A Visit to the Sea Turns into a Book Adventure

Looking out from museum at Duluth, Minnesota.

We, my wife and I, recently planned a little trip up north. We have a daughter who lives in the Twin Cities suburb of Mahtomedi in Minnesota. And early in August we made the four-hour drive north for a quick visit.

It was one of several short trips we took this summer—we stayed overnight in the Amana Colonies, for example, and we took a grandson to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art for a spontaneous visit on a rainy August Friday.

But back to Minnesota. Other than knowing that we would be seeing the grandchildren there and hanging out, “planned” might be a strong verb. But in a phone call shortly before the visit, our daughter asked if there was anything in particular we wanted to do on this visit. I had just written on another blog about a book I read concerning the shipwreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a 1975 tragedy that claimed the lives of all 29 seamen on the ship. And I mentioned I have actually never seen Lake Superior and thus might want to go to Duluth.

Well, I don’t know the geography of our neighbor to the north all that well. In my mind, Lake Superior and Duluth were way up there at the north edge of the state, between the United States and our current enemy (although I can’t fathom why), Canada.

As a glance at the map will prove, I was making some incorrect assumptions. Lake Superior is a giant inland sea, but is so vast that it not only touches both Canada and the U.S., it also cuts to the middle of Minnesota. Duluth, as it turns out, is not all that remote.

And so, on an August Saturday morning, we piled into two vehicles and began the drive north. Which turned out to be along a busy interstate, but also through very comely countryside—woods, rocky outcroppings, farmland. And dramatic changes in elevation as we came into Duluth—my ears popped like we were landing in an airplane as we zoomed down into the valley of a vast lake.

We ate a very satisfying breakfast at the Duluth Grill, and then ventured to a maritime museum in the city’s port. It was a good museum, and there was a display about the Edmund Fitzgerald. Then we had ice cream at a local shop we walked to and drove though the city to park near a local beach. My daughter had heard from a Duluth native that this beach was nice, and wasn’t overcrowded as some other stretches of lakeshore tend to be.

But as we were approaching our parking destination, we noted an old church that had been converted into a used bookstore. In the grounds of the church, some arts and craft fair was going on.

And since we happened to be in town, why not? We sauntered over.

Books we acquired on our trip, the title page of the photo book and the Duluth bookstore.

Several pleasant books-browsing hours passed. The fair was fun, but the real treat was the chaotic, stuffed interior of the store. Most of their inventory was old hardcovers, and I found an interesting history of photography, published in the 1930s.

Books were an unexpected theme of the whole visit—during our trip, we also visited another used book store in St. Paul, where my wife and I had found a few other interesting tomes.

Anyway, after the Duluth bookstore visit, we walked through a city park with a large rose garden located on bluffs over the lake, and then found a path down to the rocky beach. We hung out for a while, contemplating life on the shores of the lake they call Gitche Gumee.

Views from a Duluth beach.

From the look of what I saw on this brief visit, this is a corner of the planet I wouldn’t mind meandering a bit more in. Duluth was a very entertaining, quirky town. For an old rust-belt sea port, it was, at least in the parts I saw, old and pretty and full of a weird hippie-Viking hybrid vibe. It was very nice.

And I would like to see more of Superior in less urban areas, too.

The Lily and the Heron are from a walk along White Bear Lake in Minnesota. Other nature views are from walk around Lily Lake in Amana, Iowa. Art from Cedar Rapids Art Museum. Despite the heat, there has been a lot of beauty, too, in summer 2026.

The August journey north was the highlight of trips in summer 2026, to me, although there were other pleasant sojourns, too. A niece got married in South Dakota, and the trip there was fun. We also spent a rainy August Friday when we were watching a grandson taking him to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. There, I lent him one of my cameras, and he and his grandmother played a game of making images of details of artworks, and having me then try to find them.

In mid-July, we drove over to the nearby Amana Colonies and stayed overnight, visiting several of the small museums there and enjoying a pleasant late day walk around Lily Lake.

Summer 2026 was a bit of challenge. It’s early September, and we’re in the midst of a heat wave in a season that has featured several of those. Yet, it was also a season of visiting some new places and hanging out with family.

