Every morning on my way to the Bosque I keep a sharp eye out for subtle changes in the color of the Coyote Willows – Salix exigua – that line the ditches and the river. In a month or so these slender shoots and bushes will turn burnt orange or a deep rose red (depending […]

The Age-Friendly Community Initiative heard you: you want more opportunities to meet up and socialize! So we plan to regularly sponsor two different types of events. The first strictly social lunch, “Luck of the Seniors,” will be on Tuesday, March 24 at the Newry Grange. Another new program is called “The Brew.” (Get it? We’ll […]

Even without natural snow for several weeks, Prime Time Ski Club members were pleasantly surprised that the ski conditions were as good as they have been and they give a lot of the credit to the amazing Sunday River groomers. As I am writing this, we are getting a major snowstorm so that should make […]

Recently a reader shared that he had noticed a dramatic drop in birds visiting his yard and feeders. If you’ve had this happen, it can be for a number of reasons. Today, however, I’d like to discuss how predators can impact who’s visiting your yard. An abrupt absence of birds can be because something dangerous […]

Every morning I set off to the river and to my refuge, the Bosque, walking under dying cottonwoods whose bark is peeling away from dead tree limbs. Just in the past summer a few of these magnificent matriarchs have crashed to earth providing nutrients that will one day support some other kind of ‘tree of […]

Do you get skiddish when groomed corduroy snow becomes broken up or hard-packed snow becomes even firmer as the ski day goes on? Do patches of ice on a late afternoon slope make your hands sweat? Do you ski fast because you can’t ski slow and sometimes feel out of control? If you answered yes […]

An area of intense study is how will plants and animals adapt to warming temperatures. An important question for scientists and birders alike is which birds will be able to adapt to changes in temperature and habitat, and which ones will struggle and need to go elsewhere if they are to survive. Two birds in […]

My first unusual experience with a plant occurred when I was a baby. I had been set upon a blanket and left in the summer sun. Above me a large sunflower bowed her head. As I gazed up at the disk it suddenly began to expand growing larger and larger and then shrunk again, over […]

ABOUT THE AGING PROCESS – DID YOU KNOW? 1. What I’ve found as a member of the over-70 crowd is that there’ve been a lot of innovations in my long lifetime – a lot to keep up with!  Technology, of course, is a big one – laptops, tablets, smart-phones, smart TV’s, for heaven’s sake!  And whom […]