Fifty-third Wedding Anniversary

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Still together after 53 years….

Our anniversary is not a big celebration in January; we don’t buy gifts; usually we just go out for a nice meal. This year my only requirement was that it be a place with interesting desserts. We chose The Village Inn in Springfield. He got pancakes and I got key lime pie.

I’m thinking about how we are accommodating each other more as we age.

  • Right now, he has a wrist bothering him, so I am doing more household chores that require two hands.

  • He keeps a pillow in his car for me because I haven’t been able to adjust the front passenger seat to avoid my back hurting on road trips.

  • Over the past year we have both sat in medical waiting rooms – doing the driving to and from an outpatient procedure.

  • When we travel, we both like to stop about once an hour; neither one of us likes to sit for a long time.

  • I do the grocery shopping, and he does the shopping at Home Depot/Loews and Wild Birds Unlimited (although I am loading the bird feeders with seed and putting the groceries away right now because those are two-hand jobs). In years past we shopped together but now we both enjoy the independence.

  • He has allergies to a lot of household products which we have been working with for a few years. That is dovetailing with my efforts to reduce plastics/microplastics in our household.

  • When one of us is on a solo road trip, the other is tracking progress with the Find My app. This is the one item on the list that we might have done earlier if the technology had been available.

  • When we travel, I always make the hotel reservations and pack the ice chest (mostly things for him these days). He always makes sure the car is ready to go and does all the driving; I keep volunteering to trade off driving, but road trips are generally more restful for me since he still wants to do it all.

As we get older, there will be plenty more accommodations we’ll develop for ourselves and each other. We’re already a lengthy marriage…have no plans of cutting it short!

St. Joseph MO

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Our hotel for our visit to Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge was in St. Joseph MO. After an afternoon on the loop at the refuge, we checked into our hotel and made the decision to go see the Holiday Lights at Krug Park rather than spending time going out to dinner!

It was another loop through a large park with lots of vegetation to act as a backdrop to lights. We got to the park shortly after they opened at 6 and waited in line for a few minutes for the drive through. It was a popular event in St. Joseph and has evidently been happening since 1981.

The next morning, I was impressed with the breakfast at the hotel because they used silverware and ceramic plates rather than plastic! Kudos to Holiday Inn Express! I had scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, and a blue berry muffin (as usual I raided the oatmeal fixings for a few walnuts and cranraisins).

We waited a little later than we originally planned to leave since the fog was so thick. Everything was very wet (note the pattern of moisture on my car window) as we left the hotel hoping that the fog would be less dense by the time we got to the refuge.

I remembered to have my husband stop on the road to the refuge where loess is visible….something left behind when the glaciers melted and the sediment dried out…and was carried/sculpted by wind.

After one more time around the wildlife loop and a trip to visitor center (it had been closed the previous day), we headed toward home.

America 1976

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The ‘book of the week’ is a catalog from an exhibition of art that started at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in second quarter of 1976 and then to other museums around the country until May 1978. It is available from Internet Archive.

This year will be the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence being adopted…and there will probably be similar exhibits celebrating the nation through art this year. I remember 1976 from the perspective of living in the Dallas area, working full time and taking classed toward my biology degree at night; I was so busy during the week most of the time at home was spent asleep; my husband and I had a weekly out-to-eat between my work and evening classes as a time to talk/catch up with each other. I was a little aware of special construction projects and celebrations that happened with the bicentennial and probably went to see some fireworks….but don’t remember seeing any associated art exhibits! Maybe this year will be different. I’d rather see a drone show than fireworks (better air quality) and being in an air-conditioned museum in July sounds good to me!

America 1976: a Bicentennial Exhibition Sponsored by the United States Department of the Interior

Zentangle® – December 2025

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31 days in December….31 tiles made during the month featured in this post.