I can’t think of a better way to enjoy this season. I hope fall 2026 will include some similar adventures.

Walter Entertains as She Takes Off

July 23–Walter on the front stoop drying herself off before her first flight. She ended up flit-dancing into some flowers first.

July 2026 was a hot summer month here in Iowa that alternated between dry and some intense downpours. At least it wasn’t a drought. And although I didn’t ride it this year, I’m glad RAGBRAI got a break, with most of the days of that annual cross-state bicycle ride not being brutally, dangerously hot, as much of this month has been.

One theme of this month, for me, has been contemplating the beauty of butterflies. We plant Milkweed in our garden, and in June, we found a caterpillar that we brought inside and fed. Early in July, Dodger, who has been mentioned in this blog before, emerged from her chrysalis and was released into the wild.

July 5–A visitor in front garden–male Monarch (two distinct spots on rear wings identify the male–no spots, like on Dodger and Walter means female).

We also attended the Indian Creek Nature Center’s Monarch Fest in July, and picked up a Monarch caterpillar there. The caterpillar was named Walter, and took less than a week to grow to chrysalis size.

When Walter emerged from July 23, there was quite a show. For one thing, it turned out that Walter was also female (you can easily tell the gender of adult Monarch butterflies by looking at their back wings—Google it).

July 23–Walter. Twig was in her jar, which you can see in one image. We have a bug cage that we use to raise butterflies–yes, we wash it well between butterflies. It’s empty now, ready for the next caterpillar.

As with Dodger, we took Walter out to the front porch when it seemed like she was dried enough to move around. We tipped her container on its side and opened the lid.

She crawled out and sat there, continuing to dry. Monarchs are damp when they emerge and take a few hours to get to flying dryness. As she got less damp, Walter moved around a bit, frantically flipping her wings (in my experience, a normal part of the drying process). She ended up off the porch in some flowers in the front garden.

Three other July flyers. Tiger Swallowtail July 13 in front garden. Red Admiral in front garden July 22. Hawk over Cedar Lake July 24.

As we waited for her first flight, a family was walking across the street—three young boys with their parents. I called out to them and asked if they wanted to watch a new butterfly.

They did and approached our front stoop. As they watched Walter, one of our grandchildren and his mother also showed up.

So Walter had quite an audience. She didn’t seem to mind. It wasn’t long after the audience congregated that the time had arrived. Walter had been flapping and dancing about in place, but suddenly took to the air and shot up over our heads.

She headed off to the east.

July 5–Dodger on her emergence day.

Butterflies don’t live long live—and Walter was early enough in the summer that she won’t be a member of the special generation that will survive for months and make the long flight to Mexico for the winter. But perhaps the children of Walter (and Dodger) will be members of that cohort.

I hope so. Most of all, I hope that both our butterfly babies will lay many eggs that make it from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. And thanks Dodger and Walter, for being you.

True, it was totally natural, but watching butterflies first flights seems magical—parts of nature are awesome to behold. And to share with young children.

July 22–Waldo’s Rock Park in Marion–warm summer afternoon, summer sky and summer flowers.

A Castle Moves From A Hill

When I was just a few weeks from retiring, I had a meeting with the provost of Mount Mercy University to discuss the future of student journalism at the small Catholic college where I taught. Dr. Tom Castle and I discussed how the university might continue the Mount Mercy Times web site, and how a new advisor might be found when there would be no journalism professor on campus.

One point I appreciated about the meeting is that Dr. Castle “got it” very quickly—the importance of continuing student journalism, the need for a leader, the urgency of coming up with a process. It was typical Tom, to me.

Dr. Tom Castle, April 20, 2024.

He was a rare leader—an administrator who knew how to be quiet and how to listen. As first a faculty colleague and then as a boss, that was one of my key memories of Tom Castle—the man was, like all of us, very busy, but when he could spare a moment, he was there and he was listening. Trust me, in both the private sector and in academia, that’s a rare quality of effective leadership.

I also appreciated his careful way of speaking, his clear empathy and his sense of humor. The university had struggled at times with finding the right person to be its chief academic officer—it’s not an easy role on any campus, I’d bet. But of all the VPs of Academic Affairs or Provosts (the title shifted over time) that I worked with, Dr. Castle was my favorite.

