Autumn in the New York Finger Lakes is tinged with orange, red, and yellow. Monarchs, maple leaves, and Red Efts. Burning Bush, raspberries and tomatoes, and autumn Zinnias. Finger Lakes grapes and red wine.  Pumpkins, winter squash, and orange sunsets. As temperatures cool, song birds head south and Nature celebrates with hot colors.     […]

I dislike flying, even though I’ve taken many flights to Europe, Asia, and around the United States. In the last ten years, distorted sound and imbalance from Meniere’s Disease with increasing hearing loss in the ear with a hearing aid make airplanes a challenge. Jet engines and sound echoing off hard surfaces roar in my […]

I feel the gentle pinch of grasping butterfly feet on my fingers before she walks on to taste flowers and freedom. She pauses as she explores a goldenrod for the first time and sways in the wind before lifting off to fly a short distance. Is it a test flight? The Monarchs were more than […]

This year, I rarely see an adult Monarch butterfly in the fields or in my butterfly garden. There are some out there because they leave evidence– a few tiny Monarch eggs deposited under milkweed leaves. It I search long enough, I might find three or four eggs in an hour. Sometimes I don’t find any. […]

As the sun moves toward the horizon, seven people sit around a table on my son Anthony’s stone patio—two women, four men, and one white haired crone. Two of the men are my sons, but I haven’t been with both of them at the same time since December. That afternoon, David and I buy food […]

As darkness descended, the last Mourning Dove baby peeked over the rain gutter edge. Its sibling had already left the nest. That morning, I saw a parent feed the nesting baby by regurgitating half-digested seeds into the baby’s eager mouth. It must have tasted like heaven, like chocolate cake or peanut butter and jelly. The […]