Treadmill Walks

/

A few years ago, when we moved from Maryland to Missouri, I was reluctant to move our treadmill, but my husband insisted. Now I am glad he did. I am using it daily to increase my daily activity level. There is no excuse to avoid a 30-minute treadmill walk – weather is not a factor! I’ll increase the incline and speed over time – improving my stamina for when I do hike outside. I’m looking forward to being in better shape to enjoy the hikes already scheduled in January and February.

While I walk, I alternate between reading a novel on my iPad or looking out the French door at our deck and hollies…and the neighbor’s trees/roof. Both activities keep it from becoming boring. I’m glad there is a good view to the outside…and that it didn’t require me to move the treadmill from where we had the movers place it!

Now if I can convince my husband to use the treadmill to increase his activity level too…..

Our Missouri Yard – December 2025

/

December had started off with some very cold days with low temperatures in the 20s or teens at night and barely getting above 50 on 3 days (other days the high was in the 40s). Almost all the trees had lost their leaves abruptly in November when we had some very cold days. As I walked around the yard taking pictures for this post, I found myself searching for color and interesting textures.

The Virginia Creeper that had been so beautiful in previous falls (red leaves) had either died back or retained the color for only a few days. Some of the vines retained their leaves – but they are brown rather than bright red.

The crape myrtles have interesting seed pods. I am going to cut them all back when there is a day above 50….they will look better next year if I do. One of them is tall enough to brush against the eve of the house so that one is the priority to get cut. The other one to tackle is the one that has a Callery Pear (wild form of the Bradford Pear) growing with it. The red leaves are the pear so I can (hopefully) cut it very close to the ground.

The bed near our front door has some color – bushes that are bright yellow (that need to be trimmed) and some plants that haven’t succumbed to cold temperatures yet because they are protected. The Japanese Maple in the corner has lost its leaves and may be dying; that corner has not worked well for that small tree.

The places where I put the bark mulch from our last tree trimming are holding up well. I will pull weeds from them and plant new plants into some of them next spring. The one under the Kousa dogwood mulch needs some native ground cover planted there…and maybe some of the lower branches cut.

There are seed heads on the lambs ear and goldenrod and chives…hopefully I will have more of those plants next year.

Our backyard is fenced and I am planting to not mow until early summer - leave the leaves. A lot of the leaves are from our neighbor’s oak and probably contain overwintering insects. The birds will appreciate the bounty – food for their chicks next spring. I am noticing that the circle where the pine needles are falling is enlarged than last year. I will be mowing less of the side yard next year! My long-term plan for the side yard a mowed path….not much grass at all…native plants filling in on both sides of the path (and maybe the path itself which might change from year to year.  

The bed where we removed a pine tree that fell over is more exposed that most of our beds. The plants there had frost. The small cluster of American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) fruit is a pop of color. Hopefully next year the beautyberry will begin to grow more rapidly and become the dominate plant in the bed at some point. I will probably allow a native tree that comes up (bird or squirrel planted)…whichever one shows up first: oak, redbud, or hackberry.

On the west side of the house there is a clover pillow that seems greener than the area around it. Maybe the grass growing there is greener with the extra nitrogen the clover provides in the soil! The witch hazel is still small but I am hopeful I might see a few blooms next year. It is a Missouri native – Ozark Witch Hazel (Hamamelis vernalis) which blooms in January/February.

I am watching the forecast for warmer day to get some cleanup done….and to put down a thick layer of mulch for my new bed that will be planting into next spring. My daughter will be getting more mulch when she has her oak trimmed.

Zooming – November 2025

/

The week at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival was a big one for photography. It was hard to choose from almost 5000 images for the month. I finally managed to select 26 favorites…birds dominate but there are a couple of dragonflies and three reptiles (a lizard, a snake, and tortoise). I’ve included a picture of Reunion Tower in Dallas as my husband drove us through the city (I opened my window) and a tiled bench at one of the rest stops. We had our first frost at home.

Aurora in Missouri

/

The aurora was visible from the Springfield MO area this past Tuesday! My husband said that he couldn’t see it when he walked outside at our house in Nixa – but his phone certainly did! The picture was taken at 8:20 PM.

