Author Archives: makielb

A beautiful Moon before sunrise. Then in the late morning it was time to head off and look for plants and insects Hepatica, still a month away from budding and blooming. So there’s still a lot of time to get out and see these. Blue ash, now a fairly rare tree in Michigan. Skunk cabbageContinue reading “Nan Weston in February”

Charles Darwin was born on February 12 1809. He collected finch specimens in the 1830s on the Galapagos Islands. They were one of the critical species involved with his describing the process of evolution. The finches were first called Darwin’s finches in 1936 by Percy Lowe. One of the highlights of my teaching career atContinue reading “Charles Darwin”

Under our feeders we had a large flock of Pine Grosbeaks – here are 7 of the 17 that were here. Here’s a male Pine Grosbeak at a feeder. A clear warm morning meant that there were good views of the Moon. These photos were taken two hours apart. A poor photo of a SpruceContinue reading “A February morning in Paradise”

The Diego Rivera murals at the DIA are something that I always stop to see when I am there. They are truly amazing. Andy Warhol self portraits. I guess that there were an early form of selfies. A piece of art by Yoko Ono. It’s a metal reproduction of the shirt that John Lennon wasContinue reading “More art from the DIA”

This morning, well before sunrise we headed to downtown Ann Arbor to catch the D2A2 bus which would drop us off in Detroit. There we would catch the Q-line trolly to the Detroit Institute of Art to see the Van Gogh in America exhibition. We arrive in Detroit after sunrise and headed to the DIA.Continue reading “Van Gogh in America”

A poem to end the year: The Death of the Old Year Alfred, Lord Tennyson – 1809-1892 Full knee-deep lies the winter snow,And the winter winds are wearily sighing:Toll ye the church bell sad and slow,And tread softly and speak low,For the old year lies a-dying.       Old year you must not die;       You came to us so readily,       YouContinue reading “The end of 2022”

Starting our year in Florida in late January, 2022 meant that we had the pleasure of seeing lots of anoles. Another Florida highlight were gopher tortoises. We are now pretty good at knowing how to find them. Congaree National Park in South Carolina has a delightful boardwalk. We were able to look down on manyContinue reading “Some animals from 2022”

well, here they are – the last four garden tomatoes of 2022. We picked these is late October when they were still green and let them slowly ripen. We’r4e hoping that one will last until Sunday, making it into 2023. I let you know if that happens. Now on to insects. A Julia and ZebraContinue reading “Some insects from 2022 and the last tomatoes from the garden”

Our day started with Susan making popovers. Candle-lit breakfast with popovers, marmalade and applesauce. As always I was up well before dawn, taking Susan coffee when the bedroom light went on. All of our Christmas decorations are in the front window. Neighborhood decorations are looking quite nice with the snow. A small skating rink withContinue reading “Christmas 2022”

It’s that time of year – the Christmas Bird Count season (CBC). This year we will be doing two. The Ann Arbor CBC on 17 December and the Whitefish Point CBC on 27 December. This should be a lot of fun, especially since we have not done a CBC since before 2019. We’re expecting aContinue reading “Christmas bird counts 2022”