I used red, green and white tiles in December…mostly black ink but some red and green; it was a Christmasy palette. The red and green cardstock was cut into rectangular and square tiles. The white tiles were Apprentice tiles that I’ve had since shortly after attending the Certified Zentangle Training in 2019. It also used some triangular tiles which ended up not scanning well unless I made a mosaic with 6 of them!   Enjoy the mosaics of the various card types below.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. “Zentangle” is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Ten Little Celebrations – December 2025

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December is always a month with a lot of celebrations – Christmas…my birthday…the end of the semester for my daughter…a great time to travel.

Oak wood chips to create a new native plant area. The branches trimmed from daughter’s oak (stabilizing an old tree) were chipped and I celebrated when I got the whole pile moved to my front yard – creating a great bed that I will plant with native plants in the spring.

Sweet potato soup. I celebrated a soup with of sweet potatoes, chicken, apple, fresh ginger, and a little lime…toast cubes on top. It was probably the best soup of the month!

New docking station. I had been having problems with my monitors becoming disconnected from my Mac…and an external drive not being available. There were work arounds that no longer worked consistently to fix the problem. I celebrated when my husband provided a new docking station….and the problems were resolved.

Rorra water filtration system. In my quest to reduce the microplastics in food, I bought the Rorra system and celebrated the step to reduce microplastics (and some other things) in our water. Now I can move on to other aspects of my kitchen/grocery shopping.

Great blue heron from my hotel window. I celebrated that the view from my hotel window in Lewisville included a great blue heron for a second month in a row.

Home before dark. I knew that December was the hardest month for me to get home before dark on my return from Texas…but I managed it…about 5 minutes before sunset.

Dickerson Park Zoo. There were some cold days in December but we took advantage of a day that the temperature reached into the 70s to visit the zoo. I always find something the celebrate there – either an animal seemingly poising for a photography or the different noises they are making (or not).

Daughter’s tenure. The major hurdles in the tenure process for my daughter happened in December. It won’t be formalized until the spring, but we are celebrating this milestone of her academic career.

Christmas time goodies. December is not a diet month. I’ve celebrated with goodies I bought for myself and the ones my sister provided! January will be the diet month.

Another birthday. Celebrating another year…and the experiences that surrounded my birthday this year – several out-to-eat events, a trip to the zoo, a trip to a wildlife refuge. My present was an electric tea kettle made of glass and stainless steel – replacing a coffee maker that had a lot of plastic components.

Plastics Crisis – Holiday Plastic

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Plastic is everywhere…so it isn’t hard to spot in our holiday preparations.

For example – if we buy holiday desserts at the grocery store, they are likely to be in plastic clamshells which are not generally recycled even though most of the manufactures try to say that they are. My curbside recycling company does not accept them and the city recycling center doesn’t either. They are plastic that touches food (not good) …and they go immediately into the trash since there are very few ways to reuse them. The only way to avoid them it to make your goodies from basic ingredients (no weird additives) that come in less toxic packaging.

My sister made homemade goodies for the family and the staff at my dad’s memory care facility this year. The party mix (a tradition in our family for decades) is in Ziplocs so some plastic…but all the other things are contained in tins that are reused. The version she gave me had the party mix in a tin of its own so mine had no plastic.

I selected some boxes of tea bags to give to my sister (paper/cardboard packaging) and reused a bag I had from a soap shop….hiding the logo and covering the top with Christmas cards!

Later I tried wrapping a present with no tape…and wasn’t quite successful (I had to add 2 pieces of tape). I used cotton crochet thread to tie around the package. So – not plastic-free but less plastic than I would have used previously.

It’s hard to avoid plastic but it occurs to me that at least some of the time there are benefits to thinking about it beyond reducing plastic in the environment – reduced cost by reusing something I already have, healthier treats with known ingredients, and more thoughtful presents!

Road Trip to Lewisville – December 2025

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My road trip to Lewisville in December was just two days. When I left home at 5:30 AM it was dark, cold, windy, and wet. The sun wasn’t up until my second stop of the trip – at the  Big Cabin Loves off I-44. I took two pictures to celebrate the light and that the rain had cleared - even if the wind had not and was making for a more challenging drive.

