by Winding Pathways | Aug 3, 2023 | Garden/Yard, Nature, Wonderment
At the foot of East Post Road SE, just by Indian Creek is the frog statue that dons varied outfits each season and for many events. Take a look through the years. And visit our website for amphibian blogs.
The frog is serious about keeping healthy and helping after storms.
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Masks and hand sanitizers did their jobs to help reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2
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Cleaning up after the 2020 Derecho.
Further into the year:
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A green pot of gold.
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Hoppy Easter!
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Keeping it Clean
Middle of the Year is graduation, summer fun, and the Fourth of July with a loyal “Vandal” from Idaho!
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Summertime and the livin’ is easy.
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Frog And Vandal (UIdaho) posing.
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Amphibian Safety Patrol…
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Go Hawks!
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Does this frog practice Reiki?
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Coming for the candy.
Always a civic Duty Calls.
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Research first.
We are “hopping” to add more photos as we walk by the ever-current and exciting Frog Statue. To learn about real frogs of Iowa visit the website link.
by Winding Pathways | Jun 29, 2023 | Gazette Features, Travel/Columns, Wonderment
HOW?
Ancient people accomplished what seems impossible. How did they do it?
We recently toured the Earthmoving Legacy Center near Elkader, Iowa. On display were diesel and gasoline-powered machines able to move massive quantities of dirt for today’s needs. (Moving Heaven and Earth)
A month later we stood in a field near Chillicothe, Ohio, gazing at an enormous earth mound. The next day we visited other nearby sites with earthen walls, circles, and squares. All were separated by many miles and were large – some spanning hundreds of feet long and dozens of stories high. All were made around 2000 years ago by people of the Hopewell Culture. We learned that the squares are identical and fit inside the large circles. Somehow, they did this hard work without machines. No metal shovels. Not even wheelbarrows. How did they do it?
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Modern intersecting with ancient.
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Headquarters.
Can a Principle of Geology Lend Insights?
Recreated Earthworks
Hopewell, like visits to Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa and Cahokia in Illinois, stimulates more questions than answers. Perhaps a tenet of Geology can guide us. The Present is the Key to the Past. So, let’s consider. Why do we build structures? How do we move earth today? What do people who build need to sustain them while they build? (Food, shelter, clothing) Who provides this? Where do we get our goods? Perhaps these questions can provide insight into the past.
History is Written by the “Victors”
In our 1950s and 1960s school classes, we learned that European explorers and early settlers discovered scattered bands of Native Americans making a primitive living hunting, gathering, and gardening. No mention was made of our continent’s once vast population of sophisticated, technologically-advanced, and organized Native Americans who built magnificent structures and had an extensive trade system. Some of us did learn about the impressive Mayan and Aztec cultures in Mesoamerica.
Amazing Commerce
Pipestone was traded far and wide.
Little did we learn about the varied North American indigenous cultures that were far superior than originally believed. For example, Hopewell people made tools of obsidian that originated at Yellowstone, created jewelry of copper from the upper Great Lakes region, and used shells from the Gulf of Mexico. They somehow got these distantly sourced goods without airplanes, trucks, or Amazon Prime! Somehow goods moved across thousands of miles before horses and even wheels were available.
Sources of Information
Archeologists have solved some riddles about how ancient people did things, but many mysteries remain. Puzzling and fascinating. We have had published a number of pieces on ancients including the desert Southwest, to Pipestone in Minnesota, to Mounds along the Mississippi from Effigy to Cahokia.
Together, let us learn more about the rich heritage that is both before, beneath us, and behind us. A good source of information is The Great Courses offerings by Dr. Edwin Barnhart, Ancient Civilizations of North America, and Dr. Daniel Cobb, Native Peoples of North America.
by Winding Pathways | Jun 15, 2023 | Nature, Reflections/Profiles, Wonderment
Sitting: it’s a rewarding outdoor activity. How can that be when everyone knows that being outdoors means movement? Hiking, cycling, skiing, canoeing, and swimming all get the heart beating and muscles working.
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You see everything on RAGBRAI
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Kayaking gets the heart pumping and strengthens the arms
We love all these activities but recently were reminded that sitting quietly is a fascinating and productive way to spend time outdoors. On a gorgeous May morning, we stopped at the road’s end in Iowa’s Brush Creek Canyon Nature Preserve. A narrow informal path lured us past a rock outcropping high above a gurgling brook.
We carried the sling chairs and binoculars that we keep in the car down a narrow informal footpath. Just a hundred yards later we found a level spot with a perfect view downward through trees to the water.
Sit we did. Enmeshed in secluded quiet we sat so still that warblers and vireos flitted among the trees. Even a hummingbird buzzed in front of us. A fly settled on Rich’s pants, explored a bit, and then went on its way.
Active outdoor activities are good for the body and mind, but sometimes sitting is the best way to notice our world and its inhabitants. When we scurry down a trail, wildlife hides or flees. When we sit and become part of the landscape, wildlife ignores the human presence and goes about its business.
Tree branches help you watch the moon move across the sky.
Here’s our favorite sitting exercise that can be done almost anywhere. As a full moon rises, position a comfortable chair with tree branches or even overhead wires between it and the moon. Sit very still. Using branches or the wire as a reference it’s possible to watch the moon move.
Oh, Brush Creek Canyon. We recommend it as one of Iowa’s wildest natural gems. It’s just north of Arlington in Fayette County. Go outside. Have fun.
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Couple by lake
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Wonderment
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Finding peace
by Marion Patterson | Apr 13, 2023 | Amphibians/Reptiles, Birds, Flowers/Grasses, Hearing, Nature, Wonderment
A Season of Variables
After a drab March “look up, look down, listen” season is here. It’s exciting and frustrating. Always something to see and hear and things we miss, too.