Dr. Mike Reed (a colleague of my daughter’s at Missouri State) saw it too – at 9:20 PM.

One of my daughter’s students (Bishwash Devkota, MSU astrophysics senior and president of Ozark Amateur Astronomy Club) went out to Missouri State University’s Baker Observatory and provided 5 photographs taken after 10 PM.

The sky is not particularly dark at our house; seeing the aurora and a few stars demonstrates how good the phone camera is!

Volunteering – November 2025

/

October was a lull in regular Missouri Master Naturalist volunteer gigs; the Butterfly House closing at the beginning of the month and Project FeederWatch not yet begun. Project FeederWatch starts in November and will continue until the spring. My husband I enjoy our view of the birds at our feeders through a window…accumulating our count for each week. I looked back at my FeederWatch pictures from last year and created the slideshow below…savoring the images before we really get going on FeederWatch volunteering this year.

The fall festival volunteering bridged September and October and is over until the spring festivals start. The hours to support the MMN chapter continue throughout the year.

I attended the Beyond Plastics Grassroots Advocacy Training so I am ready for that volunteering in the coming months; it will probably be the most significant change in the type of volunteering I do…and I am still exploring the form it will take.

I am still volunteering as a Friends of the Library in the county where I live. It takes the form of sorting used books and then setting up for used book sales. This month there will be a general meeting of the group that I plan to attend.

Overall – the cool season volunteering is beginning and I am looking forward to the change.

Plastics Crisis – Getting Plastic Out of the Kitchen

/

A good starting point for reducing microplastics in food is to eliminate plastics in the kitchen. This blog post focuses on the plastics not associated with food packaging.

I bought a set of glass containers for leftovers/food storage and boxed up my old plastic containers; that created some extra space to reduce the crowding in my lower cabinets. The old mugs with plastic components and plastic reusable water bottles were also boxed since I have ceramic and stainless mugs (that I use without the lid most of the time since it is plastic). I also have stainless steel reusable water bottles – haven’t figured out a good way to no use the plastic lid though.

I am negotiating with my husband on mixing bowls. I have one large stainless-steel bowl which I will use for mixing – get rid of the red plastic ones. He likes one of our older plastic bowls for popcorn….and I’m not sure he is willing to let it go.

I am challenged to get rid of my Nordic Ware Microwave Popcorn Popper. I like popping corn without oil and in the microwave. But – the bowl does get very hot and that probably means it is shedding microplastics into my popcorn. I have also noticed that my air purifier detects particles in the air when I take the Nordic Ware bowl out of the microwave (the fan motor runs higher) ….so it’s time to get rid of the plastic bowl. I am experimenting with cardboard boxes and paper bags to contain the popping corn…dumping the popcorn into a glass bowl to eat it (with salt or butter or both applied after it is in the glass bowl).

I have a few old pans and muffin tins with non-stick coatings that I still need to take out of my kitchen…a job for another day.

Previous Plastic Crisis posts

First Frost

/

The first frost at our house happened on Halloween! It was not universal…just on the most exposed parts of the front yard. It was the microclimates made visible! I took some pictures of the grassy areas impacted; I had mowed them the previous day. I took a few images of the grass…interested in the patterns ice crystals make on different surfaces. The ice seemed to outline the leaves. On the grass, the ice tended to enlarge any texture.

There is still a lot of green. The low temperature did not last long enough to be the killing frost for many plants. That will probably happen in the next few weeks.

Our Missouri Yard in Early Fall 2025

/

Lots of changes in our Missouri yard. The Missouri Evening Primrose is blooming – seemingly liking the cooler temperatures (and the rain). It has not produced any seed; maybe there aren’t any pollinators finding it.

A very white mushroom came up in a part of the yard that hadn’t had mushrooms previously. Its surface looked a little like a roasted marshmallow.

The pollinators are waning with the flowers…and seeds are dominant as the growing season draws to a close.

Some leaves are still green…some turning very red. The Virginia creeper near our front steps is still green.

There are small branches from the oak on the ground (squirrels?) and what might be an oak seedling has colorful leaves.

The chives seeds are black and ready to topple from the husks; the goldenrod seeds are not yet mature.