I listened to Christmas music as I drove….and tried to notice birds (there seemed to be more gulls and crows than usual…not as many vultures as on previous drives…perhaps the wind caused the activity change). There was a truck with a big bale of hay wrapped in plastic (bits of plastic flying off…I’d rather have bits of hay than plastic!). As I drove over Lake Eufala, there were sycamore leaves blowing across the highway – big enough that I could easily to id them.

I made the longest stop at the Texas Welcome Center – eating a grilled chicken wrap that I bought at one of my previous stops. I checked the beautyberry and noticed that there were still a lot of leaves on the oaks, unlike where I live in Missouri where the trees are bare. I picked up another bur oak acorn…and realized most of that oak’s leaves were on the ground.

My sister had left some home baked goodies on the bookcase in my dad’s room. I left her a bag of special teabags (in paper/cardboard packaging) and enjoyed walking around the room noting the seasonal decorations my sisters had added. I remember the fabric tree from many years…and wondered what its history is; maybe one of my sisters knows.

As I walked with my dad in the hallways, I took pictures of the decorations added in the shared areas of the facility.

The hotel was a short drive away and I was on the 4th floor this time…on the side toward the water retention pond and the great blue heron was there again; I took a picture through the window.  I also noticed that the Bradford Pear trees were very colorful.

The next morning, I took some pictures of the sunrise over the highway.

My dad had some medical appointments later in the day, so I didn’t encourage him to exercise as I usually do. One of my sisters arrived just as I was leaving so I got to visit with her a little before I headed toward home.

I stopped in Prague OK for lunch – the town where one of my grandmother’s was born and grew up. She would not recognize it today! The café was excellent and I might stop there again….think about our family history.

I made it home just as the sunset – which was my goal. This is the hardest month to do that because the days are so short!

Happy Holidays!!!

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Lights and good food…wishing a joyous season and happy new year for all (enjoying old Christmas cards too even though we don’t send or receive them anymore)!

Happy Holidays to all!

Gardens Aglow

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The seasonal Gardens Aglow lights are a wonderful evening activity. They continue until December 28th (check the website for dates and times) at the Springfield Botanical Gardens’ Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden. Online tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for children…but admission is free to Friends of the Garden or Springfield Sisters Cities Association! My husband and I are Friends of the Garden so the passes for the show I got in the mail because of my volunteering at the garden were given to 2 of my daughter’s students.

Our first visit was last week (we’ll probably go again before the end of the season). It was a cold and cloudy day, and we opted to arrive shortly after they opened at 5; we were early enough to park in the parking lot rather than the grassy area parking which is opened for the event. It didn’t take long before it was fully dark. I opted to use my small Canon PowerShot SX730 HS in night scene mode (stacks images in the camera) rather than my phone because the camera is easier for me to hold for the duration of the longer shot and the mechanism to zoom is easier too. There seemed to be a higher density of lights than I remembered from previous years. It is always well done; I liked that they have added lights to direct people to stay on the paved walkways…less chance of people trampling plants in the dark.

I enjoyed getting shots of lights and their reflections in water. There were plenty of opportunities!

Our walk took a little under an hour. The temperature was in the low 40s, and I was comfortable in my winter gear. My daughter bought some spring rolls at one of the food trucks – which she enjoyed but her hands got cold without gloves; she bought some hot cider just before we left to warm up her hands and to drink on the way home. My husband said his coat was great, but his gloves and shoes were not quite warm enough. It was a good first test of our winter clothing selections.

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2025

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A lot happened in November…a birding festival and my first visit to my dad’s new memory care place…and then Thanksgiving…so many little celebrations! Here are my top ten for the month:

Laguna Seca. My husband insisted on a photography-oriented field trip and I acquiesced. It was great. I celebrated seeing a coachwhip snake….and lots of cardinals…at close range with great background.

Trekking poles.  Hurray for trekking poles! They help me avoid back pain while I am hiking. 

