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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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Lyme Disease Update
Easy Peasy Life for Ticks The recent warm winter was easy on heating bills and back muscles used to shovel snow, but it may mark an early return of Lyme Disease and the ticks that spread it. At Winding Pathways we take a multi-pronged approach to reducing the odds of...
Changing Directions for Our State’s Rivers
Here we are revisiting water quality, resources and diminished supplies. Iowa’s Wildside column of the 1980s addressed this and we seem not to learn at all.
Invasive Duo – Chinese Lanternfly and Tree of Heaven
Bright! Beautiful! Ominous! As we walked across a New Jersey parking lot last summer an amazingly colorful, and new-to-us, insect fluttered in front of us. It had a gorgeous creamy white and bright red body covered with black spots. Identifying it was easy and...
Predawn “Stargirl” Labyrinth Walk
Come, walk with me. Notice like Stargirl. Sights. Sounds. Smells. Textures. Gratitude.
Dupuytren’s Contracture – Curse of the Vikings!
Dupuytren’s Contracture: The Curse of the Vikings! Usually, we blog about nature and yards at Winding Pathways, but once in a while, we digress. This one’s about Rich’s Dupuytren’s adventure. But it is related to nature, as putting on gloves and manipulating his hand...
Knot Just Lumber
Want great local lumber? Check out resources and options before heading to big box stores. You might find lumber, wood products, and classes locally.
White-Footed Mouse
We’ve blogged before about a white-footed mouse in the house. We read the story to our kids when they were little. Time after time we snuggled down with the book and they never got tired of hearing why the mouse might be cute but doesn’t belong in the house. A recent...
Just What Are Gaiters, Spats, and Puttees?
Getting ready to brave the elements? Remember to keep your legs and feet protected.
Winter Owls
We live in a world of dizzying change in how we live, drive, and communicate. Like many people, we struggle to keep up with change and stay modern, so it’s comforting to know that some things simply don’t change. Fortunately, winter owls don’t change. In March 1982...
Prostate Cancer Adventure
Phone Call Sets In Motion Action In early 2005 Rich received an attention-grabbing phone call that set in motion a prostate Cancer Adventure. “Are you sitting down?” Dr. Rippentrop asked. “Yup,” Rich replied. “You have prostate cancer. Come to my office tomorrow and...
Find Joy in January
Lots to Experience in January (reworked from the Patterson’s “Iowa’s Wild Side” column originally in the Cedar Rapids Gazette) Winter in Iowa is erratic. Mild. January thaws. Grey, damp, and achy mornings. Frigid. Blustery. Sunny, sparkling days when all is right. We...
We Found A Way to Thwart House Sparrows!
Frustration Yields to Creativity Reprising the blog on thwarting House Sparrows. Here is a recap of our initial frustration and subsequent ways to encourage native birds and discourage exotics. As we wrote earlier, hordes of House Sparrows almost made us give up...
Journal Writing Helps Recall Events
What did I do yesterday morning? Did I make it to that meeting last Monday? Darn. I can’t remember. I’m forgetful. Fortunately, my journal writing isn’t. 18,250 days Every day since April 1973 I’ve written a simple journal entry on small format lined binder paper....
Labyrinth Travels 2023
Each January I post labyrinth walks of the year. Below are labyrinth travels 2023. Wide Travels Branching out from the Heartland, we explored different regions of North America and took in labyrinths along the way. Some labyrinth travels 2023 were deliberately to...
Lessons From A Terrible Car Accident
Rich helped triage a recent car crash near our home.
House Sparrow Blues
House Sparrow Blues One of our favorite Thanksgiving Day activities is enjoying a sumptuous meal while watching chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals, and woodpeckers enjoy the seeds we put out for them just outside our window. Thanksgiving 2023 brought mostly...