In mid-November, Jan and I filled our birdfeeders and carefully positioned them outside the double-window near our kitchen table. We enjoy watching chickadees, juncos, woodpeckers and other birds pecking at seed encrusted suet and eating from our tube feeders. With the past few weeks’ extreme cold and snow, the birds have been exceptionally hungry.
A few days ago, I began to wonder where all these bird names come from. Why do we call one bird a ...
Continue Reading → ShareOur weather forecasters have added to their recent forecasts words like “polar vortex” and “snowquake” alongside their usual references to falling snow, sleet, or mixed precipitation. The same forecasters could just as easily include predictions of “falling bodies.” According to one source, over 42,500 people fall on ice or snow each winter and injure themselves. At one time or another, many of us are probably included in those statistics.
When ...
Continue Reading → ShareLast Friday evening, the local news media were working themselves and us into a panic over the approaching snowstorm. As it turned out, the panic was justified. It was a big storm after all! So instead of a busy Sunday, I found myself settling into a morning with nothing to do but look out my window into a “white space” full of swirling snowflakes.
“White space” is a term that’s used by graphic designers ...
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