(Photo credit: Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve Staff)   Given these times, It’s fun to think that just last fall A flash of orange discovery was the frozen flesh of a monarch. I rushed to save her. Nailpolish, they said. My stomach turned. Instead, respite from the cooler temps and sugar water squeezed into cotton and sprinkled on leaves. In a small container, locked in the den, … Continue reading A Race to Texas

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to lead a hike through one of the Columbus Metro Parks. It was a balmy 60 degrees and the scent of spring things infiltrated the woods that our group entered just before dusk. Some of the forty-some people came alone, some came or met up with friends, and they all came to be outside in the woods under the warm, … Continue reading Hiking with Strangers and Throwing Rocks

Each leaf that fell in the stream landed as a stroke of color from a paint brush lands on canvas, covering the brownish muddied water with random red, orange and brown hues, while we spoke in hushed tones, outside the circle of students that were there to learn about the river. “Do you know which kids can’t have their photos taken today?” I asked him. … Continue reading Random Sinuosity

              Two weeks ago a friend predicted it. He said he knew. Last snow! This is it. Ohio is now ready for spring. Chidings on Facebook ridiculed his smug assertion, but we all secretly hoped he was right. We were ready for it, restless for it. Like a kid who anxiously waits for the last day of school, I … Continue reading Last Snow

For three days last week, my neighborhood was transformed into a ghost’s playground that the fog brought in, along with the spring that. The fog settled in, but everything else became unsettled. The distant train whistle that is so comforting to me at night began sounding more like a steam engine’s whistle from days gone by. Visitors began arriving on horse and buggy. Clip-clop, clip-clop, … Continue reading Spring Thaw

Same stream, different day. That’s the way it goes in a January Ohio.     I took another walk in the woods this week, on a morning when my thermostat read 3. I wore the wrong coat so I had to curtail my walk. I have a coat reserved for wood splitting and cutting and although it’s very warm, it doesn’t have a hood and … Continue reading Same Stream, Different Day

I’ve been reading about people making new year’s resolutions to meditate on three things they are thankful for daily. Some people are writing the words on slips of paper and filling up their “gratitude jar” or using some type of system to track all the things they are grateful for so they can stay positive. I’m planning on doing something similar and hoping to post some of the … Continue reading Magick

Jerkwater [jurk-waw-ter, -wot-er] 1. a branch-line train, so called because its small boiler had to be refilled often, requiring train crews to “jerk” or draw water from streams. 2. of or associated with small, remote, and insignificant rural settlements: She’s from some jerkwater town. Unlike most rivers, the flow of the Cuyahoga River is neither north nor south – it is both. The switch to … Continue reading A Jerkwater Town

It was 1985 and I was too young to realize that the lead singer of Queen was gay. I guess at some level, I knew his energy was different than other lead singers I had crushed on, but the possibility that a gay man would front a loud and bawdy rock n’ roll band had not entered my realm of reality yet, and as time … Continue reading Coming of Age in the Plague Years