Picture-Perfect… and Bird-Friendly
As a child I remember watching the TV show Sing Along with Mitch, which was on television from 1961 to 1966. Families tuned in on Sunday evening to sing songs
The Great Outdoors
Gateway to Autumn
Welcome, September, the gateway to autumn. Throughout the Northern Hemisphere, Saturday the 23rd marks the start of fall—the autumnal equinox. In the Southern Hemisphere it occurs in March. Our days
Sweet and Swampy
It was 35 years ago that I first began to take notice of sweetbay magnolia, Magnolia virginiana, during our travels along the banks of the Menantico River in mid-June, checking
Spiders, Oh My!
The first book to make me cry, as I remember, was E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web. In the story a pig named Wilbur befriends an orbweaver spider named Charlotte. Wilbur
Think Inside the Box
Having been a gardener for several decades now, I have spent many hours on hands and knees setting out, weeding, and tending my plants. As I began to get a
Yellowjacket Conflicts…
Recently we got a new family member, Deuce. He is a dog, a working dog, and a Brittany pointer (they used to be called spaniels). At eight months Deuce is
Lonely Hearts?
The other night we ate supper in our screen porch. There was a cacophony of insect sounds, primarily katydids and crickets. But resonating above the rest was a lone—or possibly
A Tree Grows—and ‘Dies’—in Suburbia
This is a story about a tree, a street tree, what urban foresters would call a part of the community forest. Living within the confines of the sidewalk and the
A Singular Attraction
Last summer my friend Christine and I embarked on a multi-day trek to South Jersey’s coastal nature areas and other outdoor-oriented venues, resulting in a three-part travelogue in SNJ Today.
Artful Arranging
Last week our article was about one of our native hydrangea shrubs, oakleaf hydrangea. Researching the plant took me on an internet surf that changed into a riptide, where I