Chachalaca. I celebrated seeing the pink neck/check pouch come/go in the one video I took of chachalaca drinking from a water puddle…and listening to the flock for warnings.

Sunset on the mudflat. The last evening of the birding festival we were on a South Padre Island mudflat photographing the sunset. It was a great way to celebrate the winding down of the festival. I will post about it soon.

Bobwhites. We had been expecting to see bobwhites on several of our field trips in the Rio Grande Valley….celebrated when we finally saw them when we were on the last field trip!

Dark chocolate. I am celebrating the season with specialty dark chocolate first thing in the morning!

Aurora. I celebrated my small collection of pictures of the Aurora as seen from the Springfield MO area.

Cooking a big pumpkin. There was one pumpkin left from son-in-law’s pumpkin carving event and I celebrated it multiple times: that the flat side made it an easy fit in my oven to cook whole, that the seeds were large (great for roasting and then used to top salad and soups), and that there was a lot of pulp and I made custard, a cake and a frittata!

Seeing a great blue heron from my hotel window. I celebrated seeing a great blue heron on the pond below my hotel room window when I first opened the drapes on my second day in Dallas. What a great way to start the day!

Thanksgiving at memory care. The memory care facility held a special meal for the residents the Friday before Thanksgiving. My sister and I enjoyed it with my father. He cleaned his plate and enjoyed the live music. It was wonderful to celebrate with him.

Ten Little Celebrations – October 2025

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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.

Ten Little Celebrations – September 2025

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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.

Ten Little Celebrations – August 2025

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August was hot…so some of the celebrations were indoors (with air-conditioning) this month!

Naked lady lilies. It was a pleasant surprise that I have three of these plants in my yard – blooming for the first time this August. But I celebrated them because they are a remnant of my mother’s garden from 2023 just before the house/garden was sold.

Spicebush caterpillars. Earlier this summer my young spicebush didn’t have caterpillars…but is does now. I celebrated that the swallowtails have found my plant to lay their eggs.

Beautyberry. While I was pulling grass and weeds in my yard, I discovered that the beautyberry I planted last fall has survived…and is blooming. Time to celebrate!

Dispelling Myths of Native Gardening webinar (from Grow Native!). I celebrated the timing of a panel discussion about native gardening (webinar)…and gleaned some ideas I will apply in the next few weeks as I create a new area of by front yard…with native plants.

Field trip at the Lake Springfield Boathouse gardens. Another well timed opportunity for learning how to better create my new native plant garden. It was hot…but I learned enough to make it all worthwhile.

Roston Native Butterfly House. Celebrating my favorite volunteer gig of the summer…every time I work a shift there.

Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. The big cats are the draw, but I celebrated seeing a juvenile racoon and butterflies!

Two caves in one day – Cosmic Caverns and Onyx Cave. Celebrating caves…cooler than the outside temperature.

Dr. Megan Wolff’s webinar “Plastics and Public Health: the unsettling latest in medical research.” A different kind of celebration…it’s more like FINALLY someone had done a reasonable job to at articulating the rationale in one place about why our plastic creation must change dramatically. Here’s the link to the video. The bottom line is that we can’t “recycle” or “reuse” our way out of the mess.

Lawn mowing – getting it done. It’s been hot this month and I celebrate every time I finish mowing the yard…so glad that it is done for another week.

Ten Little Celebrations – July 2025

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July was a great month to be outdoors – even though it was very hot…plenty to celebrate.

Rescuing a large cecropia caterpillar from the trash. One of my morning shifts at the Butterfly House started with quite a surprise….finding a cecropia caterpillar in the trash while I was cleaning up before opening. I celebrated that I happened to look down before I threw in the messy paper towel…and could easily return the caterpillar to the table display.

Luna caterpillars making cocoons. I celebrated when my 40 or so Luna Moth caterpillars started making their cocoons. When they were all large caterpillars, it was challenging to keep them sufficiently supplied with sweet gum leaves.

