To all the birds I could not name….I saw you out there, in your winter plumage and bird glory and you made my day!
Wild & Wonderful Weeds: Tickseed
Fall in the Piedmont of NC is a rollercoaster of heat waves and stunning fall weather. It’s the slow transition from green to auburn, crimson and gold. It’s the last bloom for flowers before winter settles in on us. It’s hard to drive around town and not admire the resilient tickseed wildflowers in full fall bloom this October.
Owling in Suburbia
On The Brink
I was a child and daddy-longlegs were crawling on my arm. It was sunny and I remembered the warmth; I was laughing and could recall the feel of their delicate 8 legs on my freckled arm, triggering my blond hair to register “tickle-tickle-tickle” in the sensory area of my brain. I remembered in that moment how common it was to come across them and how it wasn’t in a classroom I met these critters. I was outside playing and everything about that day was perfectly natural.
Inviting Hope Home: Let Leaves Lie
Let Leaves Lie.
In doing so you create shelter for wild creatures. You retain the eggs and larvae that are attached to the leaves as they fall. You provide a food source for many wild animals. You protect delicate plants by surrounding them in leaves, protected for the winter. You retain soil moisture and reduce the need for watering.
The Fruits of Their Labor
A Great Migration
It’s a wonder to see how pleasantly symbiotic the whole relationship is. The milkweed relinquishes its leaves while maintaining life sustaining energy in its deep taproot and regrows. The caterpillar receives its nourishment, including the bitter toxin from the plant that provides a layer of protection from predators, even as an adult. Pollinators will be by eventually to pollinate the flowers which will create pods of wind-dispersed seeds. Human interactions don’t ever seem this smoothly cooperative.
Inviting Hope Home: More Like a Tortoise
I, am more of a tortoise. Slow and steady, a plain Jane of sorts, not trying to call attention to myself but certainly moving with purpose. And it is this strategy I relied on to change my one quarter acre property in suburbia to a wildlife oasis. I could have called in reinforcements, hired a landscaper, gotten it all done in one season and that too is an effective strategy for change. But I went section by section and years later it’s all coming together.
Inviting Hope Home: The Butterfly Highway
One hundred and seventy five butterfly species reside in NC and that summer, in my devil’s strip alone, I documented on camera 18 different butterfly species; who knows how many I’ve missed over the years. Since transforming my yard from an HOA approved, socially acceptable landscape to a more wild space I’ve gardened by one motto: If no one is eating your plants, then your garden is not part of the ecosystem.
Inviting Hope Home: The Pond
As the New Year often inspires us to consider what we can do differently this year than last, I wonder if you have it in you to reconsider your outdoor space. As you will see from my shared experience, this has been a process, one that started over a decade ago. I have worked at my own pace. I have had months where my yard was the last thing on my to-do list. I can assure you that this experience did NOT take over my life and it shouldn’t take over yours. But in so many regards, it has enriched my life and has taught me the incredible resilience of nature, which brings me hope.
Did I Smell A Bear?
Forbidden Love
Leaves of Three
And that’s where my summer started this year. Identifying the multiple 20+ foot vines growing in the hedge row that my neighbors own. After a year of neglect of the living fence between our yards, something had to be done. I am the neighbor with children and pets that play outside, so I took it upon myself to remove the poison ivy.
Lost
Gradually the storm’s intensity picked up and while the wind became more audible in the tree canopy, the swaying of the tree trunks was what captured my attention at that moment. The sky darkened and the thunder boomed and rolled in the distance. It never occurred to me to go in. I was a part of it now.
Have You Ever Seen Vultures Snuggle?
A Night in the Life
At the end of one of the videos, we see him glide toward a large tree, drifting down at first then kind of curving up to grasp the bark, holding tight, not on the perch of a horizontal branch but on the vertical plane of the trunk. We could see his eyes illuminated by the camera. And then we saw the second set of eyes. The squirrel was not alone!
