First visitor...

29 March 2025: After I got my parents a BirdBuddy feeder a couple of years ago, I asked them for one for myself (when I couldn't think of any other gifts to ask for!). Since today really felt like the end of winter (it's 77 degrees at nearly 7:00 p.m. when I type this), I finally set it up outside.

Behold the first visitor!

Fall Break Vibes...

25 October 2024: I've been grading, writing, and working, but I'm still digging the vibes from my walk and from my glances across the living room. 

"Grandfather of the Forest"

2 February 2022: Listened to this episode of This is Love on my walk this morning and found it quite moving. For over one hundred years, people have tried to save the American Chestnut tree and we keep trying, even if it might never work and if these people will never see their efforts come to fruition. Because it's worth fighting for and worth doing. Phoebe quotes a couple of lines from W.S. Merwin's poem "Place" in the end and it literally almost stopped me in my tracks: " On the last day of the world / I would want to plant a tree." Pushing back against loss...seems like a theme that speaks to me lately. 

Springtime Post, especially for Amber...

Shannon beat me to it, but here we go anyway...Spring is probably my favorite time of the year--for many reasons. Chief among them, though, are the pretty flowers you see everywhere. This spring, I am mindful of poor Amber, way up in Canada. As I told her, though, spring showing up here in full-force means it's that much closer to Canada.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been taking some pictures of the gorgeous trees and flowers and I am finally getting around to posting them. Not all of these trees were in bloom at the same time, but they do make a nice collection.


The trees in the faculty parking lots on campus.


A close up shot of one of those trees.


A lovely tree outside of Knutti, the building where my office is.


Knutti tree close up.


The awesome tree out behind my apartment, just before dusk. This tree is one of my favorite things about where I live. It was amazing to wake up and see the blooms out of my bedroom windows. And about a week later, when the petals feel down, it would look like it was gently snowing.


Close up of the apartment tree--this time facing away from the building.


Probably my favorite tree this spring--also in the faculty parking lot. To give you an idea of the time line, I took this one on Wednesday and the photos above about a week and a half ago.


Yet another close up shot.


There's this lovely (I need a new word, I know) garden out behind Knutti and all sorts of cool things have been springing up there lately, including these hyacinths. (For the record, I think hyacinths are my favorite flowers, period.)


Tulips.



Ummm...some pretty flower I don't the name of...


Daffodils...I think...

Hope you enjoyed!