multiflora rose, and wintercreeper.  I was keen to see how well the Extractigater tree puller tool worked on bush honeysuckle. It works very well although I think the classic model will work for my needs and not be as heavy. The one in the picture is the Big Daddy version with a BigFoot Accessory. We had a big pile of bush honey suckle with roots very quickly using both tools. The Classic works for stems up to 2” diameter….and I order one for me the day after the field trip!

We discussed what we had learned at the end and learned the process used to establish a Conservation Easement on the property…what it meant for the land long term.

A learning experience re invasives and land conservation.

Missouri Evening Primrose Seed Pods

I’ve enjoyed my Missouri Evening Primrose plant all during this growing season….so many big beautiful yellow flowers.

They are past blooming now, but I discovered the seed pods recently – still nestled in the leaves and, at first, looking like some leaves that drifted in.

On closer examination they are winged….and hold seeds inside!

I will leave the rest of the pods in the garden…checking them occasionally to see how they eventually open on their own.

Butterfly House Finale (2)

There were still plenty of butterflies and moths to see in the last weeks of the season in the Roston Native Butterfly House at the Springfield Botanical Garden. I’ll miss the conversations with visitors and the quiet times with the butterflies. This year there were times when it was too busy to take pictures and other times when I decided I just wanted to watch the butterflies fluttering or the caterpillars eating. Now the house is closed, and I am savoring the pictures of the past few weeks.

The weather is saying warm and I have fall nectar plants in my yard, so I anticipate seeing butterflies around my house for a while longer. But we are on the glide path to winter and no butterflies. I often feel that the annual pause in seeing butterflies make their reappearance in the spring more precious.  

Butterfly House Finale (1)

The Roston Native Butterfly House at the Springfield Botanical Garden closed for the season as of last Sunday. There were still plenty of caterpillars even in the last weeks – tiger swallowtails, giant swallowtails, red spotted admirals, black swallowtails, cecropias, and monarchs.

There were a few chrysalises and cocoons too.

During my last two Sunday morning shifts there were about 90 people that visited. It helped that the temperatures had cooled down a little from the 90s earlier in September.

3rd week of Master Naturalist Core Training

The third week of core training focused on volunteering. Two helpers unexpectedly did not show up so the class was a little stressful for me but still turned out to be an excellent class for the students!

I picked up three tables needed for the field trip from our storage unit before the class and they were dirtier (dust and cobwebs) than I expected…so I got help from my husband to get them unfolded and sprayed clean on our driveway the next day!

The field trip was on a Saturday. After a lecture about how the native butterfly house is sustained, there were 4 rotations where the students shadowed a volunteer….as close as we could get to hands on volunteering. The 4 rotations were:

The butterfly house

The caterpillar café – where we all saw lots of caterpillars and plants they need…and I took a lot of pictures

The bison table (which we do as a school program or a table at festivals). The only picture I took was of the front lower jaw!

Rotten logs (which we do on a tarp on the ground or a table – usually at an outdoor event where there will be lots of children)…and always find a lot of critters….and details for logs themselves.

At least one of the groups got to release a tagged monarch butterfly! And several bought some plants that were on sale in the gardens during the lunch break.

2nd week of Master Naturalist Core Training

The second week for Missouri Master Naturalist Core Training focused on ecosystems and populations…particularly water and streams (and riparian zones). The class session started with a gathering outside to play a web-of-life game (note the string). The light was beginning to wane by the time we finished!

The field trip was to a place along Bull Creek south of Springfield. We organized carpools since the road should not be attempted by low clearance cars!

I enjoyed some quiet time after the flurry of activity getting everyone organized into groups and out to their first rotation.

Then I went on a short hike into the woods with one of the groups.

During the last rotation time – another quiet time for me, I noticed some yellow and orange butterflies in a sun filled area and went over to investigate. Sleepy orange butterflies!

I looked around…and almost stepped on the senna – which is the food plant for their caterpillars!

When the gear was brought back from the creek – there was a container with a large dragonfly larva….a great finale for my field trip pictures!

Native American Heritage Celebration

Master Naturalists had 2 tables at the Native American Heritage Celebration that took place on the Wonders of Wildlife parking lot recently. This was my second year to volunteer at the event and much easier than last year since I was only volunteering one shift on each of 2 days (rather than most of the 3 days last year). Some of the core training students got some early volunteer hours at the event as well.

One table was dedicated to bison – with a full table of things made from bison parts. The other table was caterpillars of native moths/butterflies: luna moth, black swallowtail butterfly, and monarch butterfly.

