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February is National Bird-Feeding month!

I’ve been watching the little dark-eyed juncos at the bird feeder today. They keep hopping onto the tube feeder and then quickly off. I did some reading, and found that they are ground feeding birds, so would really rather...

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How old is that oak?

When we say that we found an oak that is at least 400 years old, what do we base that conclusion on? Obviously, we would have to cut the tree down to count the rings, and unless it is already dead, we aren’t going to do that! The...

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What does the warm winter mean?

In December 2010, I wrote an article about the coming of winter – “Slow down and take a cue from nature” In it, I discussed the fact that in this part of the world, nature takes a break in the winter, and...

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Snowflakes and Wilson Bentley

When first married, my husband and I moved to Vermont from Chicago, motivated by our image of that state as a beautiful, rural paradise – the antithesis of gritty Chicago where our car got broken into every few weeks. We thought...

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Whether we weather the weather

As I write this, it is December 30, 2011, 11am, and I am in Woodstock, Illinois. And it is about 40 degrees and raining. Okay, that looks as strange in writing as it sounds in my head. I remember a New Year’s Party...

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