My wife notes that, in addition, she appreciated that he seemed to understand work-life balance. His own family is important to him, and he understood that his colleagues had life priorities beyond their careers.

He was one of the old souls of MMU, one of the people whose career on The Hill helped define what was best about Mount Mercy. Now he has moved on to a new phase in his career outside of MMU.

His departure comes at a time of rapid shifts on The Hill. Mount Mercy has merged with St. Ambrose University and there have been lots of resulting changes. That merger is a shift in strategy as both MMU and SAU face dramatic demographic challenges. It’s not so much winds of change as a derecho of many forces that are reshaping higher education.

Well, I hope MMU finds its way in the weird new world. I am sure that those who are still in the classrooms on The Hill teaching students will carry on their good efforts. I’m also sure many of them will fondly remember and will miss the positive force that Tom Castle was, first as a member of the faculty ranks, then as a university leader.

Happy Freaking Birthday, USA!

Flag flaps in front of my house on the Fourth of July.

The 250th birthday of the United States came and went in a rather unsatisfactory manner. It turns out that the convicted felon who ran the show is better at stealing from the American people than throwing a party for us. Or governing, for that matter.

Things were different the last big birthday this nation had.

Fifty years ago, I recall how some wondered how America would do with its 200th birthday. We were just three years out from the sad end of our misbegotten intervention in Vietnam, and just that temporally removed from the crisis of Watergate. The go-go days of the Hippie era were behind us, and the long national hangover of the 1970s malaise was getting underway.

We had a Republican president then, too, and politics were hot as 1976 was a presidential election year.

But say what you will about President Gerald Ford—he never hijacked the 200th birthday and tried to make it about himself. He understood, as most presidents seem to, present company not included, that being the leader of this country included some obligation to be nonpartisan and inclusive in certain circumstances.

Like celebrating the country’s birthday.

Fourth of July–another view of flag in front of my house.

Anyway, let’s just, for the moment, ignore the insanely incompetent-and-bad-at-governing but gifted-at-grifting cabal of criminals who are in charge now, and let’s talk more mundane, homey things.

Despite the sorry state of the union, I enjoyed America’s 250th birthday, probably more than I did its 200th. Back then, I felt a bit adrift, a lonely 17-year-old high school graduate working at a ketchup factory, saving my money, dreaming of glory, twitching like a finger on the trigger of a gun.

Now I’m a retired grandfather, not so much worried about the next chapter as just trying to prolong it a bit. And trying to live my life, whatever life is given to me, and enjoy more than achieve. The nature of the struggle has shifted, and I like that shift.

What did I do this 2026 Independence Day weekend? Well, first of all, and very American, it was filled with baseball. Not regular baseball—Banana Ball. I had been lucky enough that we got tickets to the Savannah Bananas game July 3 in Iowa City. I went with my wife, one of my daughters, a grandson and a friend that the grandson had invited.

Lily in my garden July 3–Damp in the morning from overnight rain. It will rain again later, delaying, but not cancelling, a baseball entertainment event that was a highlight of the weekend.

For several hours, we ended up huddled beneath the bleachers, waiting while a thunderstorm storm raged outside. Maybe there’s a metaphor there for our national condition—I can only hope so, because two hours later, when the storm moved on and the game finally began, it was silly, schlocky, kitschy, contrived and totally delightful. The grandson and friend ended up standing on their benches, enthralled by this professional wrestling version of the national pastime.

We got to bed a little late that night, so the actual Fourth of July got off to a slightly late start, for me. I missed putting out our flag, but my wife did it before I arose. That day, I enjoyed a trike ride, ate hot dogs for supper and went to bed a bit early. It was nice. Happy birthday, USA!

Butterfly shows up as I prepare to mow July 5. Note rear wing spots–it’s male.

Sunday began with church and then that other weekly American summer sacrament—mowing the lawn. While I was starting to prepare for mowing (transplanting rogue Milkweed plants and setting out clover seed), I noted a visitor. A Monarch butterfly—surely one of our more recognizable continental, if not national, symbols—had shown up on some Milkweed blooms. I grabbed my camera and recorded its image, and noted spots on the back wings that confirmed it was male.

