Monthly Archives: March 2013

The Purple ones are Blooming, Too

Most years the purple colored crocus bloom before the yellow and white ones in our garden, and they usually beat them by a couple of days.  This year, the yellow crocus beat the purple, but only by one day. I … Continue reading

Posted in plants | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

First Flowers

Crocus are blooming. First garden flowers of the year. Ahhhh….  

Posted in plants | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Greening Up

With the arrival of spring and moisture from the melting snow, mosses which are found in the lawn are starting to turn a robust green.  

Posted in plants | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Small (very small) Signs of Spring

We had some slightly warmer weather today.  We still have areas of snow on the ground, but it is melting.  I wandered around our lawn looking for invertebrates. I had to look under some firewood before I found anything.  This … Continue reading

Posted in Biological diversity, invertebrates | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

More on Infrastructure

I looked at some land use data for Iowa.  Iowa State University Outreach and Extension publishes it here.  Calculating the numbers a little bit shows 74% of the land in Iowa as “cropland.”  Apparently there are several different types of cropland, … Continue reading

Posted in butterflies, insects | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Infrastructure

I talk a lot in this blog about nature, and since I live in the state of Iowa in the United States of America, I thought I would talk about the impact of human infrastructure on nature in Iowa. Some … Continue reading

Posted in Iowa History, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Early Morning Color

As I was getting ready to go to work this morning I noticed that the sunrise was pretty colorful. That was about the best I could do hand-holding the camera.  I am way out of practice on the landscape stuff–in … Continue reading

Posted in photography | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Don’t You Just Love March?

I like to take pictures of flowers and bugs.  That’s my hobby.  March should be a good time to do that.  Instead, I got this photograph of icicles on the porch steps. Here’s a photo I took this date last … Continue reading

Posted in rural scenics | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Pond now has Water

We have a little pond that totally dried up last year.   It has never been a big pond, and we haven’t had fish in it. Still, it’s a great pond for frogs.  We have five species that I am confident … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Odd Ice

I found this unusual ice formation near our house.  It seems to be in the drip line from the roof, and may be in a location that gets directional winds from the edge of the building. Hopefully a lot of … Continue reading

Posted in rural scenics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment