Backyard Spectator

A journal of outdoor observation, written in response to the simple act of paying close attention for an hour a day to the natural sights and sounds of an ordinary backyard in Decatur, Georgia, or wherever my travels take me, with the intention of recording the single most interesting perception of the hour. The challenge has taught me to expect the unexpected!

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Three Nice Mice

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While visiting my daughter and her wife in Northern Vermont:  These adorable creatures were huddled in the bottom of the compost bin when I ...
8 comments:
Sunday, July 21, 2024

Out 0f Season Backyard Camellias

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Allow me to stray from my usual topic of backyard observations to tell a story about a watercolor painting by my dear artist friend Sheila, ...
2 comments:
Tuesday, April 30, 2024

The Promised Story of the Four Raised Beds

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My siblings and I were reared in a gardening culture in the middle of Kansas where sun was never in short supply. Full sun vegetable gardens...
4 comments:
Monday, March 4, 2024

Kale Show Offs

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  I love it when I plant something new in my garden, and it way out-performs my expectations. Enter the spectacular ornamental kale. How the...
1 comment:
Saturday, February 10, 2024

Cedar Waxwings Galore!

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Friends, Warmer weather and a whistling flock of cedar waxwings (called an “ear-full” or “museum”) invited me outdoors yesterday, strengthen...
4 comments:
Friday, September 22, 2023

Fungi Wonderings

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These odd looking mushrooms popped up in my backyard overnight. Might they be the fabled edible chanterelles?  My neighbor, Ed, will know. H...
Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Backyard Visitor

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 Coyote in the back yard. 7:30p.m.  Skinny. Hungry. Sniffing in the grass and searching in the places where we saw a rabbit earlier that day...
5 comments:
Sunday, July 2, 2023

Noisy Nestlings

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BLUEBIRD UPDATE: Once the parents finished building the nest in the new house, Mama laid four eggs on June 5th.  She sat on the eggs faithfu...
1 comment:
Saturday, June 17, 2023

Nature’s Consumers: Fungi

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Slime mold again! Growing this time on the seat of my already deteriorating backyard swing, helping it along on it's slow return to the ...
Friday, June 16, 2023

Cooper's Hawk to the Rescue

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On the sad reality of nature colliding with human civilization: A louder than usual crash called our attention to the sliding glass back doo...
2 comments:
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dkm
Suzuki flute instructor. Backyard birder. Retired early from teaching first grade for City Schools of Decatur, GA and from supervising student teachers at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. Now trying my hand at writing fiction for young readers, and recently, at haiku, having read up on Basho. Life is so surprising!
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