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Purple cliffs stand there As if they had always been And always would be
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Before she became the doyenne of TV cooking shows, Julia Child was Julia McWilliams of Pasadena, California. At the start of WWII, she found that her 6-foot-2 stature—fine for playing sports at Smith College—was not acceptable in the Women’s Army Corp or U.S. Navy WAVES. Determined to do her part, she became a typist at…
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Spin the compost bin. Turn yard and kitchen waste bits Into garden gold.
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Note: This essay first appeared in my April 2026 Newsletter. If you’d enjoy seeing more content like this, be sure to subscribe and join the conversation! Many years ago, I got up at 4 a.m., sat on my deck in the dark, and gazed intently at the western horizon. My patience was rewarded when a large,…
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The cowbirds are hunched, Plotting to lay eggs in some Other songbirds’ nest. Woodthrush nest with cowbird egg. (Wikimedia Commons) Feature image: Brown-headed cowbird pair on feeder (Wikimedia Commons)
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Cicadian clicks Looking for love, but finding Mostly hungry birds Putnam’s cicada (Platypedia putnami) are common throughout Colorado and make a loud click, rather than a buzzing like many other cicada species. I’m not sure what local birds might eat them. In eastern Colorado, Mississippi kites subsist almost entirely on cicadas in the summer hatch…
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Green plastic ring thing Pink sock; pristine white paper Not digestible
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Quite a few of my ancestors lived in Indiana and Illinois during the Civil War era. Some of these relatives served in the Union Army. But these two states had many residents who hailed from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas. For that reason, some communities were torn by conflicting loyalties. Hunt’s book, published during…
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Enter the dragon Finds naught but parched ‘scape Conflagration soon
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A lonely cedar Perches regally on high Pride before a fall? Note: I use the word “cedar” here (seems more poetic), but this is actually a Utah juniper, Juniperus osteosperma.
Eilene Lyon 