On the first morning of the celebration, I walked around and enjoyed the displays of pumpkins and gourds.

One of the other educational tables was showing the ‘three sisters’ – beans, corn, and squash. They also had some wonderful large sunflower seed heads.

Probably the most dramatic event at our table was the emergence of a monarch butterfly from a chrysalis that had been on the plant with the caterpillars on the last day – and before I arrived. It had flown to a nearby gourd so I still go to see it and take a portrait!

Zooming – September 2026

It was very hot in our area of Missouri in September (near Springfield)…but I still enjoyed being outside for visits to central Missouri and the initial field trip with the Master Naturalist core training class I am helping run. The Roston Native Butterfly House, local parks and my house also offered some interesting subjects to photograph!

Native Tree Identification Workshop (2)

Continuing my collection of tree leaves/twigs….

American Sycamore

Bald Cypress

Black Walnut

Downy Serviceberry

 Eastern Redbud

Eastern Red Cedar

Flowering Dogwood

Hackberry

 Honey Locust

Ohio Buckeye

Osage orange (note the thorn near where the leaf attaches to the twig)

Pawpaw

 Persimmon

Red Mulberry

Sassafras

Short Leaf Pine

 Sweet Gum

Yellow poplar (Tulip tree)

Willow

At the end of the class, it was almost dusk. We walked around until it was dark looking at tree like Bur oak, pawpaw, Osage Orange, and Black Cherry.

As I headed home, it occurred to me that maybe I should have brought my leaf press and put some of the specimens in it since they were probably headed to a compost pile!

Native Tree Identification Workshop (1)

I arrived early enough for a Native Tree Identification Workshop at the Springfield Botanical Garden to take some pictures of butterflies and thistle seed ready to float away.  

The workshop was to start in a classroom and then end with seeing some trees. The classroom was set up with round tables – some with cuttings on them; I chose to sit at one of them with cuttings. The main part of the class was passing around those cutting and I took pictures of most of them!

American Elm

Red Maple

Silver Maple

Sugar Maple

 Black Oak

Black Jack Oak

Chinkapin Oak

Northern Red Oak

Pin Oak

Post Oak

White Oak

 The series is continued in tomorrow’s post…

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 26, 2026

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.

09/22/2026 The Conversation Bangladesh has lost 900 children to measles – a warning to other countries where vaccine rates have slipped - Almost 900 people in Bangladesh are suspected to have died in a measles outbreak that began in March. Most of those affected are children. Vaccines only work if people actually receive them. The science has already done its job: measles vaccines are safe, effective, and have protected children for decades. What’s missing is trust, access, and the urgency needed to close the gap – until that changes, outbreaks like this one won’t be the last.

09/18/2026 Yale Environment 360 Microplastics in Soil a ‘Trojan Horse’ for Toxins - To protect long-term food production and soil health, policy must catch up. We urgently need standardized plastic monitoring, full manufacturer transparency, and risk assessments that evaluate through different species how microplastics interact with co-pollutants.

09/17/2026 Science Daily This popular fermented food may help flush nanoplastics from the body - A kimchi-derived bacterium can bind to nanoplastics under gut-like conditions and may help carry them out of the body. In mice, the probiotic more than doubled the amount of nanoplastics detected in feces, pointing to a surprising potential use for microbes from fermented foods.

09/16/2026 BBC Future To save scarlet macaws, scientists are rescuing chicks from their lethal parents - Scarlet macaws are an iconic but declining tropical bird…and they intentionally starve their youngest chicks. Wild fostering techniques for those rejected chicks might contribute to the faster recovery of some populations.  

09/19/2026 The Prairie Ecologist A Simple Guide to Identifying Red-Tailed Hawks – A one page identification guide.

09/22/2026 NPR Abortion is on the ballot again as post-Roe policies continue to evolve – Again in Missouri - the state's Republican-dominated legislature is asking Missouri voters to overturn the abortion protections they recently supported. The conflicting measures even have the same title: Amendment 3. But while a "yes" vote in 2024 supported adding protections to the state constitution, a "no" vote in 2026 would keep them. (A citizen with a 2024 sign) covered the "YES" on her yard sign with a "NO" made from black duct tape before placing the sign back in her yard.