The beautyberry has one small cluster of berries, and the poke weed berries are maturing (some have already been eaten by birds). The poke weed stems are magenta until the first hard freeze.

I am thrilled that my fragrant sumac has at least one part that has rooted outside the flowerbed…taking over a part of the yard. The rose bushes are blooming – a last hurrah before winter.

As I finished my walk around the yard, I noticed a lone dandelion puff….more plants with deeper roots to hold the soil next year!

Ten Little Celebrations – October 2025

/

October included some great volunteer and travel experiences…and plenty at home to celebrate too.

Road trip to Jefferson City – I celebrated the Missouri Department of Conservation Partners Roundtable (particularly Dr. Nadia Navarrete-Tindall talking about edible native plants), touring the Missouri capitol building, and Ha Ha Tonka State Park!

Corn on the cob from the grill - The temperatures were milder…we cooked on the grill more often and I always enjoy the corn on the cob cooked that way.

New faucets on bathroom and kitchen sink - My husband installed new faucets (with a little help from me holding things together while he tightened from underneath). The old ones had been leaking onto the counters when they were turned on. We are both enjoying the dry counters around the new faucets!

Season finale for the Butterfly House - I savored the final volunteer days and the celebration for the volunteers and staff.

Home school fair – I celebrated that so many people visited my table at the Home school Fair and seemed to enjoy learning about trees.

My car repaired – The damage to my car (mostly underneath) was repaired and I have already taken it on a road trip. I celebrated that it was fixed quickly and that it looks ‘good as new.’

Hiking poles – I cheered myself onward during my first test walk with hiking poles…have high hopes that they will help me avoid back pain on future hikes.

Memory care – I celebrated finding two memory care facilities that would be good candidates for my dad’s next home. My sisters and I had a difficult time choosing (and it was stressful)….not something I am celebrating.

New hot water heater and dishwasher – I celebrated that the new appliances were installed quickly…that the hot water heater is better for the environment (heat pump electric rather than natural gas) and the dishwasher is quieter than our old one.

A rainy day - The past few months have been very dry in our area so the rainy days in the later part of October were something to celebrate – although the rain came too late to have brilliant leaf colors this fall. The leaves are still mostly on the trees…muted colors.

No Hot Water…and then the Dishwasher Broke

/

Our main hot water heater stopped working suddenly. I discovered it when the water never got hot for my morning shower. I went down to its closet in the basement as soon as I dressed, expecting to find water around it or something else that looked dire. Nothing! The only thing that looked odd was the temperature panel. It took some searching to find an online manual to figure out that the lights meant nothing about temperature but were an error code that meant ‘open igniter circuit.’ We called the company that handles our HVAC and water heater maintenance.

The person came later in the afternoon and discovered that it was not a simple fix…parts would have to be ordered, and they might not fix the problem. The unit was about 13 years old. They sent us cost estimates for replacement parts (but not a sure fix), a replacement like the high-end gas-powered unit that we had, and two types of heat pump hot water heater. We decided to transition to a heat pump with the only question being which one. An electrician would come out to evaluate the electrical situation; since there are two kinds of outlets near the existing unit, we thought either one of the heat pump units would work and tentatively picked the least expensive one.  

Our use of hot water has changed over the years. These days it is mostly for showers and the dishwasher. We rarely use hot water for laundry and try to minimize the rinsing of dishes before we put them in the dishwasher. That’s quite a change from even 10 years ago! We discovered that the dishwasher could heat the water sufficiently on its own without the hot water heater and used that change in setting for the duration we were without a working hot water heater.

The ‘apartment’ in our house with its own hot water heater provided access to hot showers while the saga of replacing our main hot water heater unfolded.

A few days after the hot water heater stopped working, the dishwasher broke (and produced a smell of melting plastic) when we selected the option to have it heat the water it was being supplied. The unit was over 13 years old so we opted to replace it.

A week later…

We have a new heat pump hot water heater and a new dishwasher. There was a minor amount of electrical work to move from the gas to an electric heat pump hot water heater (not a new circuit…just running a conduit from an existing plug/circuit a few feet to the hot water heater location).