More and more cocoons…and then I took the last 4 Luna caterpillars to the Butterfly House. I celebrated some quite days with only rustlings from the pupa inside the cocoons.

The first Luna Moths emerging. The first moths started to emerge…3 males in one day! I celebrated that so many of the cocoons seem viable too…so many more of these beautiful moths will be emerging soon.

A late afternoon barbeque picnic and evening mothing. I celebrated with a great meal with fellow Butterfly House docents…and then seeing how lights and sheets in the evening attract moths.

Dayl ilies at the Botanical. I celebrate the profusion of color and form of the day lilies every year about this time.

Finding S. Fred Prince’s The rainbow in the grass; wildflowers of the Marvel Cave Ozark. I was doing my usual look at botanical books for next month and happened upon this beautiful one from the early 1900s about the wildflowers in the Branson MO area….close to where I live!

Seeing cattle egrets. As I drove north from Dallas, I saw a flock of cattle egrets flying over the highway. It must be a good year for producing young.

Lake Springfield Boathouse Garden. My husband and I always enjoy the plantings around the building…and the walk down toward the field of wildflowers. We went early enough in the day that it wasn’t too hot.

Sunflowers at the assisted living home. My sister planted sunflowers in a big pot (and some of the seeds must have spilled because several plants are growing in the soil next to the pot). I celebrated that they are thriving and the memory that my niece brought a sunflower seedling in a cup home from kindergarten, and my mother propagated them along the alley for years. That niece is getting ready to have her second child soon.

All or Mothing (1)

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Last weekend, Friends of the (Springfield Botanical) Garden offered the docents for the Butterfly House a summer afternoon/evening treat - a potluck (with barbeque provided) and seeing what came to lights/sheets after dark. It was a place I had been for a field trip last fall during my Missouri Master Naturalist training (my posts about it: one, two) and I was excited to visit again. My husband came along this time, and I was glad that we were his car rather than mine (his has a higher clearance). The gravel rutted road that was the last leg seemed longer than I remembered!

There was an extreme heat warning for the day, so we didn’t do any hiking…sticking to the shady area around the cabin.

I photographed the moss on the shingles of the roof over the old well.

I remembered the spice bush from last fall; the fruit was red in the fall…still green now. The yucca pods were still green as well, but they are interesting shapes already.

To be continued…in a few days.

Ten Little Celebrations – June 2025

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Butterflies and birds…visiting a prairie and the place I spent some formative years….lot to celebrate in June.

Butterfly Festival. I volunteered at the Master Naturalist booth for the Butterfly Festival at the Springfield Botanical Garden. It was very well attended, and people seemed to be enjoying filling in the butterfly passport; I began to feel like a recording talking about the spicebush swallowtail as I handed out stickers…but kept going because the children’s excitement was contagious!

1st graders in the Caterpillar Café. 80 first graders and chaperones. I was glad the cabbages had caterpillars on them! The big message of the game I played with them was that most caterpillars don’t survive (i.e. they get eaten…baby birds need them!). I was glad I had prepared well enough that none of them cried!

Morning in the Butterfly House. I always choose the 10 AM to 12:30 PM shift in the butterfly house because it is the coolest time of the day…and, so far, every shift has been something to celebrate…and there are lots of aspects to celebrate: quiet time with butterflies/moths, watching caterpillars munching on leaves (or deciding to go walkabout), the development of fruit on the pawpaw trees, people (local and from around the world) enjoying the place.  

Luna moth caterpillars. This celebration is ongoing because the caterpillars are still growing. I celebrate every time I count and realize that the numbers munching is staying about the same (i.e. not much mortality). Every time they shed their skin and are noticeably bigger, I celebrate their survival and realize that I will have to ramp up the amount of leaves I provide.

Magnolia petals as seasoning. I celebrated my daughter’s introducing me to magnolia petals. I tried slivers in salad and a stir fry. I liked them best in the stir fry (a little strong raw). My son-in-law made kombucha with them…and I am looking forward to trying it.