Meanwhile, in slightly related butterfly news, a chrysalis formed by a Monarch caterpillar we had brought inside a couple of weeks ago had darkened, a sign of impending emergence of the changed creature within. I took a post-mow nap, and after I awoke, checked the container only to find not a chrysalis, but a damp, young butterfly.

Cool. After an appropriate celebratory feast of brats, potato salad and a cherry pie, we took Dodger (named by the baseball crazy grandson) outside. We opened the container and hung the lid from a Redbud tree. After a while, Dodger flapped, flitted into the air and began her butterfly life. It was a she, based on the lack of rear wing spots. Maybe Dodger and Visitor can meet and make some fertile eggs. A grandpa can hope.

July 5–Dodger on her first flight.

Thus did the big birthday of this country pass. Fireworks were at the ball game, or maybe I count the Milkweed blooms. I don’t really do parades—but I still feel like I passed this noteworthy anniversary in noteworthy fashion.

I wish the country could do the same. Well, I’ve been watching a Netflix series on the founding of the republic—and our politics were messed up even back then, too. A republic is messy. It’s particularly messy at the moment, and I hope something better is coming once the mess is in our past.

Our republic has made it 250 years. It’s more than a bit shaken at the moment. May the crisis of the moment lead to something better rather than something worse.

Enjoying a warm summer trike ride to Cedar Lake July 5. The sun is temporarily blocked by a cloud, but the sky is still sunny. May that be a symbol of where we are in this country at 250 years.

Celebrating One of My Favorite Times

Blue sunshine on a Ginkgo June 1.

Spring has quickly morphed into a warm, muggy Midwestern summer. June, as it often does, is busting out all over.

It’s possibly my favorite time of year. Although I like early spring when the daffodils are coming on or later when apples are in bloom or fall when the air turns crisp and the insects abate. OK, I see it, my favorite time of year is almost any time of year if there is some sunshine, not too much wind but a little breeze, and it’s not too cold nor too hot (between 30 and 90 Fahrenheit). It helps to have liberal standards if you’re going to live long-term in the middle of this continent.

Anyway, back to now. There are a few buds so there will be a few more, but we’ve just passed the peak of peony season. Lilies are just starting, and the pretty pink rose in my front side garden is showing swelling buds.

Peonies in bloom in garden at Lowe Park in Marion on May 25.

Lilacs and other spring flowers are a memory now, but the trees are in their full growth phase and shade has returned.

I’m writing this on a rainy Monday, which follows a very warm, dry week. We’re in the lightest time of the year, which maybe is the reason it’s possible to be in such a good mood despite the sorry state of our world.

It’s June. Time to believe how beautiful summer can be before the real heat sets in. Catalpa have bloomed and are fading and Milkweed is coming on–the wild cascade of spring flowers has given away to the slower parade of summer blooms. Just because it’s June, June, June.

Images from May and early June, including an Oak sapling I planted in back this year, Milkweed in my front yard, flying a flag on Memorial Day, flower pot my wife placed on our front stoop, ants on a Peony bud, Peonies in my garden in bloom, a Catalpa in bloom, an early Asian Lily and a Columbine bloom beside my house.

Spring and Winter are Doing Quick Flips

Monday March 9–Warm day, feels very much like spring. And Crocus in my yard are in bloom.

On Monday this week, I headed out on my recumbent tricycle and headed up to Center Point, a town north of here, along a popular hiking-biking trail. It was so warm that I even encountered a snake, one of the sure signs that spring has arrived in Iowa.

On Wednesday, winter had returned to Iowa, with fat wet snow floating down all morning, It was in the 30s Fahrenheit by afternoon, still winter cold but warm enough with the sun shining to melt the newly fallen thin layer of snow.

