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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Wah Wah Taysee – Fireflies
We walked as 19 individuals in a single community waiting with anticipation for the first glimpse of the magical firefly dance. From ages two to mid-sixties with a healthy mix of 20 somethings visiting the Indian Creek Nature Center for the first time, we shared, questioned, chatted and on entering the sacred space surrounding the Prairie Labyrinth, approached reverently.
Fireflies!
Few insects are as visible as fireflies winging over a lawn while blinking their lights on and off. Nearly everyone loves summer’s silent firefly light show, and they are a special delight for children.
Worms – Goin’ Night Crawlin’
Nightcrawlers and other worm species are common in rural and urban areas throughout much of North America. Worms are so abundant that most people are amazed to learn that they are not native.
Purple Coneflower
One of our favorite wildflowers at Winding Pathways is the purple coneflower. It’s named for petals that radiate backward in a cone shape. The genus name Echinacea means “hedgehog” in Greek and derives from the prickly seed head that forms in late summer and persists into winter.
Serenading Toads!
As amphibians, toads require standing water to reproduce but unlike many frogs they don’t need watery abundance. Toads lay their eggs in small pools that often dry up by summer. Eggs hatch quickly into tiny black tadpoles. While bullfrog tadpoles take two years to change into adult frogs, toad tadpoles are speedsters that transform into tiny hopping miniature adults by mid-summer. Often hundreds of these tiny creatures can be spotted seeking cool damp places to live.
Rain Barrels – Money Savers Good For The Environment
Many homeowners harvest beans, squash, and tomatoes from their garden. Some collect delicious eggs from a small backyard flock. Too few harvest one of life’s free necessities – Rain Water!
We set up five rain barrels at Winding Pathways a few years ago. They are so handy we don’t know why we didn’t start harvesting rain years ago. Rain barrels are relatively inexpensive and easy to set up. Water from the barrels irrigates thirsty gardens, provides drinking water for our backyard hens, and is handy for rinsing off dirty hands and tools when working outside.
Tap water costs money. Rain water is free. It’s delivered by nature without chlorine. Too many homeowners swish rainwater down storm sewers and pay their city for tap water to irrigate.
Rain barrels yield free water but also create social and environmental benefits. They reduce pressure on municipal water systems and wells during droughts and reduce erosion and flooding caused by runoff.
How Squirrels Can Hang Upside Down!
Squirrels are probably North America’s most acrobatic animals. They’re able to do seemingly impossible physical maneuvers. One is hanging by their rear toes to snatch seeds from a hanging feeder. How do they do it?
Reflections on Crystals and Life
At three a.m.the mind wanders many paths. Sometimes they re-join and a message emerges. During an early morning thunderstorm awakening, I recalled an experience at the open pit mine in Arkansas digging through the muddy rubble for crystals. Small points eluded me...
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Most woodpeckers are easy to observe and identify. They are noisy and move frequently making them easy to spot. They often call and drum as they move from tree to tree. The yellow-bellied sapsucker is an unusual woodpecker. It’s migratory in part of the country, secretive and challenging to find. Patient observation helps locate one hugging an April tree in the upper Midwest.
Maple Syruping in the Back Yard
The 2015 syruping season may last longer in the north east because of the deep snow and continued cold. Things will pop fast, so go outside and play!
Camping Gear Saves the Day!
We discovered another reason why every household should have basic camping equipment, even if the owners never go camping.
We hired a local company to repair, sand, and finish an old wooden kitchen floor. During the project we couldn’t access our refrigerator or stove. Camping gear came to the rescue. For a couple of days we cooked on our portable camping stove, while an ice chest kept yogurt, milk and other perishables cool.
Big Apple Chickens
Many years ago New York was pockmarked by abandoned lots where people tossed trash and consummated drug deals. Entertainer Bette Midler and others saw potential and several nonprofit organizations were formed to convert them to green places where neighbors could gather to grow food and keep chickens. Imani Garden, like dozens of others, is owned by the New York Restoration Project, a nonprofit that places conservation easements on land so they legally remain open space. Just Food, another nonprofit, organizes community gardens and CSAs and teaches people how to raise chickens in the city.
Maple Syruping With Kids
Maple syruping is captivating. Perhaps because the process is fascinating, it’s one of the first signs of spring or it conjures up childhood memories reading books about syruping or seeing old Currier and Ives prints of Native Americans or hearty pioneers sugaring off.
Although it’s a historic process, tapping trees and making syrup is a fun family activity and a great way to pique childhood curiosity about history and science. Syruping is a blend of botany, weather, science, history and all topped off with delicious eating.
Notes from a Pilgrim’s Year of Labyrinths
“This labyrinth was a tribute to a beloved teacher. Stones along the path are engraved with inspirational words, “Patience” “Courage” “Pray”. At the center is John 14:6. Situated on the hill behind the school gives the labyrinth a restful feeling of solitude. I think I shall call it my” local”, like you do with a pub. Just a few blocks from my house.”
Reiki Intentions in the Laughing Labyrinth
“The sun had been out earlier in the morning. Now at 1 p.m. the day was turning into yet one more of those gray Iowa winter days we know all too well. But the temperature was 15 degrees above zero, which seemed balmy after the below zero days we had just endured. The Laughing Labyrinth was partially hidden below six inches of snow; thankfully there were some clues to the path – dried perennials, sculptures and some visible staking. Someone had been there before me. Deer had followed some of the circuits and then cut across the rest, leaving their tracks as a sort of “Naa- naa we don’t have to stay inside the lines” remark.”
Delicious, Nutritious Stinging Nettles!
Although the northern and mid sections of the US are still bitterly cold and blanketed by inches of snow or ice, the south is beginning to warm up. That means the Greening of Springtime!
Following a long winter, a plate of steaming ultra-fresh greens from the yard is a delicious and nutritious treat.While most Americans consider stinging nettles weeds, Europeans enjoy them as an early spring food that is delicious, abundant and free for the picking.
Stinging nettles are one of the first plants to green up in early spring. They pop from the ground shortly after the snow melts and are ready to harvest about the time gardeners plant spinach, lettuce and other early cultivated greens. Winding Pathways is in Iowa, and we can count on harvesting nettles by early April, but the season starts sooner in warmer climates.