My husband and I bought our first boat a few years ago, a used 1979, 17-foot Steury stern drive. Neither of us had prior experience with boat ownership and we looked at several before deciding on this one. It wasn’t until the boat became ours that we realized the significance of the fact that [Continue]
Did you want to be a scientist when you grew up? No? Me neither. That’s why I majored in Business in college. I don’t know why people are expected to know what they want to do with their lives when they are still teenagers. By age 30 or so most people have a better [Continue]
You probably think a pine tree just stands there year after year, shedding a few needles, getting a little taller and not changing much at all. Most people don’t know that many parts of the white pine are edible. It would be a shame to find yourself in a survival situation and not know that [Continue]
You know how when you were a kid there were things in your house that were just always there but you didn’t give them much thought or ask any questions about them? When I was a kid, my mother had a plastic decoration with brown stems and little red berries with orange-y wing-like things [Continue]
Our golden retriever, Lucy, left us last spring at age fourteen. She was always very helpful in the kitchen and garden, eating overgrown green beans, apple and pear cores, kale stalks and pretty much every other leftover vegetable and fruit except rhubarb. Lucy treated our early morning walks as trips down a buffet line. Depending [Continue]
Who doesn’t adore the sweet smell of honeysuckle? There is nothing more delightful than walking down a trail perfumed with honeysuckle in early June. However, behind the sweetness lurks a wicked invader. Those fragrant swaths of honeysuckle are unfortunately growing quickly larger and destroying all kinds of good things in their paths. There are many [Continue]
Sagittaria latifolia is a native aquatic species found in Wisconsin, and in fact, throughout the United States except for Nevada and Alaska. Throughout its range, it is called by many names including the following: Arrowleaf, Broadleaf Arrowhead, Duck Potato, Indian Potato, Katniss, Swan Potato, Swamp Potato, Tule-Potato, Wapato, Wapatoo, Wappato and Wapati. I will refer [Continue]
I like to know the names of all the plants I see regularly on my daily walk. Not being able to identify something gives me the same uncomfortable feeling I get when I see words written in a foreign language. Just a little lost and ill at ease. One morning last summer, I noticed a [Continue]
Woodlands are magnificent places in early spring as ephemeral wildflowers blanket the forest floor. Here are just a few of the beauties you might see on your trek through the woods. Skunk Cabbage Skunk cabbage grows along streams and wetlands and is the first wildflower up in spring, sometimes even pushing through ice and snow. [Continue]
Well, this just seems wrong. Wouldn’t you figure that a plant called duck potato would be something that ducks would eat? Not so, and for a couple of reasons. More on that later. I’ve seen duck potato plants all my life, but didn’t know what they were. I called them arrowhead plants for lack of [Continue]