Missing

This autumn seems to be defined as much by what's missing as by what's here. What's missing are cool mornings, rain, monarch caterpillars and chrysalises. And where are the marvelous marbled orb weavers that usually grace the woods with their giant webs and striking colors? Where are the musty, rotting leaves breaking down into rich humus on the forest floor? Where are the vibrant, colorful leaves of maple and blueberry?

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My Mountain Horizon

I'm currently reading The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary, by Terry Tempest William (one of my favorite writers). I read one chapter each night. One delicious story at a time. It is the kind of writing that invites memories to surface and emotions to swirl and challenges us to think more deeply about relationships and our place in the world.

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Labor of Love (and a song)

There's another kind of labor we need to celebrate.... Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia, 2019. Photo by Deb Dorsett Hanson On this day in the United States - Labor Day - we celebrate the successes of the Labor Movement, those unions and individuals who gave us 8-hour days, 40-hour weeks, and weekends; who fought for workplace dignity, rights, safety, and a decent wage; those folks who built America up with their minds and bodies doing the work that has kept our nation alive and functioning for generations.

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Sketchbook Saturday: Pattern play

Playing with patterns in my sketchbook I needed a distraction from the stifling heat this afternoon, so I spent some time inside just sketching patterns from natural objects I had on hand. That is until the rumble of thunder lured me to the screen porch to dance a rain dance and pray in hopes that one of those noisy, heavy clouds would gift us with some raindrops....

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(Secret) Life in the woods

Some videos to make you smile.... We have a wildlife trail camera set up in our woods. Sometimes I check it daily. Sometimes I take the SD card out of it and leave it to NOT take video or pictures for weeks at a time. Sometimes I leave the camera running for weeks without checking it at all. This has been one of those stretches.

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Sketchbook Saturday: Pink and Purple

The garden is always an inspiration. Most of think of green and maybe red and yellow and orange when we think of gardens, but every color seems to have its day throughout the year. This week the summer phlox is looking brilliantly pink and the spiderwort has revived its purple blooms since the rains came. I used both colors to play with some scraps of painted papers and fabric to create this small collaged card... Happy Saturday, y'all! Go do something creative.

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Music Monday: Water songs

As a follow-up to yesterday's post on Water Wisdom, here are a couple of songs honoring water to begin the week with... Enjoy. Water is Life by Prema Love Listen on YouTube or Spotify and Protect the Water by Murray Kyle Listen on YouTube or Spotify I love how he uses the sounds of water in the song intro...

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Water wisdom

Today, I sit in our fire circle - a circle where there has been no fire for months as we experience a severe drought. But I sit here anyway, facing west, looking at a simple altar we installed on the edge of the fire circle to honor Water. I'm waiting for inspiration, maybe, or a voice or a sign for what I need to say to the world today.

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The Beauty of Great Spangled Fritillaries in the Garden

“The butterfly does not look back upon its caterpillar self, either fondly or wistfully; it simply flies on.” – Guillermo del Toro Great spangled fritillary A couple weeks ago I was sitting on the porch and noticed a large orange butterfly down in the garden. From my perch, it looked kind of like a fritillary but was way too big (three inches or more) to be the variegated fritillaries we usually see around our passion vines.

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The power of orange and black

The milkweed patch attracts more than monarch butterflies. Each year it draws in dozens of species of insects, many of them black and orange, the colors of fire and charcoal. The colors that tell their predators to back off because I'm toxic and will make you sick. There's a special relationship between these insects and the milkweed. One that provides sustenance, but also defense in the form of cardiac glycosides in the milkweed's latex sap.

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Sketchbook Saturday

How about a little whimsy for today? A Lollipop landscape, inspired by Emma Petit... I'm participating in the annual #MakeCreateExpress tempter sessions from Art is Magic this week. It's one of my favorite parts of each summer because I get to play with art supplies and learn new techniques from dozens of artists around the world...a week of letting go and pure magic.

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Drought lessons

It's 101 degrees outside It feels like 120, according to the weather station in my backyard The sun bakes my skin, glares into my eyes A hot breeze blows - dry and feeble In the garden, leaves hang limp, empty, pale Curling at their edges trying to retain just one drop of moisture Blades of grass mimic wheat straw Poking up from the dusty, cracked ground…

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Sketchbook Saturday: Drawing Birds

I've been watching videos this week of John Muir Laws showing me how to draw birds. He's one of the founders of Wild Wonder and a master at nature journaling. The thing I'm loving about his teaching is the repetition of drawing lines to get you started on the position and shape and angle of the bird and its parts... Hopefully, be the end of next week I'll be comfortable doing quick field sketches of the birds in my yard... time will tell.

