The morning of Dec. 9 we woke to a dusting of about 1 inch of snow that had me scraping the windshield and brushing off my truck before heading to the office. For some folks winter starts with the first snow, but for me it…

Outside my kitchen window, about 20 yards from the house is a bald-faced hornet’s nest. Suspended by a single thin branch on an old sugar maple tree, it hangs seven feet off the ground and is remarkable for its size and beautiful shape. The nest…

Star gazing is a wonderful activity any time of year, but something about a cold, clear and moonless winter night makes it seem even more magical. There is science behind the magic of winter star gazing; lower humidity in the winter atmosphere means clearer, crisper…

The season of dazzling hillsides ablaze with vivid, colorful, autumnal foliage is all but over. There may be three more weeks before the winter solstice, but already most of our trees are showing their bare, skeletal branches, foretelling the approaching season of cold. At this…

Thanksgiving ushers in a season of celebration. We set aside our hectic lives to gather with family and friends to break bread, give thanks and enjoy cherished traditions. Roasted turkey with all the trimmings has usually been our mid-day meal, and when I was growing…

Some of our region’s mammals and birds either hibernate or migrate to survive the cold winter season of limited food resources. Snug in dens they snooze through the cold weeks and months or fly thousands of miles to tropical regions full of insects and blooming…