We were pleased with how as fast it happened. The electrician came to evaluate the electrical situation and then two days later the installation of the hot water heater occurred. The day after that the dishwasher was replaced. My husband and I both felt our stress level going down!

My Missouri Neighborhood – October 2025

/

The mornings are cool…a sign of fall. I headed out for a short walk around the neighborhood pond. There is always something to photograph.

There are two good sized willows at opposite ends of the pond. I photographed the one that seem healthier…no dead branches; its branches move gracefully in dapples of sunlight.

Some of the native plants added last spring near one of the bridges have survived. They will probably do even better next year. There was a skipper sitting on one that seemed to be holding still just for me!

In the water, a few of the pickerel weeds are thriving. There were quite a few that didn’t. Hopefully the plants growing now will propagate…begin to take some of the extra nutrients out of the water. There is a lot of algae in the water this fall.

The maples are beginning to show fall color. We’ve not had much rain the past few months so it might not be as brilliant this year although these maples are near the pond so perhaps they got enough water.

I only saw one turtle, and it was gone before I could get closer. There was a lot of mud on that side of the pond and I wondered if it was from the weed eating too close to the edge.

A river birch has leaves dipping into the water.

The stump from a tree one of neighbors cut down before we moved to area has almost completely decayed. There is some fungus still working on the last of it…and another of the same kind in the nearby grass that might have been working on a root from the old tree.

When I got back to my driveway I noticed a mushroom near the streetlight in a corner of my front yard. It may be that mulching of grass as I mow has increased the plant debris in the soil enough to support more kinds of mushroom – I hope that is what’s happening!

Our Missouri Yard – October 2025

/

We don’t have many leaves falling so I am still mowing the parts of the yard that are grass. I will stop mowing the back when our neighbor’s oak starts dropping leaves – participating in ‘leave the leaves’ for a second year and hoping to preserve some overwintering moths/butterflies.

I bought two new additions for my yard from Ozark Soul: Rubekia laciniata (common names: sochan, golden glow, and cutleaf coneflower) and Asimina triloba (common name pawpaw). The leaves of the first are edible; I will use it along with violet leaves for ‘greens’ next spring and early summer. The pawpaw will take years to produce fruit; I have some seeds in pots that I am sprouting to add to the ‘patch’ so there will be at least two trees eventually. Both plants are small so I have them marked with yard sculptures!

The Missouri Evening Primrose next to my mailbox is blooming profusely although not producing seed; I suspect that perhaps insects are not finding it.  There is a tiny prickly pear cactus growing with it which I am monitoring.

Pollinators are enjoying two types of late blooming plants in my yard: goldenrod and what I think is Symphyotrichum pilosum (white heath aster) which came up in a bare spot at the edge of my driveway, and I mowed around it. Both plants are full of insects…at least two kinds of bumblebees even on cool mornings!

My husband and I realized we had waited too late to plant our new native plant garden in our front yard so we will get the bed created sometime over the next few months then plant the garden in the spring after the last frost.

Plastics Crisis: A continuing journey

/

The past few weeks have been very busy, and I haven’t had time report on my continuing journey.

I attended my first ‘show me less plastics’ bimonthly zoom meeting. Everyone on the call seemed to be in the same initial mode…trying to figure out how to move forward. The largest group was from St. Louis…some from Kansas City and Columbia. There was one other person from Springfield. I will continue to dial into the zoom meetings and use them as a forcing function for myself to have something to report!

CNN did an experiment with three of its reporters (in New York, London, and Hong Kong) wearing chemical-tracking wristbands to find out what kind of chemicals they are exposed to. The video report can be found online - https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/08/climate/video/chemical-monitoring-wristbands-climate-digvid although there is not a lot of detail…it does indicate that people in big cities are probably exposed to a lot of chemicals as they go about their daily lives.

Living near a smaller city (Springfield MO), I do track the air quality. I know that when it is not green, the PM2.5 pollutants are usually the pollutant that is high…and that is made of microplastics and associated chemicals. The air quality where I lived in Maryland (between Baltimore and DC) prior to moving to Springfield was yellow more frequently and, sometimes, even made it to the red level.  So – moving to Springfield probably has reduced my exposure somewhat.

