A snapdragon survives the first hard frost. Photo: Cathie Bird, 11/16/19. An acorn germinates on the lane. Photo: Cathie Bird, 11/28/19. Scars on the apple tree. Photo: Cathie Bird, 12/25/19. Lichen, moss and leaves on the lane. Photo: Cathie Bird, 12/26/19. Remains of orange coneflower fruits. Photo: Cathie Bird. 12/26/19. Continue reading

Flower, Dogtooth violet (Erythronium americanum) on April 3, 2019. [Photo: Cathie Bird] Flower bud, Dogtooth violet (Erythronium americanum) on March 27, 2019. [Photo: Cathie Bird] Dogtooth Violet-3 on April 6, 2019. [Photo: Cathie Bird] Breaking buds, Ohio Buckeye (Aesculus glabra) on March 19, 2019. [Photo: Cathie Bird] Buckeye leaves on... Continue reading

Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) on November 28, 2019. [Photo: Cathie Bird] The Amur honeysuckle was the last plant on my Nature's Notebook observation list to lose all of it leaves this fall. The last ones came down sometime before December 2nd. White Heath Aster (Symphotricum ericoides) on November 16, 2019.... Continue reading

In the past few weeks I've experienced a strong desire to revisit the TV series The West Wing that ran on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. Somewhat synchronously, as I began watching the show's first season on DVD, I received email notification of Weekly Vlog 137... Continue reading

Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) leaves on March 12, 2019. [Photo: Cathie Bird] I'm going to start this post with an ecopsychological observation as well as a phenological one. This past January 8th, I sensed (rather than saw) a fluttering outside my study window, and turned just in time to see... Continue reading

I still regard my encounter with a bug at Karma Dzong -- a meditation practice center in Boulder, Colorado -- with wonder and awe. Up to a certain point, what the bug did might be interpreted as simple coincidence, having nothing to do with my presence, thoughts, intentions or projections toward it. What unfolded beyond that point, however, compelled me to question some basic assumptions about what's possible in humanity's relationship to nature and any individual being within that field. The Shambhala Center at 14th and Spruce in Boulder, Colorado, known to me at the time of my bug encounter... Continue reading

My holler walk with Shadow on 11/11/18 [Photo: Cathie Bird] Peak color for most of the trees in the holler happened around the 25th of October. With windy storm fronts moving through during the first week of November, many of the leaves came down. RedMaple2, for example, lost all remaining... Continue reading

Fall color in the holler. November 5, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird] Continue reading

Northern pearly-eye (Lethe anthedon). This is the best image I could get of the top wing pattern. [Photo: Cathie Bird] Late in the evening of August 19th, my border collie-mix, Shadow, came back into the house through the pet door. As sometimes happens, he also let a visitor into the... Continue reading

Eastern tailed-blue (Everes comyntas) at my insect-friendly watering bowl. July 10, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird] Continue reading

Appalachian brown (Lethe appalachia) on June 6, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird] Continue reading

Northern pearly-eye (Lethe anthedon) on August 20, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird] Continue reading

Sooner or later I turn a psychoanalytic eye toward just about everything, if only for a moment. I've been doing this since high school, though I didn't know that's what I was doing until much later. On my about page, I list exploration of human relationships with other species and our shared environments as a major area of of interest in the larger psychoanalytic field. I have intended to write a lot more about this here, but it just hasn't happened. Yet. A recent experience, however, gave me a little shove that might put some fire under my intention. A... Continue reading

Marion Woodman was one of several Jungian analysts whose work was extremely important to me as I moved through some difficult transitions in my 30s and 40s, thus, I was sad to learn that on July 9, 2018, she transitioned out of Earth space. I consider Woodman to be among my psychoanalytic elders, part of my psychoanalytic lineage. R.I.P. and thank you, Marion. From a statement by the Board of the Marion Woodman Foundation: During this last week, as Marion passed from one world to another, she was accompanied by the love, prayers, poems, tears and laughter of this worldwide... Continue reading

Eastern tailed blue (Everes comyntas) on July 10, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird] The eastern tailed blue butterfly -- a species I observe for Nature's Notebook -- has been out for awhile. Earlier this month, I finally caught up with one that sat still long enough for me to get the... Continue reading

In my last post I wrote about new nest building activity by a pair of Carolina wrens that ended on June 10th. On June 28th, the parents started bringing food to the nest, and, yesterday, I believe all surviving nestlings fledged. Continue reading

One month to the day after four Carolina wren nestlings fledged, the young birds and their parents returned to my planter garden in late afternoon to forage, preen, scratch, stretch and take dust baths in the soft dirt under my porch. Here's some of the video I got: Such a... Continue reading

In my last post I talked a little about my new butterfly milkweed plant and its magnetic qualities. Once its flowers opened on June 3rd, I began to see butterflies on it. On June 5th, two great spangled fritillaries came to feed several times: Great spangled fritillaries on June 5,... Continue reading

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) on June 3, 2018. [Photos: Cathie Bird] Out in the holler, trees are fully leafed out and most of the early spring flower species have pretty much finished their above-ground phases. Among the plants I observe for Nature's Notebook, I've turned my focus to Echinacea, jewelweed,... Continue reading

Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) on June 6, 2018 [Photo: Cathie Bird] Continue reading

I've been listening in to the holler for 18 years, now, and there are a few sounds I can't identify even though I've heard them many times. This past week, however, I heard some new ones. I also happened to see some toads and, in trying to verify their identity, got a clue to the "waaaaa!" being sung just beyond my planters, near the edge of the woods. Continue reading

Just before noon today, I went out to get some photos for this post and, just by chance, caught the fledging of four Carolina wrens! I thought they had already gone because I hadn't seen parents taking food to the nest for awhile, thus I'd planned to weed-eat around the... Continue reading

An amazing new bird week started the day after my last post. On Monday, the 23rd of April, within a space of 2-3 minutes, I saw all of these birds right outside my study window (and not near the new bird feeder that no one has discovered yet!): a pair... Continue reading

Viola cucullata on April 27, 2018. [Photo: Cathie Bird] Continue reading

I watched Today Show coverage of the very first Earth Day in 1970 from a motel room in Denver, Colorado. I remember it well. I had just graduated from Michigan State, just gotten married, and wasn't sure what I'd be doing next. The room served as temporary housing for us... Continue reading