Spring arrived early here, but didn’t stay. I don’t know what the groundhog did in Pennsylvania, but in Iowa it seems it must have both seen and not seen it’s shadow—Schrödinger’s groundhog’s shadow, apparently

Anyway, even if the weather is conflicted, it is Friday the 13th of March as I write this, although it will probably be posted on pi day, March 14. Maybe luck isn’t with us, so much, as Sunday should see rain followed by snow, with very, very cold weather to follow. It won’t last long—it’s March, which can be very wintery in this corner of the planet, but typically shows signs of the coming warmer season, too. This year, March was very lamb like earlier this week, even if the lion will roar early next week.

It’s definitely a season of sharp contrasts. Meanwhile, for Valentines Day this year, I got my wife some flower seeds. It was warm then, in February, and although our past results have been modest, it just felt good to be optimistic and think about starting some flower plants from seeds.

We haven’t tackled that project yet, but it’s on our radar to do soon, hopefully, so we have some homegrown Zenia plants in our gardens this year.

Feb. 24–Valentines Day flower seeds, awaiting planting. The Zenias will be started inside, the wild flowers will be planted outside in a couple of weeks as the weather warms..

The weirdness of our weather somehow matches the weirdness of our culture, right now—sharp contrasts, bouncing between ideas and attitudes. Global Warming is a real thing, but doesn’t mean that it’s always hotter everywhere all the time—it’s a more volatile climate we live in, in our weather and in our times.

But even if Mother Nature seems unsure of what time of year it is, it’s inevitably going to become spring soon. And it’s time to plant some seeds and hope for the best and look forward to the potential for future garden beauty. More views of the spring-winter season of February and March:

Images in this gallery: Flowers popping up Feb. 13, rather early. Sunshine on bare winter hill seen on ride on Boyson Trail Feb. 16 during that false spring fortnight that the first part of that month featured. Feb. 26 view of Daffodils pushing up through snow as winter has returned to Iowa. And, finally, an Eagle seen near the Cedar River on a warm day trike ride Feb. 5.

In Praise of January’s Winter Light

Sun shines through winter clouds over a frozen Cedar Lake Jan. 5.

January is finally over. We’re into the first week of February—you can tell that someone in the northern hemisphere designed our calendar because February has 28 or 29 days, the shortest month of the year; in northern climates we don’t want any more February days.

It was certainly a very January January. At the end of the month, the South was reeling from an unusual winter storm, with rare blizzard conditions in some states and freezing cold reaching deep into Florida. In Iowa, the final forthnight before February was consistently cold. Not, to be fair, cold that’s beyond what we endure in a normal winter. There have feen a few days where school either started late or was cancelled due to arctic wind chills, but most days we just put on our parkas and endured the winter cold as Midwesterners are used to doing.

Rode my trike to Lowe Park on Jan. 9.

And yet, despite the deep chill, winter does have its beauty. When covered in snow, even a thin layer that we have this year, the world looks pretty and white. Recently, we had another dusting of snow. By March I will be tired of snow, but in January it just seemed normal.

I do love being outdoors, which is a bit of challenge at this time of year. Yet, I do like some aspects of dressing up and going outside during winter. I like the long, sharp shadows on a clear winter day. I like the sound of my boots crunching across snow. I like the quiet stillness of winter, the sense of peace in the crisp air.

Yes, it can be too cold to be outside when the bitter winds are biting—but even in this cold January, that was not every day. If the temperature is two digits deep and starts with a 2, it generally means one must dress for the weather and it is not the day to spend hours outside. But a day in the 20s is a day when you can enjoy a few minutes out in nature.

And while we are in the coldest part of year, it is also true that we’re over halfway through this quiet season. The coldest days are in the second half of winter. The sun is coming back, and while the dark is longer than the light, the daylight is lengthening rather than waning. Seed racks are up in the stores and my wife and I, like the crazy gardeners that we are, are starting to feel the spring planting fever.

That rallying cray of the gardener is starting in my brain. “What do we want? ALL the plants! Where will we put them? We don’t know!”

Well, when winter finally ends, I will welcome the returning green. Yes, spring and summer and fall are better times of year in Iowa for an outdoor person. Still, as January has faded into February and the light returns, it is good to celebrate the beauty of an Iowa winter.

Jan. 9, winter sun on Cedar River Trail.

Ice shines on Cedar Lake Jan. 13.

Crab Apple tree in backyard Jan. 23.

Jan. 23–Clematis seeds in backyard.

