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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Sharing a Serendipity
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...
Be Less Tidy in Your Yard! Welcome Wild Fruits
We think of fall as migration time when all the birds leave. And there is a great birdcast website to see in live time the flights. But an autumn walk through a park with wild edges reveals shrubs, bushes, and grasses alive with bird activity. Visit an orchard on a...
Messy Yard – Look From a Different Perspective
Motorists passing our yard must think we have a messy yard. Instead of the clipped and sprayed yards of neighbors, ours is a dancing field of tall wildflowers and native grasses. Many consider them “weeds”. Our yard is unconventional, healthy, and beautiful. It...
Feeding Backyard Birds and Saving Money
Feeding backyard birds is fun, but it’s become expensive. The price of black oil sunflower seed has doubled in just a couple of years. To keep our birds well-fed and our budget under control we use Fourth Story Feeders. What are they? Well, the first story is...
The Continuing Saga of the Ninja Chicken
Well, our Ninja Hen is at it again. A neighbor, watching the hens for us, entered the barn one morning to find the California White strutting around inside the barn but out of the coop! Looking around, our neighbor also found a small white egg in a depression in the...
No Feeders for Birds? No Problem!
Hi all: Many people either don't have feeders for birds or have reduced their giving of seeds due to higher expenses. Yet, we still like to note birds around. We encourage you to join Cornell University's Project FeederWatch. From the website click on "About" on the...
Taking the Direct Path – No Rules Labyrinth
Editor note: Because of a glitch in the system and being uncertain if this blog was published at the original time, we are sharing now. Guest blogger, Shari McDowell I walked a labyrinth this afternoon. The one in New Bo, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, between the Bottleworks...
American Ninja Chicken!
One of our 14 chickens is a true American Ninja Chicken. Most of us know the TV program American Ninja Warriors where athletes navigate extreme obstacles to beat the buzzer. Well, this gal, a California White, is right up there with the most athletic of them all. Like...
Installing a Low Maintenance Polyaspartic Garage Floor
Home Upkeep! From time to time, we post a blog about home care on Winding Pathways. Ways to upgrade appliances and refinish the structure. Although removed from our normal nature tips, home care is both important and interesting. One TV ad caught our attention about...
Bidding Adieu to Mr. Toad and Ms. Wren
We hadn’t seen either for a while but one September morning there they were. Mr. Toad and Ms. Wren. Mr. Toad All summer Mr. Toad contentedly lived beneath a tomato plant snacking on an occasional juicy bug. Ms. Wren meanwhile forayed about the yard snatching bugs and...
Bears & Birds
Guest Blog by Jackie Hull, in the foothills of Virginia Bears Barely Tolerable Behavior Well, the bear did it again. It tore up some of the spindles on the porch railing, tipped over a couple of the vegetable pots, and yanked a six-foot portion of our picket fence off...
Common Nighthawks Wing Overhead
Sometimes an animal's name is misleading. Take the common nighthawks. It’s not a hawk and it doesn’t only fly at night. We often sit evenings on our back deck at Winding Pathways. In late summer 2022, we have been treated as dozens of aerial dancers – nighthawks -...
Sockeye Salmon – an Amazing Fish
Remembering Sockeye Work Rich Patterson and Kammi Matson of the Popsie Fish Company In early July we enjoyed an amazing natural phenomenon at the Campbell Creek Science Center in Anchorage, AK. We walked with our daughter to the small stream that gives the Center its...
Amazing Bird Migrations
While We Were Sleeping We were tired on the evening of August 21. Crawling into bed at 9 pm we were oblivious to the traffic jam winging over our insulated roof. Late August. The fall bird migration has started. That night it picked up steam. In the morning we...
Losing Oreo: the Death of a Pet Leaves Sadness
We’re not normally pet people. Never had a dog or cat. When our children were growing up, we had bunnies. After they grew up and left home years ago, we cared for the bunnies left over from their youth and adopted a couple from Kirkwood Community College in the early...
Was the Walking Stick Embarrassed?
Imagine how embarrassing it would be to be caught stark naked in public. Maybe that’s how the Walking Stick, a huge insect, felt that we spotted clinging to a shelf outside our house. About 3000 species of Walking Sticks live worldwide. All love hiding. Their...
