Chaucer was wrong. April is not the cruelest month. September is. In September, the unbearable heat promises to recede. But that promise won’t be kept for at least another month. So close, and still so stinking hot. I should be outside reveling in the glories of the natural world, damn the heat. But that would… Read more »
Below is a video of two ladybugs doing what ladybugs do. I stumbled on this pair because the hamelia in the small nature preserve I manage is thick with aphids. Were I a gardener in search of a landscape that maximizes visual impact so as to demonstrate my utter control of “nature,” this would be… Read more »
This post was supposed to be a contemplation on the nature of nature. Then nature decided to aim a hurricane towards the small private nature preserve I manage and the time I should have been writing was spent disassembling various decorative archways and moving future projectiles to safer ground. This morning, we got the good… Read more »
Let’s blame the pandemic, or the heat. I played hookey down in Galveston on Tuesday and saw four or five things that warrant an entire post exploring them in detail. But I seem to lack the energy. So here are the amazing things with brief description of why they amazed me. Above is an aptly… Read more »
The world consists of eaters and the eaten, who strive mightily not to live out that destiny. From the smallest creature to the largest, the dumbest to our glorious selves, lives are organized around eating (for carnivores that’s killing), avoiding carnivores bigger than ourselves, and sex. Since we’re primates, throw in status and you have… Read more »
Galveston Island State Park was the balm my soul needed. Not nature in little pockets; not hooray, I stumbled on something; NATURE, glorious, free, exuberant nature. I needed to be surrounded by wildness, dipped into it and rolled around until the stench of indoors had completely washed away. Mission accomplished. I spent over an hour with… Read more »
A mandolin is a wonderful kitchen tool. It is a hand-operated, razor-sharp blade that can make quick work of slicing cucumbers for pickling. However, if you are too fond of cooking shows and like to emulate the techniques you learn from them, you might throw caution to the wind and slice up said cucumbers without… Read more »
Honey bees collect water. They don’t consume it. They convey it. The hive needs water to thin honey and manipulate pollen. But perhaps the most important, they need water for the evaporative cooling that keeps the hive at an acceptable temperature during our long Houston summers. There are bees who specialize in nothing but water collecting…. Read more »
Anyone who spends time with this blog will know that there is a special place in my heart for native bees. So when one of these ladies worked her way onto the screened porch area of this small private nature preserve, I knew I had to save her. I had in my hand a dish… Read more »
The closer you look at something, the more questions you develop. And I have a new lens that lets us look very closely indeed. For example, the photo at the top of this post. It is a butterfly known as a gulf fritillary. It is one of the more common butterflies in Houston, but that… Read more »