The Nature of Things

We have out-of-town guests arriving today and that will necessitate my absence from these pages for the next few days. But don't forget about me! Keep checking back for I shall return, hopefully sometime next week. And thank you to all my faithful readers. You are appreciated more than I can possibly say. *~*~*~*                                                                

I grew up in a time and place that featured pretty cold winters. It was not unusual for the temperatures to dip into the teens (Fahrenheit) or even lower and stay there for days at a time. Our house had two fireplaces and the kitchen stove that all burned wood. My father would rise before daylight, even on Sundays, and get the fires started in each of them. By the time I got up, the house would be warm. I never thanked him. I never thought anything about it. It was just what he did. He was my father. I do think about it, and him, now and I regret how thoughtless and thankless I was. But what did I know then of love's austere and lonely offices? Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I’d wake and hear the cold splintering,  breaking. When  the rooms were warm, he’d call, and slowly ...

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is this lovely creature that seems to be looking at us very judgmentally. It is the Antioquia Brushfinch , a bird of the lower layers of shrubby habitats at the northern end of the Central Andes in Colombia. It is generally found in couples or small family groups. The bird is severely threatened by habitat loss. Its known population at present consists of 109 individuals and the population is decreasing. Perhaps it has the right to be judgmental. *~*~*~* Here are the species that are on The Revelator's watchlist of species at risk in 2026.  *~*~*~* There were conservation successes in 2025 and here are some that made that list. *~*~*~* On the Severn River, a tributary of Chesapeake Bay, it was a grim year indeed for Ospreys . Only fifteen chicks from the 63 nests survived.   *~*~*~* This is Craig, the super-tusker elephant from Amboseli in Kenya. He w...

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : This is actually last week's Bird of the Week and possibly my favorite winter visitor. (Well, okay, I have many favorites!) It is the lovely little White-throated Sparrow . It is still fairly common around our neighborhood in winter, although some sources mark it as being in decline. *~*~*~* The well-named Golden-winged Warbler is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week for this week. Unlike the White-throated Sparrow, its population is not in good shape. It has lost nearly sixty percent of its population since 1966, mainly due to habitat loss. The ABC is working with several partners to try to restore appropriate habitat. *~*~*~* The weedkiller Roundup is still out there, still doing damage to the environment and the 2000 study that declared it safe has now been retracted . *~*~*~* The link between humans and the natural world still exists. The frogs tell us so . *~*~*~* The COP30 meeting in  Belém, B...

  This is my 'Peggy Martin' rose that lives and blooms on the side of our garden shed in the backyard, a fairly inconspicuous part of the garden. I have often regretted that I planted it there when I bought it fourteen years ago and wished that I had planted it in the front yard where passersby and more neighbors would be able to see and admire it. But 'Peggy' doesn't seem to care if anyone sees her. She produces her beauty every year just because that is what Mother Nature instructs. And I sit in my backyard and gaze at that beauty and it brings me joy and a kind of peace to know that, even in this troubled and chaotic world, 'Peggy' blooms on. ( Here is a link to the story of the 'Peggy Martin' rose.)