Category Archives: Nature

Trips I’m Considering for a Long Weekend That’s Coming Up

  • Road trip to Niagara Falls (a place I’ve always wanted to visit)
  • Philadelphia / New Jersey / Delaware (3 of the last 4 states I need to get)
  • Apostle Islands, Wisconsin (never been, looks awesome)
  • Grand Marais, Minnesota (haven’t been there for years)
  • Las Vegas Sphere (just learned about this recently!)
  • Cumberland Falls State Park, Kentucky (moonbow viewing)
  • Seattle & Portland (beautiful country, I haven’t actually been to Seattle)
  • Big Bend National Park, Texas (internet says it has one of the darkest skies in North America)
  • New York City (Broadway weekend)
  • North Cascades National Park, Washington (I hear rave reviews, and it’s the least visited national park in the lower 48)
  • Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia (the 4th of the states I need to get to, this space is suggested for it’s ‘alien landscape’)
  • Any beach (SoCal is my favorite)
  • Denver & Colorado Springs (ai suggested, it is a cool place!)
  • Grand Marais, Minnesota (haven’t been there for years, might be too early to hear the loons though)
  • Meow Wolf in Santa Fe (I have no idea what it is but its described as ‘weird, artsy, immersive’)

Things I Am Thankful For Every Single Day

  • My family – Every single one of them
  • My FFOs, the Dawetselbees, and all my other chosen Framily
  • My job– I love what I do!
  • Where I live
  • Awesome coworkers
  • Fall colors
  • Lake front property
  • Vacations – especially beaches!
  • People that make my life better because they are in it
  • Churches that have been home
  • The peace that passes understanding
  • Changing seasons
  • Cherished memories
  • Each moment I spend with my granddaughters

Entry in a Nature Journal (because the challenge was to spend 10 minutes in nature and journal about it)

Weather
-overcast, gray skies

-cool but not cold

-tiny bit of drizzle in the air

I See

-fast ripples on the lake

-plum colored tree leaves

-a bare branch pointing at the shoreline

-empty benches and picnic tables

-the shell of the boat lift, like a skeleton

-green and brown spikes of grass, like bedhead

-tall bullrushes, brown, gentle graceful movements like a hula dance

-trees, deep green, lime turning to lemon, magenta inside

-an empty wooden cross, surrounded by flowers

I Hear

-Rustling leaves, sounds like gentle waves on a beach

-distant motor sounds from the road

-low thrum of a train going away from us

-a plane overhead, high pitched at first, burning out fuel

-birds singing in different songs and pitches, like parts in a choir

-a golfcart, someone working nearby

September in Wisconsin

  • Hoodies and flip flops
  • Leaves in raucous colors
  • Blue heron on the fishing dock
  • Bonfires and smores
  • Gracious gray skies melting into the lake
  • Wild turkey in front yards
  • Skittish deer darting into the tree line
  • Boats beginning to be pulled out of the water and put up for winter storage
  • Open windows on cool nights
  • Brilliant sunshine
  • Pumpkin patches
  • Corn mazes
  • Hay rack rides