When I had my annual checkup with my doctor, I brought up microplastic exposure and she acknowledged the issue…but didn’t have any specific recommendations about what to do aside from avoiding bottled water and looking hard at getting plastics out of the kitchen, particularly anything that is heated and contacts food.

I have reduced my soft drink consumption to almost zero (avoid plastic bottles) and am drinking more iced tea. But wait….coffee makers (that I was using to make tea) have a lot of plastics and there are plastic fibers in many filters (so they will hold up better) and some tea bags are glued together (a plastic). Obviously there is heat involved in making tea so I changed my process:

  • Old Pyrex measuring cup (it was my mother’s and the markings are almost worn off)

  • Cut open the tea bag and empty the contents into the water

  • Heat in the microwave

  • Strain the tea leaves with a metal strainer

It’s becoming a good routine….and I am aware that making tea is becoming a ritual rather than just a routine because of the old Pyrex. It could be almost as old as I am!

One thing I am noticing…my trash and recycle are trending downward…not as much in the bins. That’s a good thing!

Previous Plastic Crisis posts

Ten Little Celebrations – September 2025

/

September still had some hot days…but there were some cooler mornings that were very pleasant. Our trip to Chicago offered some very different scenery! Lots to celebrate.

A cooler morning in the Butterfly House. It was good to finally get a break in the temperatures. I celebrated being more comfortable…and that there were more people that came to enjoy the butterflies too.

The end of busy morning in the Butterfly House. I celebrated the end of my shift in the Butterfly House when I was the lone docent – a bit frazzled but knowing I had done a good job.  A school group came through (45 students plus parents!). And 3 caterpillars had gone walkabout during the shift but I had managed to get them contained before they were stepped on!

Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary. I celebrated that Chicago has managed to have a wild area in the big city.

Botany at Lincoln Park Zoo. I celebrated that the Zoo had areas that are mostly native plants…and I recognized most of them since they skew toward prairie plants which are the same as the ones we have in my area of Missouri.

Monarch Butterfly over Lake Michigan. I celebrated the surprise of seeing a Monarch butterfly flying over the lake a long ways from shore…hope it made it to the south shore.

Field Museum. I celebrated that I finally got to see the museum. I had missed it when I went to Chicago back in the early 1980s for a class…had always wanted to go back.

Crystalized Ginger. I bought crystalized ginger for our trip on Lake Michigan (it controls nausea for me). I celebrated that it worked and that it is a good treat when I travel too.

A new grandnephew.  I celebrated that my niece and her new baby are healthy and home from the hospital…was in Dallas so I was able to share pictures with my father; the new baby is his third great-grandchild.

My Missouri yard. I love the subtle changes happening right now – mostly still green but more seed pods forming. Soon the leaves will change to their fall colors.

Brunch with by daughter. My daughter and I tried a place near where I live … and both celebrated an excellent brunch that had a triple berry tart at the end.

Zooming – September 2025

/

Lots of locations for the September zooming pictures: Josey Ranch Park in Carrollton TX, scenes from Chicago, Illinois interstate, home, and the Butterfly House in the Springfield (MO) Botanical Garden.

There are the usual flowers…butterflies, birds, cats…and a Chicago skyline.

Enjoy the September 2025 slide show!

Homeless in America (1988 eBook)

/

The opening message of this book concluded by saying ‘We must not let homelessness become an American institution.’ And yet – in 2025, there are still a lot of people that are homeless and the cost of housing is rising fast enough that it is unlikely that there will ever be enough affordable housing….or effective enough attention to reduce the tragedies that unfold for people that find themselves in the situation.

The book is a pictorial work – full of photographs from cities all over America. Some of the people had died before the book was published. It is available on Internet Archive. I found myself thinking about what has changed. There are new drugs that are, at least, as addictive as the ones in 1988 and some are more likely to cause death from overdose or wounds that will never heal. The tents are similar. The cars that people try to live in are different models…probably just as uncomfortable. But in the end – the efforts that non-profits and churches and cities made really have not been very effective.