09/21/2026 Smithsonian Magazine An Armadillo Found in Ohio Is the Latest Surprise in the Armored Animals’ Expansion North. Where Are They Now, and What’s Driving Their Movement? - Over the past decades, scientists have tracked the armadillo’s steady northward crawl, from Texas to wider expanses of the South, Southeast and Midwest. Now, the recent discovery indicates that the mammals might soon gain a foothold in the Buckeye State. The animals moved across the Rio Grande in the mid-1800s, passing from Mexico into Texas. From there, they generally expanded north and east, reaching Louisiana by the 1920s and Kansas by the 1940s. With their strong leg muscles and long front claws, the mammals will root through soil in search of insects and create extensive burrows that can reach several feet underground. This behavior can damage gardens, agriculture, building infrastructure or golf courses. The burrows have positive effects, too. In a 2022 study in Arkansas, researchers used motion-triggered cameras to find 64 other species interacting with armadillo burrows—19 mammals, 4 reptiles, 1 amphibian and 40 birds.

09/15/2026 My Modern Met Amazing Winners of the 2026 BMC Ecology and Evolution and BMC Zoology Image Competition - The photo contest is an opportunity for people in biology to showcase their research to a broad audience. Ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and zoologists worldwide submitted work for the 2026 competition.

09/17/2026 Yale Environment 360 Why Germany Is Building an Ark for U.S. Climate Data - As researchers around the world begin work on the next U.N. climate assessment, fears are growing that the Trump administration could meddle with critical U.S. climate data. In response, scientists are preparing to transfer vast troves of that data to repositories in Germany. In a world where political upheaval is growing, storing data in one place is increasingly thought to be precarious. Assumptions that U.S. government agencies will store data long-term “are proving tenuous at best.”

09/15/2026 Archaeology Magazine Landslide Exposes Pre-Roman Burial in Eastern Italy - A landslide in central Italy has exposed a Picene burial estimated to date to the sixth century B.C. The Picenes are known to have lived near the Adriatic Sea and imported pottery, bronzes, and other goods from Greece.

Cat Photographs from 1929

Sarah J. Eddy’s Alexander and some other cats was published in 1929 with black and white photographs. Many of the pictures are dated by the clothes of people with the cats….or backgrounds. The three sample images I chose could have been taken today. Cats are photogenic! The book is available in Internet Archive and is my eBook of the week.

The author – according to her Wikipedia entry – was a artist, photographer and activist. “In 1894, Eddy wrote and illustrated a short article "A Good Use for the Camera" for The American Annual of Photography. In the article, Eddy concludes that the personal interactions she had with her photographic subjects were as rewarding as the finished images.”

 Alexander and some other cats

1st week of Master Naturalist Core Training

In 2024, I was on the receiving end of Missouri Master Naturalist Training; this fall I am guiding the Core Training sessions…and am the primary point of contact for the 30 students. It is a very different perspective!

Each week there is a 3-hour class on Thursday evening and a 4+ hour field trip on Saturday. The first class was hectic. I was thrilled that I had enough helpers to realize that the bags of materials on the chairs was better than handing the bag to each student as they signed in. There were sign up sheets for bringing snacks for upcoming classes and some volunteer opportunities coming up fast. It was a little chaotic during and between classroom activities – but subsequent classes will benefit from what we were able to get done in those first 3 hours.

The field trip was to Rockspan Farm which I visited last May – reconnoitering for this training. I coached the Nature Journal activity for 4 groups (there were also 3 other activities: karst geology, forest ecology, and dichotomous key for trees). It is very different leading an activity rather than participating! When we started the day there was a concern about it getting too hot by the afternoon (forecast was for the mid 90s) but a breeze and plenty of water helped us through. I didn’t wander far from the gathering area for the beginning and debrief for the activity. There were new plantings of dawn redwoods, bald cypress, southern magnolia…big trees: pecan, black walnut, and hackberry to name a few.

There were a few of the trees with small arboretum signs.

I wondered what the story was behind a stump surrounded by another tree.

The sounds of the water in the river called for exploration in its direction. Several people drew frogs and dragonflies.

I noticed that the opposite bank was scoured…probably during times of heavy rain.

There were not a lot of wildflowers – but there was drama at everyone with insects very active.

The slower pace of the day and keeping to shady areas helped make the heat bearable for me …and I enjoyed just being at Rockspan!

Suburban Savanna – 6

Fall riches abound. Goldenrod is blooming – providing food for pollinating insects. I didn’t cut mine back in June, so it got very tall – fell over onto other vegetation. Trimming plants that will get too tall early enough that they will still bloom and be shorter overall is a lesson learned to be applied next year.

I’ve been watching the growth of my native plant garden during its first year – pulling weeds as quickly as possible. There were a couple of plants that I left for a little while so that they could get big enough for identification. It turns out that they are sassafras! They are ‘bird planted’ on opposite ends of the garden. They are the food plant for spicebush swallowtail caterpillars – so I am leaving them in the front yard garden. I have spice bush in the backyard so I expect to see more of these butterflies in coming years. They are not old enough to produce seeds but might be winter food for birds in coming years.

