Not the weather — the cicada — Superb Dog-day Cicada, Neotibicen superbus Listening to night songs was a wonderful aspect of growing up Kansas. Prior to the onslaught of air conditioning, old, two-and-a-half-story wooden homes had huge attic fans that pulled a breeze into upper-story bedroom windows — most nights. Other nights, especially airless nights…

You’re doing your morning rounds and all’s right with your summer world when suddenly, your eye catches something the color of a perfectly roasted marshmallow — WHAT-T-T-T-T? But it’s bigger — much bigger — than a marshmallow, and upon closer inspection, not something you’d want on a S’more. The glob has swamped some southern coastal…

Garden chores, like watering a garden, are excellent opportunities for mind-drifts. Thoughts are all over the place, but these mental leaps and bounds often provide impressive insight — especially when pen and paper is reached before the elusive thoughts dissipate. On a dreadfully hot June morning — before news of last week’s forthcoming Valley storms…

L.A.N.D.S. workshops are back for the summer More than 25 Valley teachers and a couple of Texas Master Naturalists attended the first interactive workshop this week at Resaca de la Palma State Park, in Brownsville. I arrived early enough to snag a few photos to upload onto iNaturalist. What greeted me was a row of…

You’ll have been having a daily show for the past three months if you’re a fan of Basket Flower, Plectocephalus americanus, page 117, Dr. Al Richardson and Ken King book, “Plants of Deep South Texas.” It’s really fun to spy the first leaves poking out of the earth in early March. Each year I wonder…

It’s always fun to fall in love with a new flower. During the last day of the 2019 City Nature Challenge, fellow Texas Master Naturalist Frances Barrera and I spent a couple of hours around the dunes next to the Texas A&M Coastal Studies Lab at the Isla Blanca County Park beachfront. We were really…