Homeless in America: a Joint Project of the National Mental Health Association and Families for the Homeless

Pawpaws from Butterfly House

/

I have been watching the pawpaw (Asimina triloba) fruit develop in the Roston Native Butterfly House every time I volunteer (about once a week). Yesterday, as I was pointing a group of them out to some visitors, 2 fell off! They weren’t very big, but they were soft – ready to be eaten. I brought them home and thoroughly enjoyed them with my breakfast this morning.

I’ve saved the seeds to plant in pots after scarifying/soaking ….and will plant them outdoors next spring. Since the seedlings will all be from the same genetic line, I will buy a seedling this fall at a native plant sale to provide two genetic lines; I want my pawpaw patch to produce fruit! It might take 5-7 years of growth before they do that.

Cool Day Yard Clean Up

/

We had a few mornings that started out in the 50s. I chose one of them to clean up the accumulated pile of sticks and branches (mostly forsythia but some redbud, maple, and hackberry) on the patio under my deck. The pile has been accumulating all during the summer and was, mostly, dry enough to burn easily although there were dried leaves attached to some of the branches.

I put a small pile of dry grass in the bottom of the chiminea and then piled on some bundled sticks before using a fireplace lighter to ignite the grass. The blaze started and I kept it going by feeding in more bundles of twigs. The bundles are mostly from a branch that I break and turned back on itself enough times to produce a bundle that would fit into the chiminea easily. I learned to sit down for much of the bundle creation to keep my back from hurting too soon/much.

The pile was large, and I realized after an hour or so of burning, that the ashes were building up in the chiminea and were taking up too much space to easily fit in more bundles to burn. Most of the branches were small diameter…but there were a lot of them and ashes built up. I closed the screen on the chiminea and watched as the flames died down and then the red glow begin to fade.

I stirred the ashes to try to make sure the sticks burned as completely as possible. It will be a few days before the ashes are cool enough to remove from the chiminea….and then I can clean up the last of the accumulated sticks and branches.

Cats at Eyelevel or Above

/

We have the three cats. The least athletic of the three (Puma) has suddenly decided that she likes to be high. We discovered her on the top of our glass display cabinet…well above our eye level. She didn’t want help getting down either. Maybe she had been getting up there periodically and we just hadn’t noticed…but she seemed very pleased with herself so maybe we noticed the first time she did it.

Later we noticed her on the cabinet above the refrigerator. She was taking a nap but woke up as her sister (Pooky) jumped up there as well.

Pooky likes to hide in plain sight on top of our bookcases with some stuffed animals…blending in very well. She naps up there; now we know to look up there if we can’t find her.

Our male cat (Sooty) was the first of the three to jump to the high places.  He still does occasionally but he not as frequently as he did at first; the novelty has worn off for him.

My daughter’s cat (Audi) likes the bookshelves at her house. He seems to prefer the shelf that is about eye level!

Our Missouri Yard – September 2025

/

There are parts of my yard that I am enjoying even with the prospect of the big landscaping change that is coming (which hopefully will not impact any of the plants in this post):

The Missouri Evening Primrose is thriving by my mailbox (there is a tiny remnant of a prickly pear cactus underneath it that I discovered when I cleaned out the weeds earlier this summer…its growing too!) and a crape myrtle that seems healthier than in previous years.

The Virginia Creeper is crowing on the front steps and onto the bricks. I’ll enjoy it a bit longer than pull it down – relegate it to the horizontal surface of the front flower bed.

The chives are thriving in several places in the back yard. They were started from seeds harvested from my mother’s garden. They don’t seem to care if they are in the sun or shade!

The American spikenard – one of my first native plant purchases – is larger each year. There are violets under it (and a small pokeweed in the foreground). The fruit is beginning to turn purple. I’ll harvest some and try to sprout them indoors to plant outdoors next year.

There are a variety of things in the garden where a pine tree once grew. The iris leaves look a little burnt on the ends, but the pokeweed is full of berries that the birds will eat as they ripen. I am still watching developments…not sure of everything there although I like the surprises discovering the naked lady lilies blooming in August and the beautyberry that I planted…glad that has survived.

The area under the short leaf pine is full of pokeweed – mostly. As the season changes, I will enjoy its red foliage…then cut it down and clear out anything else growing under the tree….except the redbud (perhaps).