Here are a few stories, posts, and resources I’ve read and enjoyed over the past month. Hope you enjoy them, too! What I Found Interesting The post What I Found Interesting: November 20, 2024 first appeared on Lireo Designs. | Continue reading
With the unexpected warm weather we’ve had in southeast Michigan this fall, my flowers are blooming longer than usual. Including this gorgeous Dazzler Red Cosmo I grew from seed this spring. It’s more of a deep pink than red, but I love the color. Don’t you? The post Photo of the … | Continue reading
Looking at my notes over the past few years, fall seems to be the time of year I start planning changes to this website. Maybe it’s all those beautiful fall colors in the northern hemisphere that reminds me of changes and motivates me to update my website? Anyway, in my efforts t … | Continue reading
It’s been a couple years since I’ve watched/listened to Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) live webcasts. And when I discovered the DSO was performing The Planets this weekend and had a live webcast, I couldn’t pass up an evening to enjoy amazing music. This week’s photo features D … | Continue reading
Holding a door open for another person, sharing kinds words with someone you care about, or paying for the meal for the person behind you at the drive-through are unexpected acts of kindness that can make someone’s day. And sometimes we forget about that as we focus on our own li … | Continue reading
A bird I hear frequently, but rarely see as it hides among thick shrub and tree branches, showed up in my yard this week. Not one, but two, chasing each other around the backyard maple tree. And then one flew to a bird feeder where I watched it from my kitchen window. A beautiful … | Continue reading
Halloween is a popular day in southeast Michigan, and a special day not only for children and Halloween parties. Several adult friends told me about attending local Halloween events this year, including haunted forests, zombie paintball, haunted corn maze, and haunted houses. Me, … | Continue reading
As I was doing my fall cleanup in the garden, I was surprised to find an unexpected fall visitor: an early stage Black swallowtail caterpillar munching on an Italian flat parsley leaf. I knew parsley, along with dill, are host plants for Black swallowtail butterflies. But I hadn’ … | Continue reading
Here are a few stories, posts, and resources I’ve read and enjoyed over the past month. Hope you enjoy them, too! What I Found Interesting The post What I Found Interesting: October 23, 2024 first appeared on Lireo Designs. | Continue reading
It was a sunny, cool autumn day when I visited Highland Cemetery in Ypsilanti this week. The recent colder weather in southeast Michigan finally turned the 100+ year old sugar maple and hickory tree leaves brilliant shades of red, gold, and orange. A beautiful view against the cl … | Continue reading
Virtual panel discussions and speakers, workshops on backyard birding and nature journaling, and an offbeat photography contest are among the activities planned for the 2024 Birdability Week. An annual celebration dedicated to birders with disabilities and other health concerns, … | Continue reading
When we saw the amazing northern lights in May 2024, we were thrilled. Northern lights rarely reach as far south as southeast Michigan. Never thought five months later we would get another chance to see northern lights in our community. But we did, due to an 11-year solar activit … | Continue reading
If you’re annoyed with popovers and pop-ups when you try to read a post on Medium.com (or don’t want to visit Medium.com) try this tip: Replace any medium.com link with scribe.rip Voilà! You get a better reading experience with the Scribe frontend. Caveat: Using scribe.rip won’t … | Continue reading
Overlooking Nankin Lake in Westland, Michigan, on a hill west of the trail entrance, I found something unusual for Wayne County Parks. Installed sometime in 2023 during the Covid pandemic, a wind phone dedicated to a young Dearborn Heights, Michigan man nestles between the sturdy … | Continue reading
Starting today you’ll notice an updated blogroll on this website. For readers not familiar with the term, a blogroll is a collection of links to other sites and blogs a writer or blogger finds interesting, reads regularly, and wants to share with their readers. A blogroll might d … | Continue reading
When I discovered September 21-28, 2024 was Michigan Trails Week, I decided to focus on hiking and birding at my community parks and nature areas. With the announcement of a new nature area by our township supervisor in this month’s community newsletter, I thought that would be a … | Continue reading
