Author Archives: makielb

I’m sitting in the garden looking out at. the plants. Beans in flower. Basil that needs to be harvested. Ripening tomatoes and squash. All easily see from the tble on the deck. But my mind wanders to birds. A House Wren singing behind the fence. Red-winged Blackbirds and doves overhead. A Great Egret, Trumpeter SwansContinue reading “Drawing birds”

A year and a half into the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) pandemic and the United States is slipping backwards in both the number of new cases, deaths and hospitalizations. This slide is being driven by the combination of the delta-variant and anti-vaxxers. The number of new daily cases on 3 August, 104,758 was the greatest number sinceContinue reading “The continuing Covid-19 pandemic in the United States”

As I have said before I started making a family tree in 1963. This started as a school project thanks to Mrs Weidemann at Clippert Elementary School. By the end of 1963 I had talked to my three living grandparents (my grandfather Michał Kiełb died in 1943), as well as all of my aunts andContinue reading “Family from the past”

The blueberries in the above photo were collected in the wild so to speak. At Whitefish Point we have tremendous access to several types of blueberries, both within close proximity to our cabin and on the state land across Whitefish Point Road. Before returning to Ann Arbor we picked blueberries wherever we found them. ThereContinue reading “Gifts from our gardens”

When I went to Panama a few years ago, besides vaccinations for yellow fever, hepatitis-A, hepatitis-B and typhoid I had to take malaria medications. That only left three major insect-borne diseases to be concerned about – zika, dengue fever and chagas disease. Chagas is caused by a parasite found in the feces of Triatomine bugsContinue reading “Malaria among other mosquito borne diseases”

The other night while checking our moth lights Susan found a rather friendly skunk, first in the garden, then on the deck. This brought back memories of conducting late summer field trips for the Michigan Audubon Society and the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory called “Botany, bugs and beasts.” This field trip was a fun twoContinue reading “Botany, bugs and beasts”

Angelo’s Restaurant was the first place that we ate in Ann Arbor in 1977, when I first moved to Ann Arbor. Amazingly it has changed very little since then. At the time, my first wife, Kathy and I lived lived on Island Drive, a short walk to the Medical School for her and the AnatomyContinue reading “Today’s photo and more”

For much of my life I have carried pencils, pens and watercolors where ever I was. In reality I had started drawing by 1956 – a very long time ago. Even while I was leading natural history tours in Mexico in the 1980s and 1990s I took some time to sketch. The above photo ofContinue reading “Drawing and painting”

Whether I am at home or at the cabin I am never sure what books I will be using or reading. Since it is summer I am always pulling out a but or two on insects or plants. Moths seem to be dominating our lives more than in previous years. Last year Susan became moreContinue reading “Books and reading”

For over 58 years I have worked on my family tree. But it grown well beyond a family tree into a family history covering my family in North America, Poland and Italy. This year I have been working on a mystery in Italy. My great-grandfather Stanislao Bellotti (died 1901) was described to me (by myContinue reading “Genealogy, the past that ties us together”