November: Chicago

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It’s a good month to go to Chicago: not yet so dreadfully cold as to keep me indoors, and hotel prices have gone down! November 26, 2022 – Downtown Chicago decks out for Christmas. One thing you can always count on is a huge Christmas tree in Water Tower Square. Adam, one of the photog friends I hang out with in Chicago, polished this big silver ball with his sleeve before we took our selfies. Sadly, I didn’t quite manage to get our reflections in focus, but I really like the photo anyway. That’s the Water Tower behind us, a…

October: Foraging

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Everything’s gotta eat! When I am out with my camera, I especially appreciate catching critters in the act of foraging. These are not always the “prettiest” pictures. Critters in the act of capturing and consuming each other can be a bit disturbing. But they are real and beautiful in their own way, and they tell an essential part of the story. October 22, 2022 – Banana spiders (Trichonephila clavipes) rule in the autumn woods in Louisiana! This web at Black Bayou Lake NWR spanned a 5-foot opening between shrubs next to the boardwalk trail. It is constructed of golden thread,…

September: Sense of Place

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Born and raised in Iowa. It will always be Home, with a capital H. Living the good life in Louisiana. Loving my adopted home. Two places so different, so beautiful. I am enriched by both. September 1, 2022 – “Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and a filé gumbo, ‘Cause tonight I’m gonna see my ma cher amio. Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-o, Son of a gun, we’ll have big fun on da bayou.” If you’re hearing Hank Williams’ voice right now, please be aware that when he sings “bayou” and pronounces it “bayoooo” with a drawn out…

August: Dog Days Fun

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Come along now for a visit to a national wildlife refuge I had never visited before, and join me for a fun, heartening, and educational baby turtle release on the bank of the Ouachita River! August 1, 2022 – Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge is 24,000 acres of marshes and forests waaay down in the toe of the Louisiana boot, on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain. I don’t make it down that way very often, so when I had to drive I-10 and I-12 from points farther east all the way to Baton Rouge, I took a little…

July: Count Them if You Can

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Hot. July 2023 was hot, hot, hot. It is perfectly sane and respectable to just stay indoors in Louisiana in a normal July, and July 2023 was hotter than most. But you can’t see or count butterflies indoors, so…. a bunch of the incurable fortify themselves with bottles of water, field hats, and energy snacks, and out they go. July 31, 2022 – Knowing which flowers to plant is hugely helpful if you want to attract butterflies to your home, and Charles Allen wrote a book about it!* So counting butterflies at Allen Acres is great fun. Beauties like this…