What do some of my favorite books, Bridge to Terabithia, Julie of the Wolves, and The Kite Runner have in common? They’ve all been one of the top 10 most challenged books in the United States for 2002, 2003, and 2008 respectively. This week kicks off the annual Banned Books Week … | Continue reading
It was a remarkable week when in one evening, we saw the full moon, Harvest Moon, supermoon, as well as a partial lunar eclipse. On September 17, 2024, we watched from the shore of Lake Erie as the full moon rose in southeast Michigan around 8PM Eastern Daylight Time. A few hours … | Continue reading
Here are a few stories, posts, and resources I’ve read and enjoyed over the past month. Hope you enjoy them, too! What I Found Interesting The post What I Found Interesting: September 18, 2024 first appeared on Lireo Designs. | Continue reading
A large brownish shorebird, almost 20 inches long, with a striped head, and dark eyeline, the Whimbrel found its way to the western shore of Lake Erie this week on its migration journey south. Which attracted a lot of birders who have never seen a Whimbrel before, including me! W … | Continue reading
At the September 2024 Wild Ones Wayne County (WOWC) event, chapter co-founder and membership chairperson Derek Shaffer discussed native plant alternatives to planting common landscaping plants in your garden. And why everyone should consider planting native plants to increase pla … | Continue reading
When I saw the small bird preening in the filtered sunlight of an understory tree at Nichols Arboretum, I wasn’t sure what bird it was. It was puffed up and wet. With a yellow throat, gray cap, yellow lower bill, and what looked like black streaking on a white breast. From it’s s … | Continue reading
What fun! NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) created an online interactive site where you can spell your name in Landsat images. If you’re not familiar, Landsat is a series of Earth-observing satellites jointly managed by NASA and the United States Geological Su … | Continue reading
I always look forward to the end of summer when Michigan peaches arrive to our local farm markets. In my humble opinion, Michigan peaches are the juiciest and best tasting peaches! But I’m biased, we had a peach tree in our backyard when I was growing up. And one of my favorite t … | Continue reading
Last week we had several days of relatively cool weather for southeast Michigan. Including one night when temperatures reached the high 40’s Fahrenheit. Which had me thinking of fall and what native plants I might want to add to my garden. A good time to check upcoming plants swa … | Continue reading
I’ve been a fan of nasturtiums for years, ever since I ate my first one during my five-year wedding anniversary dinner. Loved the peppery taste of the leaves and flowers! But when I tried growing nasturtiums, I wasn’t very successful. For several years in a row, seeds would germi … | Continue reading
I’ve been a fan of xkcd comics for over 15 years. Created by Randall Monroe, xkcd comic strips launched in 2005 with jokes about life, programming, technology, and more. I remember laughing at their comic strips, but it wasn’t until the University Website comic started making its … | Continue reading
Years ago, we would be delighted to see an occasional Ruby-throated Hummingbird buzz by a neighbor’s overgrown evergreen bushes. When our neighbors cut down their 12-foot tall Eastern arborvitae, we wondered if we would see them again. /more Fast forward a few years, and our yard … | Continue reading
Here are a few stories, posts, and resources I’ve read and enjoyed over the past month. Hope you enjoy them, too! What I Found Interesting The post What I Found Interesting: August 14, 2024 first appeared on Lireo Designs. | Continue reading
Only three of us were at Erie Marsh Preserve along southwestern Lake Erie near the Michigan/Ohio border this weekend as the sun slowly set over the wetland. It was a calm, relatively cool night for early August as the day’s winds had finally slowed down. As I walked the trail bac … | Continue reading
It’s a gorgeous day in southeast Michigan. Cooler temperatures, nice breeze, bright sunshine, and blue skies have me feeling like it’s already autumn. Even though we have another month of summer. Today’ cool temperatures made me think of lighthouses, places we often visit when we … | Continue reading
It’s that time of year when shorebirds migrate south from their breeding grounds. The first shorebirds began arriving in southeast Michigan over the past couple weeks. While it’s exciting to see shorebirds return to our area after several months up north, their return is also the … | Continue reading