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Reflections on Montana and An Intentional life

A few weeks ago we visited our friends Mike and Melissa in Montana. They live just outside Yellowstone National Park, so our days were filled with wildlife watching from dawn to dusk. One day as we were recalling our time filled with bison, wolves, grizzly bears, elk, pronghorn, and wildflowers, Mike said, "My boss once told me... we don't learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on our experience." Every day since that day, those words have meandered around my neural pathways sparking moments of reflection on my experience in Montana.

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Blue Grosbeak

A couple of years ago I was looking out my bedroom window and saw a strange bird on the ground in the back yard. I grabbed binoculars and identified it as a male blue grosbeak. Soon, the rusty-colored female landed near him and they searched for bugs among the grasses. They were beautiful! I never saw them again that summer. But last year, I heard them singing out in the meadow next to our house and got a fleeting glimpse of them once or twice later in the summer.

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Summer blooms and an exceptional drought

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change." – Buddha Day lily Yarrow Rudbeckia Spiderwort Sunflower Zinnia Echinacea Monarda fistulosa Gaillardia Anise hyssop Mountain mint Zinnia Salvia Common milkweed Yarrow Butterflybush Shasta daisy Hosta Tomato Black eyed Susan It's hard to believe there are so many flowers blooming in our yard right now.

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Senate Republicans Advance Bill That Nullifies the Overwhelmingly Popular Roadless Rule

Previously bipartisan "Wildfire Prevention Act" ends up being a Republican "Trojan horse" to undo roadless protections in national forests

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New OMB rule could break science in the United States

What a new proposed rule from OMB could mean, and how you can help

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Birds of a feather at the Cape May Birding Festival

Recently I got to spend time with my son. It was just the two of us, for the first time in years, and we attended the Cape May Birding Festival in Cape May, NJ. We went on field trips and boat rides, wandered the woods and beaches looking for birds, and listened to experts share their knowledge about horseshoe crabs, monarch butterflies, and, of course, birds.

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It’s a bird’s pose

I've been paying more attention to the birds in our woods and gardens lately. As migration ramps up and summer birds are starting to arrive, it's a good time to be more observant. This week I have seen or heard summer tanagers, hooded warblers, Louisiana waterthrushes, ovenbirds, and red-eyed vireos as well as the usual year-round wonders. So, I know summer is right around the corner.

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A garden walk

Sometimes I walk through my backyard gardens out of habit, A daily stroll just to check on things and note changes or needs. Other times the gardens summon me like a siren song, Calling, cajoling, compelling me to come, telling me to look closer. And when I answer that siren song, I am rewarded with the most Stunning beauty, colors, shapes, hidden treasures among the green.

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An Earth Day tribute to life on Earth

Happy Earth Day, all. For the past few weeks life has been crazy busy - preparing for and commenting at a public hearing, preparing to host a 3-day reunion of my writing group, touching base with family and friends, volunteering, and keeping up with general life tasks. I've found it difficult to stay focused on any of that because all I've wanted to do is BE OUTDOORS, basking in the glorious spring sunshine, the fresh air, and the stunning beauty of growing things!

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Thank You: Celebrating 17 Years of Connection through Blogging

Wow, y'all! WordPress just told me I've been blogging here on this site for 17 years now! Part of me thinks, "Yeah, so what?", but part of me is kinda proud of this little achievement badge. Why? Because it means I've persisted. I've kept working at something - writing, thinking, sharing - in this one little corner of the Internet for 17 years running.

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Where do you find comfort?

In times like these, when our country feels fragile, its leadership inept, unhinged, angry, incompetent, often downright mean and scary and disingenuous. When our climate is shifting, changing everything about how we live and how things work. When living beings and sacred places are suffering from war, starvation, genocide, injustice, greed, and from a profound disconnection from what's true and right and good...

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252,756

Earth and moon as seen from Artemis II, NASA photo 2026. 252,756 miles. That's how far away from Earth the Artemis II astronauts were this week - the farthest distance any human has ever been from our home planet. Our son texted us photos from the mission. The one of the back side of the moon with a sliver of Earth in the distance is most stunning.

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Hummingbirds welcome here

The smorgasbord is laid... columbine, coral honeysuckle, azaleas, sugar water feeders. We are ready and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the ruby-throated hummingbirds. We heard one buzz through a few days ago. The next day, Mr. EndlessSeeker had one nearly fly into his face. But we've yet to see them hovering amid the flowers sipping nectar, deciding to stay for the summer.

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Music Monday: Water Wisdom

Sunset over the Gulf of Mexico, 2014. Photo by Deb Hanson Happy Monday, all. Following up on my last post celebrating water systems, here's a spoken word song by the Rheostatics with Chief Stacey LaForme called Water Wisdom. Enjoy...

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