The change is beginning to accelerate. Weather is calling for high 20s, low 30s tonight, possible freeze. Woolly worms out on the paths today, along with blond hairy worms (say what?). The neighborhood deer are beginning to go from red to gray and are out all day eating like pigs. The Farmers’ Almanac, as I [...]

This will be mostly photos. The wolves are  two of three who had to be removed from coyote leg-hold traps by one conservation officer, just last week. Word is that the release process revealed that releasing the animals wolves proved challenging.  The largest weighed 85 pounds, the smallest 60-65. The tree Shanahan is staring at [...]

This is one of those things that requires no explanation, or an explanation as long as the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Takes your pick. Over.

True story, from northern Indiana. I’ve seen all the paperwork.  Guy puts some sort of insect bomb in his house, as he does every spring. Let’s his two cats stay outside. They nap on back porch. Guy leaves to run quick errands, comes back, and  finds note and ticket  from animal control. The cats have [...]

Back from camp a couple of hours ago. Fun week, weird weather. 60s, humidity in 80s, 90s. I checked various fly shop website before leaving and they were all reporting “low water but fish runs about to hit peak.” This sort of thing has gone on with many proprietors who ply the Pere Marquette for [...]

Northgoingiamsoon, in Yoda-speak. Yesterday was a city day, a very nice and mild and sunny  one.  Morning began at the Bank Street Farmer’s Market, which you have to see to believe in terms of foods, and colors, and people. Ever seen a hooded gourd? Me either, until yesterday. Thence to the fabled  Azteka Bakery and [...]

Check the Sept. 10 Grand Rapids Press story about this: You will find a photo of 66-yr old Tom Healy holding a 41 pound, 43.75 inch long brown caught Wednesday morning  on the Manistee  River. It was hooked on a Rapala Shap Rap lure and took 15 minutes to boat. The current state record is [...]

A friend told me this story this morning and it’s the kind that begs to be shared because it says something wonderful about how community is supposed to work.
A few days ago my friend called an elderly woman friend  at an assisted living facility  to ask if she wanted to go for a “burger and [...]

After installing new fence sections this morning, I packed the Green Streamer and headed for TBI on the Kalamazoo River. I parked at the Want-Some-Palace and cut through the woods, waded out to the island and looked around, spooking up a blue heron with an annoyed graak!.  It had been unexpectedly overcast all morning, but [...]

A friend sent me some interesting photos of odd things, carnivorous pitcher plants, and a strange salamander from Mexico, allegedly kept in some places as pets and sold in Japan as “oompa loompas.” One source says the Aztecs believed the creatures to be incarnations of the lightning death god, Xolotl, who cleverly and unexpectedly morphed [...]