Author Archives: makielb

We were on the road today, heading to Whitefish Point for the week. But our trip north is rarely a more-or-less straight line. We were planning to stop in St. Ignace to get pasties for dinner and visit Point LaBarbe for fall plants. Neither stop was disappointing. Dinner would be a traditional pasty for me,Continue reading “Point LaBarbe, Michigan”

Last Sunday we had breakfast at the garden with a great friend. This marked the start of a hectic week. Then we spent part of the day in downtown Ann Arbor. We really enjoyed the “Graffiti Alley.” Nickels Arcade has been a favorite stop for many years. The Michigan Theatre was just begging to beContinue reading “The hectic days of fall”

We were basically out on a walk that lead us to a few interesting trees and insects. The above Osage orange is an interesting tree in that southern Michigan is the northern edge of the range for finding it. That said, there are many street and park trees that do not occur here naturally. ItContinue reading “Take a walk on the wild side: a few photos from a morning walk”

The other morning I was disturbed by a story I was listening to on NPR. A person discussing the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (Covid-19) stated that the virus mutated in order to continue to evade antibodies and infect other people. Obviously, the person had no training in medicine, microbiology or physiology. Viruses, like anything that containsContinue reading “What are viruses?”

For the first 40 years of working on my “family tree” all of the information that I gathered was from talking to family members. I was fortunate enough to have numerous relatives who were born in the late 1800s who were willing to talk to me. Shortly after 2000 I discovered the genealogy library inContinue reading “Genealogy work over the past few years.”

Time to ignore the insects (hah, as if I can do that) and pick beans. I needed to do this before they were too big and tough. I do this every few days. Typically, I pick enough beans for three meals. But when I added the beans from today we probably had more than aContinue reading “Today in the garden”

In the late spring, all summer and into fall we spend a lot of time in our garden. As a result of the time we spend there we get a lot of vegetables and encounter many interesting insects. The cicada killer ( a large wasp that nests in our yard, usually along the edge ofContinue reading “Insects in the garden and more”

It should be of no surprise to know that as I rearrange bookshelves, getting rid of things I no longer need or want I run across books that were an important part of my life, such as this small volume by Stuart Hill, Emerging Infectious Diseases published in 2006 (Pearson/Benjamin Cummings, ISBN-0-8053-3955-8). This small volumeContinue reading “2003 SARS Pandemic”

While taking a walk the other day I found the above book in a “Free Little Library” that we walk past on a daily basis. Sometimes we leave a book, or like the above take one. This reminded me of a trip that I lead in the Yucatan for the Michigan Audubon Society (MAS) inContinue reading “My time in Mexico (Part 2)”

In light of today’s horrific events in Kabul I decided to post some old photos that I took in Mexico over the years. The above howler was just outside of the archeological site some 20 meters up near the canopy of the forest. AT the time it was eating leaves and perhaps acorns. The aboveContinue reading “Photos from Mexico”