Jan. 29–Young Hornbeam tree in back garden.

Gaslighting in the Age of the Cellphone Video

News doesn’t usually have this much of a gut-punching impact on me. Stuff happens, some of it tragic, all the time. I’ll spare a sad thought and quick prayer for the Gazans or Ukrainians or Greenlanders or whoever, and move on.

I do not think I am cold or indifferent, it’s just a normal coping mechanism combined with the realization that I cannot personally solve it all nor is the order of the universe up to me.

This weekend feels different, more stressful, more personal. Maybe it is because I am married to a nurse and a nurse was gunned down. Maybe it is because the victim was a biker like me. Maybe it is because Minneapolis is just not that far way—culturally if feels like the “closest” big city to me, more like home than Chicago or St. Louis or Omaha.

From Wikimedia Commons–Image from cell phone video made by federal agent on Jan. 7, 2026, 23 seconds before Renee Good was shot.

Several weeks ago, when Renee Good was gunned down in Minneapolis, it was shocking news. I was a bit obsessed with reading stories and watching the various videos. I was unhappy with both the left and right, because both sides of the political spectrum seemed too poised to instantly leap to conclusions before any investigation was conducted. But the disappointment was deeper on the MAGA side of the ledger because there were too many high government officials making ridiculous, gaslighting claims that did not square with what was too easy to observe.

The Good case felt bad, partly because the bogus and one-sided conclusions of Kristi Noem and other Trump gnomes meant that trust in an FBI look into the tragedy was badly tainted from the start.

That tragic shooting was too much. The killing of Alex Pretti on Saturday Jan. 24 was even more over the top. The voices from Washington immediately would have us believe a nurse who was trying to comfort a woman who had just been pepper sprayed was somehow engaged in a frontal assault on federal law enforcement. The claims were contradicted, again, before our own eyes. Numerous cell phone videos from various angles told a drastically different story than what high Republican officials were claiming.

And it’s ironic that the fact Pretti had a legal gun on his person was somehow proof of the fake terrorist narrative. No, I don’t think bringing a gun to this inflammatory situation was a smart move. Yet, it wasn’t a terrorist move—and, again, check the video. As far as I can tell, Pretti never pointed, nor even touched, his gun.

His final words weren’t some shouted threat to officers, some hard-bitten phrase from a film noir script. He didn’t point a heater at the feds and spit out “You’ll never take me alive, coppers!”

Instead, he said, to the woman he was trying to protect, “Are you OK?”

Sounds way more like a nurse than a terrorist to me.

I won’t call this tragic shooting a “murder,” because that’s a specific legal term (although a lawyer I saw analyze the situation didn’t hesitate to use the M word). I won’t call it an “execution.” That is me being a bit stingy and careful with my words. What happened clearly should not have happened, and legally whatever Alex Pretti’s shooting was, it seems 100 percent clear to me that it was not right.

And yet, instantly, here they came. The Trump posts. The JD Vance verbal drivel. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem nonsensically blathering on about “defensive shots.”

Those were shots heard round the world, even if Kristi was deaf to them. The violence was sudden, excessive, and horrifying. Pretti was the victim, not the criminal, here. And even if I want the investigation before the charges, it seems to me that there clearly were criminals here.

However, I want more expert analysis. I want smart detectives to sift through the evidence with a clear head and an eagle eye for detail. I want the best of Minneapolis PD and state officers and the FBI to work the case and work together. And I am deeply suspicious, a year into Trump and his minions systematically pouring sand into the machinery of the federal government, whether that can happen.

From Wikimedia Commons, detail of official VA portrait of Alex Pretti.

I also want less nonsense. Less juvenile insults from our toddler president. I want less partisanship. I want more calm cooperation. I want the commanders of federal forces to shut up and, instead of circling their wagons, to be pledging a full and fair inquiry and doing it.

And I want peace to return to the streets of a city that I am fond of. Minneapolis is a great American city, and one that any sane American President should protect and respect.

A sane President. Wouldn’t that be a nice change?

Am I Enjoying the First Snow?

A dinosaur inspects the snowfield in my backyard Dec. 2. It’s also scavenging seeds that fell from newly filled feeders.