What is look up, look down, listen? Well, when we walk in woods and prairies, we’re always attuned to nature’s beauty and curiosities. In the Northern Hemisphere April and May force challenges and delights, as the earth turns toward the sun. Its warmth stimulates new life while welcoming arrivals from down south.
Here in Iowa, like much of the United States, bird migration rises through April and peaks in early May. Woods, wetlands, and prairies are filled with bird species we haven’t seen since last year.
Look Up!
“Look up,” Marion remarked on one April walk last year. She spotted the first Rose Breasted Grosbeak of the season. He was perched on a thin branch high in a sycamore tree. As we walked along, we kept looking up to spot other new arrivals. They added color and song to those of cardinals, chickadees, and woodpeckers who are our neighbors all year.
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A catbird drinks by a pool.
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The brown creeper blends in with tree trunks.
Look Down!
After admiring the Grosbeak and moving on, I said, “look down.” We had been paying so much attention to birds up in the trees that we almost trampled a Dutchman’s Breeches, a delicate white wildflower with petals shaped like old-time Dutch pants. Looking down revealed spring beauties, Mayapples, hepatica, and anemones. Some were not quite in bloom and a few had gone by, but most were in their spring glory.
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Early spring flowers
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Reaching for the sun
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Dutchman’s Britches
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Snow Trillium
Shhhh! Listen
Passing a low wetland, we both paused to hear the songs of the chorus frogs and peepers that greet listeners each spring between the vernal equinox and Easter.
So, what do we do on a spring walk? Look up or down or listen? All of these. It is the best time of year to enjoy beauty clinging to the soil, singing from treetops, and chorusing from ephemeral pools.
Make Nature ID easier with Apps
Spotting birds hiding invisibly in tangles of branches and vines is challenging. What’s in that thicket singing? Thanks to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, we turn on our Merlin app, point the phone where the songs originate, and learn who’s singing. Merlin is easy to download from the app store. Sometimes we are lucky and watch migratory birds close at hand.
Some people even lure birds in with treats that are eagerly consumed by arriving birds.
Wildflowers cannot hide but can be confusing. We sometimes use an app called SEEK to identify ones that are mysterious to us. SEEK is also easy to download from the app store and can also help identify trees, weeds, and other living things.
Look up, look down, listen! season may be the very best time to be outside. We love it.
by Winding Pathways | Feb 9, 2023 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Garden/Yard, Nature, Wonderment
“Yes,” to Geese If You Please
Guest blog by Jody Vrieze
When we lived in Plymouth, Iowa, my husband and I realized there is more to a home than just a house. We embraced our love of nature and animals by creating a retreat in our yard featuring natural diversity and beauty. Our outdoor spaces incorporated annual and perennial flowers, bird feeders, chickens, and Sebastopol geese.
Stay-cations vs. Vacations
A backyard pond featured aquatic plants, and different fish like koi, shubunkin, and goldfish. Raised bed gardens and beekeeping gave us additional duties and joy to enhance our little piece of heaven. Every season brought new activities and treasures. We found that we much prefer quiet stay-cations over vacations!
Perhaps the Sebastopol geese were among my favorites. I would call them by simply saying, “Hi peep peeps!”. They’d be running and following me everywhere. Even as I kayaked! Amazing creatures.❤️
Finding Our Inner Geese Love
Their names are Winston, Willow, and Aspen. When you watch the videos, Winston is always in the lead and Aspen is the smooth-feathered goose. At a poultry swap, we dickered with a man over a pair of Sebastopol geese. We walked away and returned. By then the goose had laid an egg. My husband asked if we could buy that egg and the seller replied, “No, but you can have it.”. The man asked if we wanted the pair of geese we’d dickered about to which my husband replied, “Nope, we have an egg!” We bought pizza, and while eating I cradled the egg to keep it warm. We went right out and bought an incubator. After many adventures of incubator lessons – the right temperature, unplugged or not, and against all odds – on Mother’s Day Lucy hatched.
Winston, Lucy, and Aspen
Winston was added to keep Lucy company. After losing Lucy, a lady brought an egg from a gal in Nebraska to add to the “family”. Even more adventures awaited us with geese. One goose broke her leg and I used our koi pond for rehabilitation.
Winston, the goose, tragically lost several mates and lived to be five or so years old before meeting his demise.
Moving On and Planning Ahead
We have since moved and I’m looking forward to a new coop and some new chickens.
After I was asked to share our adventures for the Winding Pathways blogs, I found that I loved going back through the photos and videos and watching the fun we had.
Now in our new location, we recently had a pair of swans and their cygnet land in our field. They came one morning but are gone now. They must have been planning to hunker down for an impending January snowstorm.
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What fun to interact with the geese!
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Jody rehabilitated an injured goose in her koi pond.
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The geese flock around Jody in the stream.
by Winding Pathways | Dec 1, 2022 | Reflections/Profiles, Wonderment
People enjoyed the carousel rides at Fairfield, Iowa.
We invite you to share a serendipity you have experienced. A recent overnight to Fairfield, Iowa, delighted us with unexpected bliss, a sense of connection, and enchantment. On recalling other times when we found ourselves in wonderous situations and with engaging people we decided to ask readers to share their times of serendipity. When all aligned and you were left feeling happy and blessed. So, we would like to hear from you. Send a short remembrance and photo if you have one to us by December 10, 2022. Later we will combine your remembrances and ours, and post as a blog on Serendipities.