Schuette prairie. My fourth prairie walk…and probably my last until it begins to cool down. I celebrated that I could identify some of the plants I’d seen on other prairies and saw bunchflower for the first time.

River Bend Nature Center. I visited Wichita Falls – where I attended grades K-10 in the 1960s - and celebrated the new-to-me River Bend Nature Center that is just the kind of place I would like to volunteer. There are aspects of our formative years that we seek to replicate in our lives….but this was an instance where I felt the place was still attuned to what I need now more than 50 years later.

Juvenile robins. I celebrated that the robins seem to spend more time in our yard…and the juvenile robins seemed to congregate in my shade garden. Maybe not using chemicals on the yard and leaving the leaves on the backyard through the winter has made a positive difference!

Missouri evening primrose. I celebrated the large yellow flowers of the native evening primrose I bought last month. It started blooming soon after I planted it and kept getting new buds.  

Hummingbird at our feeder. There is a female hummingbird that comes to the feeder on my office window multiple times a day. She gets a good long drink and seems to look at me before she flies way! I wonder if she is raising young birds nearby. Celebrating a relationship with a bird!

Ten Little Celebrations - May 2025

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So many places close to home to visit…flowers everywhere. Also a new volunteering activity…with butterflies.

Roston Butterfly House. The native butterfly house at Springfield Botanical Gardens opened in May…and I had my first volunteer shift there…celebrating the butterflies and the people that come to visit them!

Butterfly tour for first graders. There are so many little celebrations to observe and participate in on field trips with first graders: their exuberance at being outdoors, their awe of butterflies in general and joy when on alights on their shoulder or finger…celebration frequently rippling through the whole group.

Harold Prairie. I celebrated  visting a narrow swath of never plowed prairie in need of restoration…the flowers beginning to bloom after the recent mowing and the prospect of volunteer hours in the future.

Noah Brown’s Prairie. Getting to see 3 different prairie situations in a short walk is worth celebrating: a never plowed prairie recently burned, a never plowed prairie that is due to be burned in the fall, and a prairie restoration project. There was plenty to see in all three areas!

Linden’s Prairie. Another never plowed area…celebrating seeing some new species and some ones I had seen in the previous prairies.

Ag Academy. I celebrated the 5th grade Ag Academy students that were selling seedlings as a fund raiser….and getting some milkweed, zinnias, and coneflowers to plant in a big pot for my patio.

Irises. Big beautiful flowers…one of the big celebrations in my yard in May.

More native plants. I added an American Spikenard, red buckeye, and native columbines to my yard in May…celebrating that they were easy to find at a local native plant sale and that I got them planted the day after I bought them.

Successful surgery. Often times things that cause a lot of anxiety (like pending surgery) result in a celebration when the best happens…rather than the worst. That happened for my husband this month.

Young robins. I celebrated seeing fledgling/juvenile robins…and realizing what they were…in my newly creating spikenard/hosta garden. They seem to be finding things to eat in the pine needle mulch!

Ten Little Celebrations – April 2025

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April was a busy month….lots of little celebrations to choose from. My top ten are included in this post.

Lots of 300-piece puzzles. I found 23 300-piece puzzles at the used book sale and while I was sorting new donations. I’ll take a few of them each month when I go to Dallas to visit my dad so this will be a prolonged celebration.

Buying and planted spicebush. I celebrated finding spicebush at a native plant sale and bought two of them for my daughter’s yard. We got them planted the day after I bought them.

Another garden room. I savored my daughter’s garden room while ‘house sitting’ while she was at work and arborists were working in her yard.

Cherry cobbler. Cherry cobbler was one of my dad’s favorite desserts…and I celebrated that memory while realizing that it is one of mine too!

Hosta garden. I celebrated that the clumps of hostas in my flower beds were robust enough to divide and create a hosta garden between a pine tree and my patio that is too shady for other plants to grow well.

Clean windows. There was burst of spring cleaning at my house that involved windows! I haven’t done all of them yet but am celebrating the clear views from the ones that are clean.