The day it fell, the first snowfall did disrupt my life a bit and changed my plans. Family had gathered for Thanksgiving, and the original idea was for it to be a two-day affair—with the exception of a son who lives in San Francisco, all of my kids would be able to join us for the feast, including the oldest daughter from the Twin Cities and the youngest son from Des Moines.

It did work out, partly. We were gathered on turkey day, as a family should be, which was another thing to be grateful for.

But the out-of-towners were also originally going to basically hang out on Friday, too, until heading west or north to their homes on Saturday. Mother Nature had other plans.

Not only was the first measurable snow to blow in on Saturday after Thanksgiving, but it was to be quite a snowfall. Not just floating and falling, but adding up, over 24 hours, to close to a foot of icy white

Snow images from Dec. 1 and 2 (if you see sun, it’s Dec. 1).

Living in the Midwest, if you’re smart, means accommodating the weather, knowing that it doesn’t accommodate you. The question for my kids was—head home before the storm came or wait until the day after when it was over? The problem with waiting for the day after wasn’t just losing the planned rest day before the workweek kicked in, but also the question of how clear the roads would actually be right after a lot of cold crystalline dihydrogen monoxide (loved the name for snow I saw on Facebook courtesy of Laura Runkle) plastered the pavement and farm fields and was, like the answers my friends, blowing in the wind.

Both the daughter and son, and their families, opted for heading home early in the afternoon Friday. At least we did get a little bit of together time that day, and I think both families were making the prudent decision.

Snow—we see it almost every year, but having a deep, persistent snowpack so early in winter and so soon after a fairly warm November is, well, many things. Surprising. A bit magical, to be honest. I don’t ever seem to detest the first snowfall each winter. I hope everyone stays safe and know that the snow presents its own dangers for travel, but travel is never entirely safe. And I do welcome the change in season, the suppression of insects, the sparkling beauty of a white blanket drape over the landscape.

Nov. 22–Rose in front garden. It’s not long for the world as cold and snow are on their way, but November, while it had frosty nights, had more than its share of warm days.

Nov. 23–Clematis seeds look like pretty white feathers.

As I walked out one day post storm to fill bird feeders for the first time, my booted feet made the distinctive, powdery crunchy sound characteristic of snow. I like that sound. Even clearing the snow, while a not pleasant chore, wasn’t terrible as my wife and I used our electric snowblower.

Today (the day I wrote this, one day before posting), it’s cold. Weird cold—below zero cold early in December. “Below zero” isn’t that unusual for winter in Iowa, but I associate it with the coldest part of the season, January or early February. Of course, one aspect of a significant snow is that clear days following the storm are often the coldest we experience in winter—those days are just not typically in the early days of December.

During an October trip to visit our son in San Francisco, and our daughter in Mahtomedi (St. Paul suburb in northeaster corner of the Twin Cities metro area), we had packed our laptop so I could use it to process images during the trip. The plan to was to leave it in Minnesota during the California leg of the journey, so we didn’t have to concern ourselves with packing it for flight. And, because we’re old and forgetful, when we headed home, we neglected to pick up, from a basement closet, the small suitcase containing the computer.

So, a secondary pleasure of the Thanksgiving get-together was being reunited with the laptop PC, my tool for both writing blog posts and editing images.

Anway, snow. I can’t say I’m a huge fan. To me, staying warm becomes more difficult and more important as my carbon sack ages. I can’t say I’m a hater, either. It’s cold. It’s pretty. It’s here and must be accounted for.

Winter isn’t coming, it has arrived. A fortnight and a week before the day, it seems a white Christmas is likely already here this year. Yet, it is also a knock against my favorite outdoor activity—biking or triking. Still, a generous snow cover is a bonus to the thirsty garden where both the water storage and bug suppression are net plusses. And, beneath the white, I’ve scattered many Milkweed seeds this fall that need this cold season before they can germinate next spring.

So, welcome snow. Sort of. I have mixed feelings on seeing you, but I can conjure positive emotions beyond the usual Midwestern grumbling, too. Although, to be honest, it will also be a relief to see you go.

