Exploring Nature by Sheila Newenham
It’s November 21, 2019, day 252 of the Flood of 2019. The flooding began on March 15th with a late winter “bomb cyclone” snow and rainstorm. Four days later, on March 17, the Missouri River at Nebraska City, Nebraska reached a record high of 30.1 … Continue readingThe Power of Nature: the 2019 Missouri River Flood
Waubonsie State Park is not what I expected. I didn’t expect to fall in love with a 2000 acre park in the southwest corner of Iowa. But that’s what happened during my first ever Artist-in-Residency. From the moment I entered the park and saw its … Continue readingWaubonsie Artist-in-Residence
A single, high-pitched yelp pierced the silence. I spun around. A wild coyote stood next to my 80 pound Labrador, Tybee. They were inches apart. Both were frozen, each seemingly unsure of what the next move should be. The coyote’s posture was non-threatening; head down, … Continue readingPolite Suburban Coyote
This is literally a hidden gem. Bluff Spring Fen in South Elgin is tucked between a cemetery, the Metra train tracks, a gravel pit/industrial park and a well-traveled road. Even as I tell you about it, driving up on it, it seems unreal – dump … Continue readingConeflower Explosion
I turn off Hwy 31 in Dundee onto Country School Road and immediately all the stress and chaos of suburbia falls away. I am heading to the Spring Bird Cottage, a retreat on fourteen acres of oak, hickory and maple woodlands with a network of … Continue readingAn Oasis of Nature
Spring woodland wildflowers are fleeting. They decorate the sunny forest floor before the trees leaf out and shade them for the summer. Two weeks ago the blood root bloomed, last week the trout lilies stole the show. This week, the ground here at Johnson’s Mound … Continue readingSpring woodland
I arrive before dawn on a cold, cloudless morning. As I gear up and start down the crushed limestone trail, the eastern horizon is beginning to lighten. At the footbridge near a beaver lodge, I slow down taking soft, deliberate steps. I think I might … Continue readingCounting Cranes
Just past the cattle pasture and crop fields, the terrain changes suddenly and dramatically. We’re heading through an oak forest, down a narrow gravel and dirt lane toward the river bottoms. There are tall, treed hills on either side of us and a meandering creek … Continue readingA Winter Morning on the Farm
After a harrowing 7 1/2 hour road trip yesterday (congestion leaving the city, then construction delays, then troopers escorting a wide load at 30 mph on the 70 mph bypass and finally a rollover accident that closed the road. Seriously. All of it), I needed … Continue readingThe Japanese Ritual of Forest Bathing
I’m sitting on my front porch on a comfy love seat. The wrens are busily feeding a noisy birdhouse full of chicks. They’ve been nesting in this birdhouse for years. Returning to the nest, the parents always perch a few branches away and announce their … Continue readingA Summer Morning with the Wrens