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.

Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

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The next morning was bright and sunny. I appreciated the golf course scenes from the front of our hotel room. The sidewalk was wide enough to accommodate tables and chairs; quite a few people were outdoors enjoying the morning sunshine. The bird houses seemed to be populated with sparrows.

Our destination for the morning was Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. It was our second visit (our first was in June of 2024) to see the big cats (and a few bears) that had been rescued from around the country and then provided for in this sprawling facility near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Many of the cats have health challenges either from prior abuse and/or genetic disorders caused by inbreeding. We arrived just in time for the first tram tour at 9 AM. One high point of the tour for me was a juvenile racoon that was perched on the top of one of the enclosures. Hopefully it got itself back to the forest rather than wiggling through to where it would be no match for the big cat.

The other high point was sound. Two lions were communicating! We couldn’t see either one, but it was interesting to hear their back and forth conversation across the facility.

After the tram, we walked through the area closer to the entrance. I remembered some of the cats from our last visit – a serval found by a farmer in Missouri and brought to the refuge…some bobcats found as cubs. There are also some habitats for large cats. I remembered the black leopard; she was in the same place I saw her on my previous visit; She either is turned away from people or follows them as the move about on the other side of the double fence.

One tiger was new to her area and not settled in yet. She was near the back of the enclosure and trying to ignore people and the cats in the enclosure next door. A staff member was encouraging people to be quieter near her enclosure.

There were butterflies active on a patch of zinnias: several Spicebush Swallowtails, a dark morph of the Tiger Swallowtail (I am assuming….there was one that was a lot larger than the Spicebush Swallowtails), and a Common Buckeye butterfly.   

We headed toward home, stopping at a restaurant that floated on Table Rock Lake. I took a picture of the view from our table…the bluff across a narrow arm of the lake.

On the way back to the car – turtles were visible in the water along the pontoon walkway! The red-eared slider’s markings make identification easy.

We stopped at our house on the way to my daughters…and were greeted at the door by our 3 housecats…wanting cuddles and more food!

Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

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On our first day in Eureka Springs, we enjoyed the Eureka Springs & Northern Arkansas excursion train and the Blue Spring Heritage Center. We had dinner at a local café (Sparks Roadhouse) and were at the hotel (Quality Inn Eureka Springs South) before the thunderstorms started. The hotel was different than I expected – more Victorian and with gardens. I took a few pictures as we packed up the car after breakfast.

My daughter had give us a Pride Membership to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge for Christmas and my husband made reservations for our morning tour (one of the benefits of the membership). Before the tour we walked around some of the enclosures. Taking pictures is challenging – requiring focusing on the cat rather than the cage; it’s possible to make the cage (almost) disappear!

In one enclosure there were two cats that were in motion. A staff member did a training session with one of them; using hand motions and sound to prompt the cat to move in certain ways…rewarding with a morsel of food (looked like chicken). This activity makes it easier to assess the animal’s health in the least traumatic way so is something they try with all the animals.

The tour is done on a tram with several parts; we were impressed that the sound system was very good and enjoyed the commentary about each cat.

Servals are not that much bigger than house cats…but they are evidently much more aggressive and spray frequently…they make awful pets. Evidently quite a few people have tried it and most of the rescues are from those failed attempts. They also have a serval – domestic cat cross; it is a bit smaller and looks more like a domestic cat…but has the behavior of a serval!

The enclosures have 3 areas – an enclosed ‘den,’ a night cage that includes the den and some area around it, and the larger enclosure. Most enclosures have two night cages to enable the refuge to house two cats in each (only one cat out in the larger enclosure at a time) to provide backup capacity for emergency rescues. When we were there, the cats (and the grizzly bear) were out in the larger enclosure…enjoying the morning sun.

The refuge offers several forms of lodging and we are considering going back in the fall for that adventure. The cats vocalize more at dawn and dusk!