Onondaga Cave. This is my favorite cave in Missouri (so far). I celebrated the day trip for the destination and that I did it with my daughter.

Tea Bar lunch. My daughter and I had one off-campus lunch after my geology class….to a place we had been to before. It was even better than our first lunch almost a year ago!

Edible violets. I celebrated learning that violets are edible. It is great to have native salad greens from my yard!

Car repair. I had an undercarriage cover that cracked near the front of my car. After thinking it was an easy fix (but it wasn’t) and the dealership ordering the wrong part, I celebrated finally getting it fixed.

Ten Little Celebrations – March 2025

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Lots of early spring celebrations in March!

Trout Lilies. One of the high points of our hike at Cedar Gap Conservation area was seeing trout lilies blooming down by the stream…as celebration of the new season.

Bald Eagles. The serendipity of seeing two bald eagles soaring over Springfield was another celebration of our Cedar Gap field trip. They seemed to be heading north so might have been migrating through as eagles do in the spring.

Tenure. My son-in-law was granted tenure at Missouri State University. It’s a major milestone to celebrate.

Pinecones. The wind caused pinecones to fall from our shortleaf pine and I picked up a bag of them for my sister. We both celebrated in anticipation of the fun projects she’ll do with her grandson.

Redcedar. I transplanted a small eastern redcedar that came up in my flowerbed to the place in my yard that I want it grow….and celebrated that it stayed upright even with the high winds that came along in March. It will make a great addition to the bird habitat near our patio!

Physical therapy. I celebrated that the physical therapy my dad is doing seem to be helping him recover his mobility after an illness in February.

Covid booster. My husband and I both got a booster in March…celebrated how easy it is to do at our pharmacy. We both have managed to never have Covid.

Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge. Celebrating snow geese and swans…and all the other birds at the refuge.

Orchids. The Missouri Botanical Gardens (St. Louis) Orchid Show is quite a celebration of flowers. It will probably become an early spring tradition for us from now on!

Volunteer opportunities. I am celebrating that there are so many great volunteer opportunities…lots of variety which I will continue to explore this year.

Ten Little Celebrations – February 2025

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February was busier than usual this year – a combination of a class, a new role for me in the Missouri Master Naturalist chapter, and some significant volunteer hours. It all made for plenty of little celebrations.

Owl Pellets. Having 28 children busily dissecting owl pellets – finding and identifying tiny bones. I celebrated that we picked something they all seemed to enjoy doing all the way to the end of our time (and a little beyond).

A new protein drink. Another whey-based protein drink that already has lactase added…worth celebrating for the convenience (and also because it is not as thick or expensive as the one I had been buying).

Niece going to have another baby. My sisters and I celebrated that there will be another baby in the family next fall. My sister that is the grandmother shared the news with us almost as soon as she found out.

Snowy Feeder Watch day. I celebrated the extra birds that came to our feeders when snow was on the ground.

Seeing lots of Northern Harriers. I celebrated seeing Northern Harriers on our field trip to Lockwood MO. We’d seen them before in New Mexico but not as many…and it’s thrilling to see them closer to where we live.

Lunch with my daughter. My daughter and I have been meeting for lunch a Student Union dining room after my geology class. It feels celebratory every time we meet (and we generally have dessert too).

Finding witch hazel. I celebrated when I found a witch hazel in bloom at the Springfield Botanical Garden…even though I was hoping to see more of them.

Grandniece and grandnephew. I celebrated seeing my sister’s grandchildren when I went to Dallas to visit my father. One is just learning to crawl, and the other is reasonably adept at recognizing/saying colors.

Snow day. A day of staying indoors due to weather – always a time to celebrate. The day seems like a serendipity block of time that I had not anticipated.

Soup. Soup is my favorite meal on cold days. I celebrated finding a quick and tasty one made from ingredients in my freezer: turkey meatballs, corn, broccoli, and edamame….a little seasoning and sometimes left over spaghetti sauce…delicious.