August days in Iowa can be downright hot, sticky, and well, right now, pretty hazy. There are forest fires out west…way out west, meaning in Northern California, Nevada and such, and the jet stream will sometimes carry the smoke into our atmosphere here. This makes sunrises and sunsets kind of interesting for a time. There … Read more
Fireflies are fascinating little creatures. On this particular evening as storms had just rolled through the area, the lightning bugs came out just as they normally would have, seemingly unbothered by such a disruption. The clouds and sunset were changing by the second…and a slight gap allowed the amber and pink hues to come through … Read more
As far as fields go, you can’t do much better than a wildflower patch. In this case, Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) are the featured attraction. Iowa is known for it’s crop production…the ever common corn and soybeans, top the list. But every now and then you find a field that’s been left alone for a … Read more
You can’t really go wrong spending the evening down by the river. Mark Twain apparently found inspiration from doing so, and he didn’t turn out so bad. The thing about a river, any river really, is that it’s usually the life blood of any region it runs through. This goes for wildlife, and all manner … Read more
My temple is the swamp… When I would recreate myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most impenetrable and to the citizen, most dismal, swamp. I enter a swamp as a sacred place, a sanctum sanctorum… I seemed to have reached a new world, so wild a place…far away from human society. What’s … Read more
Tiger Lilies have been a part of my summer surroundings for as along as I can remember. We used to have them out behind our old home in town…and now one can see them almost anywhere along the roadside ditches in rural Iowa. It really is one of my favorite wild flowers. I’m drawn to … Read more