I trimmed pokeweed to keep it short and there seem to be even more fruits than usual. They will be eaten by birds – mostly songbirds and mourning doves. The dry weather since midsummer has caused some of the plants to already start dying back. I’ll cut a lot of the plants after the first frost, but they will come back from the roots next year!

The chives that I grew from seeds produced in my mother’s garden several years ago are more prolific each year. They aren’t native but they provide another texture among the violets and black raspberry…and they are edible. These are a plant that I grow for the memories associated with visits to Texas over the years.

The American Spikenard blew over in a storm, and it has been so hot since midsummer that it looks like the fruit is going to dry out very shortly after it ripens.

On the plus side – the American Beautyberry did very well this year. Its leaves are lush and the fruits is maturing. They will be food for songbirds too!

I have a few small hackberries but they don’t seem to have any fruit. Maybe they are too young. It will be great when they start to produce…more food for birds.

So much for birds and other wildlife in the fall garden…getting ready for winter.

Previous Suburban Savanna Posts:

August 2026 – Controlling too much growth

July 2026 - Water

June 2026 – Shade Garden

May 2026 – Planting Natives

April 2026 – Overview

Ha Ha Tonka State Park

The day before the Woodland Management Field Trip, we dove toward Jefferson City and stopped at Ha Ha Tonka State Park along the way. It was before lunch and was already a hot day. The air was very humid too. It was the first time my husband had visited; I was there last October on the way to and from a conference in Jefferson City. We started at the ruins – lucked out that there was an available opening in the closer parking area. I took different perspectives of the ruins than I did previously….noticing the way light came through openings, some deterioration in one of walls, and the undermining of the low wall around the ruins.

Of course, the vantage point from the castle is spectacular - high over the spring; you can hear the water below. There was a tree trunk that looked ‘wrinkled’ at the base that I noticed…among some stumps of other trees inside the wall around the ruins.

We hiked along the paved path and boardwalk toward the spring. I used my phone for some insects on fall wildflowers and

My bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) for some ‘intimate landscapes’ and a wood-nymph.

The highlights of the walk  toward the spring were birds:

A green heron looking for lunch,

A female wood duck in the water and then in the grasses along the bank,

A pileated woodpecker that we heard before we saw (and was never well positioned for a photograph),

And a blue heron that was flushed by some kayakers and landed just across the water from where I was on the path!

It was a great stop….we kept it short because of the heat and humidity but were both glad we made the visit.

After lunch we opted to make a short walk about the Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary before we headed to our hotel. We didn’t make the full loop because of the heat – but realized that if we lived in the area, it would be a place we would visit frequently through all 4 seasons (in the early morning rather than the afternoon in the summer/early fall)!

Sustaining Elder Care – September 2026

I started my drive at dawn and decided to think of a few Haiku…two were good reminders of moments during the 6+ hours driving from my house in Missouri to Lewisville TX.

Dark pink horizon

Driving into the morning

Dark chocolate treat

 

Adaptive cruising

Google navigation says

Object in road  deer

 

I got to the memory care facility and located my dad in the activity room trying to rub him back on the chair. It eventually became apparent that he was itching and very uncomfortable….but that was after I got him back to his room and looked at his back. It had red splotches.  The hospice staff had gotten zinc oxide to put on the rash and he seemed a lot more comfortable after I put some on the part that seemed to be bothering him the most.

I saw him two other times and he was uncomfortable every time I was there. There were other people that seemed to have the same itching problem. It didn’t look like bites but the facility was treating at as a mite problem for all the residents by the time I was heading home. I’m still concerned since it there might be allergic reactions to the treatment…or that it isn’t mites at all but some other issue (like a change in laundry detergent).  

I hope whatever it is can be successfully treated before I go back in a month.

The stay at the hotel was odd. The Bradford Pear ree that was dead last time I was there had been cut down. That translates to less shade in the parking lot and the temperatures in the afternoons were still over 100 degrees.

The big oddity in the hotel – the same one I stay in every time I go – was that once the water in the shower got hot, there was no making it less hot…it was like all the water was coming straight from the hot water heater…and was very hot. I tried to take my shower with quick splashes rather than standing in the stream of water.

As I was leaving on the last morning I saw a small fluff of feather on the parking lot near my car…took a picture of it with a crack in the asphalt and a pine needle. It felt good to notice some small thing to appreciate when so many other things are not quite right.