Adventure Awaits!
Summer Days and Nights
One early spring morning in Wisconsin, a luna moth pupa wiggles. It had spent all winter camouflaged in the leaf litter and its ability to wiggle scared off several predators, including several mice. Now that its metamorphosis is complete, the adult moth uses the serrated spurs near the front edge of its wings to split open its cocoon. Wet and tired, the male luna moth emerges. Mr. Moth spends the day resting and letting his wings dry. He will not eat and must rely on his store of fat from his caterpillar stage. Adult luna moths only have about a…
Nature’s Quaking Trampoline
My five and seven-year-old grandsons take me out for a paddle boat ride on our cabin’s northern Wisconsin lake. The five-year-old spies a neighbor’s blown-up orange and yellow plastic raft that is also a trampoline. “Can we bounce on that?” he asks. I have to explain that it isn’t ours and tell him no. His near tears tug at my heart. “What we can do, though,” I say, “is bounce around on quaking bogs.” “On what?” the seven-year-old asks. I tell them about the springiness of a bog mat, the sponginess of sphagnum moss, and our chances of seeing wildlife…
The Power of Story
“The tooth must be extracted,” my dentist said, “and because of how the roots are way up in the sinuses and its location, it will be complicated. I’m referring you to the oral surgeon.” I was in pain and when I called to make the appointment, I couldn’t get in for several weeks. I wanted to get this done and get on with my life. I didn’t sleep well the night before the extraction. The word “complicated” kept haunting me. A friend of mine had an oral surgeon remove a tooth and ended up with a broken jaw. Another friend…