Welcome to Winding Pathways
Winding Pathways encourages you to create a wonderous yard, whether that yard is an expansive acreage, a suburban lot or a condominium balcony. Go outside and play!
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Eatin’ Weeds
Eatin' Weeds We don’t just pull weeds. We eat them! Every summer gardeners spend hours pulling, digging, and spraying weeds that pop up overnight and grow like – Weeds! Marion’s family, especially grew up eatin’ weeds. Raised on a small, hardscrabble New Hampshire...
Can You Grow Pineapples in Virginia?
Can you grow pineapples from the tops? Check this out and see one gardener’s experience.
First Egg!
August 26th brought an unexpected and delightful surprise. We found an egg in our coop! Bringing the garden season's first tomato, cucumber, or summer squash into the kitchen is always an event to celebrate, but it doesn’t compare to the excitement of finding the...
Fortunate Foraging Blackberries
time to pick blackberries.
Cottontail Rabbit Capers
Have you noticed the abundance of the cottontail rabbit this summer? While they can create mischief as in eating desired plants, they also are fun to watch. Winding Pathway’s resident cottontail rabbits give us delightful evening entertainment. Shortly after sunset, a...
Are There Really Waterfalls in Iowa?
There it is! A Waterfall. There’s a second. Wow, just upstream is a third. Three waterfalls in one Iowa stretch of stream! How can that be in such a flat state? Waterfalls bring mental images of water tumbling down steep hillsides where it plunges...
Kendal’s Appeal as a Senior Residence
This blog was first published in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, on June 30, 2024 As Dad and Mom entered their 90s they increasingly struggled maintaining the safety and cleanliness of the home they’d lived in for 60 years. Despite our urging they resisted moving to a...
Two Rural Views: Iowa’s Rich Heritage
Winding Pathways is near the edge of town, making it easy to drive into the country and enjoy rural views. Mostly our car traverses Iowa’s abundant corn and soybean fields, but two recent trips gave exceptional views of different vegetation that bloomed in bright...
White Clover
We recently discovered an amusing irony created by one of the most common lawn plants - white clover. Sometimes called Dutch Clover, this low-growing plant graces unsprayed lawns in temperate regions across the globe. Normally, we discourage nonnative plants at...
The Serendipity of Giant Trees
This is a story of the serendipity of giant trees. On a recent long drive to New Jersey, we planned to visit a grove of giant white pine trees in Pennsylvania’s Cook Forest State Park. Plans don’t always go perfectly, but sometimes serendipity happens. It sure did for...
Wood Has a Comforting Embrace
If you want to connect with a cozy, gorgeous athletic venue, take a gander at the University of Idaho’s Idaho Central Credit Union (ICCU) Arena. Beautiful and practical it is a joy to tour and take in events.
Fire In the Forest and Smoke Everywhere
Smoke Gets In Our Eyes We sat on our deck on a June 2024 evening and breathed air carrying the season’s first waves of smoke wafting from Canadian fires. Last summer the smoke was so thick visibility shrank to less than a mile. We don’t remember such thick smoke in...
Dangerous Animals
Gosh, the media have people scared to get outside thinking there are snakes hanging from trees, bears ready to attack and mountain lions luring about. Really?
Raccoon Kerfluffle
A raccoon kerfluffle with loud growling and snarling startled us to nearly jump from our chairs one May evening. It came from an oak tree 20 feet away from the house and close to our bird feeder. A flashlight beam on that pitch-black night revealed the culprits -...
Delicious Sockeye Salmon
On an April morning, we discovered three fish that had spent their lives circling the North Pacific Ocean on our porch in Iowa. Three delicious sockeye salmon landed on our porch. We quickly converted them to delicious meals. How’s that possible? Back In Time The...
Legacy Fishing Reel
Legacy Fishing Reel Our son-in-law, Brian Ohlen, shared a photo of a delightful legacy. He is grinning as he works his reel hauling in a fish from Alaskan waters. It wasn’t just an ordinary reel. He is using a legacy fishing reel. Rich’s father, Henry Patterson, was...