It’s mid-March 2018 and I’m watching for the first native flowers of the Ozarks to start blooming. I particularly love the ephemeral blooms of early spring, like the bloodroot and Dutchmen’s breeches. Scroll down to see pictures and keep up …
Category: Nature
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Vernal Witch Hazel Flowers and Hazelnut too!
Today I went out to take cuttings from the Ozark Witch Hazel in the hopes of rooting them. I wasn’t looking for an American Hazelnut, but that’s what I found! I found the Witch Hazels, too. But I already knew …
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Day 14: Nature Journal Series – Sunlight on Distant Hills
Sunlight on distant hills always makes for a pretty picture. It’s just hard to capture, whether by camera or pencil. This time I tried with my Prismacolor pencils.
About this journal entry
Some autumn seasons bring vivid colors, while others …
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Virginia Creeper Seedling in my Ebony Spleenwort Fern
There’s a Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) seedling creeping up toward the light in my spleenwort fern (Asplenium platyneuron) container. I watched it for a few days with a suspicious eye as it unfurled, because I thought it might be a poison …
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Day 13: Nature Journal Series
Signs of Life
About this journal entry
The signs of life during the coldest parts of winter always intrigue me. I love seeing the green grass shoots found under a layer of snow or peeking out from the shelter of …
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Day 12 – Outline of an Ambitious Drawing
About this journal entry
I started drawing (again) when my husband bought me a set of Prismacolor pencils for my birthday in 2015. Before that it had been decades since I last picked up an art utensil of any …
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Relics of Seasons Past & Sepia-toned Beauty
I went in search of harbingers of spring but found only sepia colored relics of seasons past.
Relics
Not sure what the flower is, but it makes a pretty relic. …
This is one of my favorites – a dried wild -
Namesake of the Dragon – Another Green Dragon Drawing
Here’s the second of the Green Dragon drawings I’ve been working on. I posted the first part of it last week. This part is called the spathe (the hood) and the spadix (the long ‘tongue’) and it is the …
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Frozen Fog in the Distance
We’re not getting snow this winter, but we’ve gotten a few glimpses of frozen fog, or hoar frost, at least.…
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Too Many Irons in the Fire
This is a fiery sunset photo taken several years ago and it prompted my idea to write this post about having too many irons in the fire. Dense dark clouds hung low on the horizon, allowing the setting sun to …
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Armadillo Dilemma: To Kill or Not to Kill
Armadillo hide-out. So last summer I noticed an armadillo had moved into one of the ginseng nursery beds. It’s been a destructive force in the area since it arrived a couple of weeks ago. I wrote this post while trying …
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Day 11 – Nature Journal Series
About this journal entry
My son says my nature sketching looks like a turkey feather. It is not. It is a leaf half submerged in the water, haha. Can’t have the world at large making the same mistake.
About the
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Day 10: Nature Journal Series
Old Oak Tree
About this journal entry
I’m not sure this tree is a Post Oak, but she is old and her name is Gloria. Gloria graces our front yard and she has been there for probably 200 years. …
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Things I’ve Heard but Never Seen- Spring Peepers
How many things have you heard but never seen? One that confounds me every year is a little frog.
Today was a very windy and warm day, warm enough to make it easy to work up a sweat while helping …
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A Green Dragon Drawing
I’ve been working on a Green Dragon drawing for the cover of NANPS’s summer issue of Blazing Star. There will be another of the spathe and spadix to do next. That one will be used in the article.
Here’s the …
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Guest Post: Climate Change. Just My Thoughts and Observations
A note from Madison: Just to clear up some confusion – This is a guest post. It’s not my article. My own opinion on things is a lot more woo-woo and probably a lot less “scientific”, in spite of my …
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What Does a Nature Farm Produce?
Today I took a little hike after feeding the horses. I was on a mission to collect moss and lichen-covered branches. These are just some of the things the Wild Ozark Nature Farm produces.
And that’s how a nature farm …
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Things I’ve Learned (Since Moving to the Country)
These are the things I’ve learned since moving out here to Wild Ozark.
I used to think I lived in “the country”, before we moved out here. That was thirteen years ago and I quickly realized once we burnt the …
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An Exploration of our Wild Ozark Bluff
Yesterday we took the day off from our usual daily work and hiked around Ozark bluff that follows our driveway. Every time we travel to and from the house, we look at it and comment that we’d like to get …
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Hiking to the Wild Ozark Corner Bluff
A while back, I posted about our exploration of the bluffs along the driveway. This time we went hiking to what I call the “Corner Bluff”.
It’s not far away, either, but takes a bit of effort. Getting to …
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Freezing Fingers for Nature Art – Photos, Bringing Hay to Horses on an Icy Morning
It was 12* F as the sun came up over the mountain yesterday morning. I headed outside to feed the animals, and freezing fingers were in the forecast. When I fed the horses, I walked across the creek to check …
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Black and White Cloudscape #nowordsneeded
#nowordsneeded and the title of the photo are all I put on these posts. If you’d like to participate in this Twitter and Blogging meme, use the hashtag in your title and leave a comment with a link to
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Guest Post: A Nature Enthusiast’s Guide to Southwest Missouri
A note from Madison: I get many requests by content providers to do guests posts here on the Wild Ozark blog. Most of the time, the subject matter isn’t closely related enough to nature or any of the site topics. …
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Build your Herbal Armory!
Useful plants grow all around us. It’s time to start building your herbal armory of plant allies now.
My book, 10 Common Plants worth Knowing in a Long-term Survival Situation, will introduce you to ten at a time. I’ll …
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Day 9: Nature Journal Series
Grapevine & Insect Observation
Nature Journal entry from Day 9.
About this journal entry
On Day 9 of my daily journaling stint, I didn’t feel like getting off of the porch and I wondered if I could find something nearby …
