Category: Natural History
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Sweeping Grass and Rolling Logs
The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. ~Mark Van Doren We had an adventure on one of the last weeks of summer camp at the Garden. It was all about discoveries – trees, dragonflies, aquatic macroinvertebrates, field and forest insects and animal tracks and signs. A highlight for me was sharing the… Read more…
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Garden Ramblings
A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy. ~Luis Barragan If I am going to be working, it may as well be in a beautiful place like the North Carolina Botanical Garden! Just walking to and from my car offers glimpses of beauty and wonder every day.… Read more…
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Backyard Rambles
The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. ~William Butler Yeats There are times in this blog when I don’t seek to tell a detailed story of the life of some natural creature, but simply to share the awe-inspiring scenes that surrounds us, in this case our backyard… Read more…
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Catching Up
You are surrounded by gifts every living moment of every day. Let yourself feel appreciation for their presence in your life and take the time to acknowledge their splendor. ~Lou G. Nungesser It has been a whirlwind summer thus far with work keeping me a little busier than I care to be at times. I… Read more…
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Plight of the Polistes
Let us turn elsewhere, to the wasps and bees, who unquestionably come first in the laying up of a heritage for their offspring. ~Jean-Henri Fabre, entomologist, 1823-1915 We had a wasp sting two weeks ago at summer camp. The wasps had a nest inside the locking mechanism for one of our pedestrian gates, and when… Read more…
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Summer Details
The beauty of the natural world lies in the details. ~ Natalie Angier It has been a hectic few weeks at work with summer camp. One good thing is I am out in the Garden daily, and, anytime you are out in a place with that much diversity, there are plenty of things to see.… Read more…
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Ambushed
We are not afraid of predators, we are transfixed by them, prone to weave stories and fables and chatter endlessly about them, because fascination creates preparedness, and preparedness, survival. In a deeply tribal way, we love our monsters… ~Ecologist, E.O. Wilson I took a stroll through the Garden after work one day this week, looking… Read more…
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Baby Spiders
Once you begin watching spiders, you haven’t time for much else. ~E.B. White I have been raising some tulip-tree silk moth larvae at home and at work which has necessitated the periodic collecting of small branches of tulip poplar. Last week, when I cut one and brought it in I noticed one of my favorite… Read more…
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Spittlebugs
In the spring, the eastern half of North America turns into one big spittoon… ~Amy Breau They have always fascinated me, these little blobs of “spit” on vegetation. Must be the leftover 4th grade boy that still resides in one corner of my brain. Once or twice a year, I can’t resist the urge to… Read more…
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King of the Marsh
Wherever there are extensive marshes by the sides of sluggish streams, where the bellowings of the alligator are heard at intervals, and the pipings of myriads of frogs fill the air, there is found the Fresh-water Marsh-hen… ~John James Audubon, as described by his friend, John Bachman, 1840 This post should have been written a… Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 