Dec. 2–Christmas Cactus blooms at the appropriate time–in early winter when the outside looks like a Norman Rockwell holiday. Which isn’t usual on Dec. 2.

Watching Butterflies This Weird, Warm Fall

Monarch Butterfly seen Sept. 15 during a recumbent trike ride north on Cedar River Trail near Robins, Iowa.

October—pumpkin spice and Halloween. Fall is well upon us, but autumn weather has yet to arrive in my corner of the planet. The foliage shows the plants know it, as trees are hardening. A very dry September has given a dry high summer look to the fields and flowers, and some harvesting has given the land its shaven, seasonal look.

But if we needed reminders that nature is trying to tell us something, contemplate the butterflies. The common white and yellow skippers have been around, but I’ve not seen many swallowtails, for example.

Oak leaf taking on fall colors, Sept. 17, seen in my yard.

And there is the mixed picture of the Monarch. Numbers rebounded this year, apparently—news stories report that the overwinter area in Mexico almost doubled this year. As migration south begins, Monarch butterflies have become a common sight, busily sucking nectar from Asters and other seasonal blooms as they head south like the “snow birds” they are.

Double the area sounds great, and it is good news, but the doubling happened at a time of historic low populations. Even doubling the area the butterflies occupy in winter (apparently the way those who count such things roughly estimate Monarch population) doesn’t bring their numbers anywhere close to what they were in the 1990s.

From https://monarchwatch.org/, area in Mexico occupied by Monarch Butterflies. Doubled this year, hooray, but compare this year to 2018 or 2006 or any year of your choice in the 1990s. Some good news, but not a positive trend in the longer term.

And if you are west of the Rocky Mountains, the sitch isn’t good at all, with Western Monarch populations continuing to be dangerously low.

Let me try to be clear about things I am no expert on and topics that honestly my own mind doesn’t have total clarity on. I don’t want to be down on humans—I like our species. We’re cuddly and friendly and funny. But we often don’t understand our own power and impact.

Cedar Lake, seen on trike ride Sept. 15. A very pretty, warm, dry September.

One of the signs of fall in Iowa–a large orb-building spider seen in my garden Sept. 17.

We are environment manipulators. Besides speech, I suppose, it’s one of our defining characteristics. Our closes cousins, the chimps, live in African forests because it’s the place their bodies are evolved to live in. They don’t aggressively plant more trees to try to spread their range.

Several million years ago, our ancestors, for whatever environmental niche opened for them, climbed down to the ground and started walking upright. We didn’t descend from chimps because they stayed in the trees and changed and became something different as we walked about on the ground and changed and became something different. Our branching family tree is every interesting, and we’re not even necessarily the smartest nor strongest human species that ever was, we’re just the one that survived and spread and populated all but one continent.

Monarch in flight Sept. 17, Lowe Park, Marion, Iowa.

And along the way, we learned to farm. It’s a wonderful thing. I like to eat, too. Farming is good. But we’re also part of a web of life that beautiful and worth preserving just because it is, but also worth preserving because we’re in it, and we don’t seem to get that we should care about the birds and the bees and the pretty butterflies because what’s happening to them reflects what we are also, in a larger sense, doing to ourselves.

Nature is out of balance. And we’re the crazy apes hanging off the sides of the bicycle of life and shouting “weee” even as we topple it over.

Well, that metaphor got a bit mixed. As I said, things in my own mind aren’t entirely clear.

Sept. 11, Asters in the midday sun, campus of Mount Mercy University, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

It’s been nice, this warm, dry fall, to see many more Monarch Butterflies this fall. Yet, it’s important to retain some memory and perspective. I like that the population rebounded this year. Still, the long trend isn’t great.

And I would like my grandchildren’s children to live in a world at least as habitable and pleasant and pretty as the one that I was lucky to enjoy. For that to happen, we remaining species human need to wake up, contemplate the butterflies, and act like we’re borrowing this planet rather than owning it.

So, I’m having mixed, big thoughts while I enjoy and am also unsettled by the summer-life fall of 2025. Some trends are OK in the short term. Long term, things are not so great. And unlike the butterflies, we can think and act to impact the long term.

Late summer flower, Goldenrod, seen Sept. 11.