Like many folks around the world, much of my time since last Friday has been spent watching the Paris Olympic Games. From the outstanding opening ceremony to swimming heats to mind-boggling gymnastic team competitions, I’ve been amazed and astounded with athletes’ skills. As I re … | Continue reading
One of my favorite events in summer is attending the Michigan Jazz Festival (Wayback Machine archive) at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan. Launched in 1995, the free festival has been held at Schoolcraft College since 1999. Showcasing local jazz musicians, including high … | Continue reading
Founded in 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and Alphonse de Tonty, Detroit is celebrating its 323rd birthday today. While the weather still seems a bit iffy (there’s a slight chance of showers or thunderstorms), you can join the birthday celebration in the city at a couple ev … | Continue reading
A relatively cool summer evening and clear skies had me out birding late Friday night, in search of birds feeding from flowering native plants along the Rouge River near Dearborn, Michigan. While I saw and heard American Goldfinches, Red-winged Blackbirds, and Killdeer, it was a … | Continue reading
Here are a few stories, posts, and resources I’ve read and enjoyed over the past month. Hope you enjoy them, too! What I Found Interesting The post What I Found Interesting: July 17, 2024 first appeared on Lireo Designs. | Continue reading
My first rainbow of the summer! And I almost didn’t see it. We were out birding and got caught in an unexpected rain shower. It was late evening, and the sun reappeared low in the sky. With a golden glow across the landscape, we decided to take a slower route home on the dirt bac … | Continue reading
When I learned Figma, the popular design platform, announced Artificial Intelligence (AI) features at their June 2024 annual conference (Wayback Machine), I shook my head. Over the past couple years, I’ve become frustrated with companies (especially design tool companies) announc … | Continue reading
It may not look like much in the photo, but the white flower bud in the lower part of the green-leaved plant is the first flower bud on a pepper plant I grew from seed. Seed I collected from a mini sweet bell pepper I ate last fall! I planted the seed inside in spring… Continue r … | Continue reading
If you’re on Mastodon, the open-source decentralized social network, you’ll notice a new feature highlighting journalism: author byline links. Which currently means: when a Mastodon user shares a link to an article from The Verge, MacStories, or MacRumors, the author byline will … | Continue reading
When I was birding at Canton Township’s Heritage Park earlier this month, I noticed something different on the brick restroom building near the playscape on the north side of the park. Brightly colored wildflowers and mushrooms stood out in a mural painted on the side of the buil … | Continue reading
When I wrote about starting a gardening journal in January 2024, I chose to use the free Garden Journal from the Old Farmer’s Almanac. I wanted to record my gardening adventure in 2024, including what I planted, when seeds germinated, what did well, what didn’t, and hopefully hav … | Continue reading
With early evening rain and cloudy skies forecast in southeast Michigan, I didn’t think I’d get a chance to see June’s full moon, also known as the strawberry moon. Thankfully, skies cleared for a while before clouds soon moved over the first full moon of summer. I took a few pho … | Continue reading
Here are a few stories, posts, and resources I’ve read and enjoyed over the past month. Hope you enjoy them, too! What I Found Interesting The post What I Found Interesting: June 19, 2024 first appeared on Lireo Designs. | Continue reading
For years, I’ve picked strawberries at nearby Michigan u-pick berry farms. Which I make into strawberry jam, a favorite for my family members. This year was no different. Except for strawberries in southeast Michigan coming in earlier (Wayback Archive) than any u-pick farmer here … | Continue reading
If you use DuckDuckGo as your search engine, be aware the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assist feature is turned on by default. For people who don’t want AI used in their DuckDuckGo search results, you’ll need to turn AI Assist off in each of your browsers (desktop and mobile) as … | Continue reading
This weekend was one of the few times I’ve actually seen a Vesper Sparrow, instead of only hearing it singing its distinctive song of whistles, trill, and buzz. As you can tell from my photo of the half-obscured bird, it’s not one of my better photos. I could barely make out the … | Continue reading