Tracks in the Snow, Sedges, Plant Blindness

and much more...

I love Iowa winters. There, I said it.

It’s true now, but not for all of my life. When I was a kid working for Dad building houses and we would work outside during the very coldest and very hottest weather, I told myself if I were ever lucky enough to have an inside job I would never complain about the weather, and I so don’t. I told myself that people who are lucky enough to have inside jobs have no intimate understanding of the impact of the weather on the people who work outside five or six days a week for eight hours or more a day, all winter long. If all people have to do is go from their heated house to their heated car and their heated business, or from their air-conditioned house to their air-conditioned car to their air-conditioned place of work and back, they don’t fully understand how punishing winter weather can be. And how it can beat you down over the course of the winter.

So, when I see anyone working outside in the winter now, I feel their pain and understand why they might not love Iowa winters, and feel very lucky I have an inside job.

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The ominous clouds above brought no snow, but eventually, it came.

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We didn’t get very much snow, but I love seeing all of the tracks. Here a field mouse or a vole either found what it was looking for and decided to go back home, or it just gave up.

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I wonder what happened here? Some kind of kerfuffle.

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Proceed with caution! (I did…)

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For two days I was lucky enough to be accompanied by Jaron Sedlock of Knoxville who was home from college for the holidays. I’ve known Jaron and his family since he was in Kindergarten or earlier. Jaron is going to finish his degree in Biology and is specializing in Ecology at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. I asked Jaron how he got interested in our natural world and he reminded me that he grew up living across the street from William Penn University Biology Professor Pete Eyheralde, and that played a big role. Of course! Pete is a great mentor and friend.

Maybe the best part of the walks was that a young man that I have known since he was in Kindergarten is now teaching me about the natural world! One of the things Jaron taught me was about Sedges, below:

Here is some of what Jaron had to say:

Jaron also taught me about “Plant Blindness,” which is the idea that we often don’t see certain kinds of plants because they look like other plants. Sedges look like grasses.

Jaron is a subscriber to “Cedar Creek Nature Notes,” and I encouraged him to start his own Substack newsletter, and that it would be a great place to curate his ideas and photos and share them with others.

Much to my delight he did. Jaron started Jaron’s Curious Adventures! His first post was Introducing Jaron’s Curious Adventures—Musings of a Budding Ecologist, where he tells us what he is doing and why. I was delighted to see that his second post was Seeing the Unseen: How Plant Blindness Hides the Wonders of Sedges. Please consider subscribing.

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One morning as I walked out the door right before sunrise I saw this plume of steam and probably some foul emissions coming from the Cargill plant in Eddyville.

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And sometimes I can’t wait for dawn and Violet the Dog and I just walk into the night.

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Thanks for reading! Here are three of my favorite nature Substacks: My friend Larry Stone’s “Listening to the Land,” Diane Porter’s My Gaia, and Al Batt’s Al’s Substack. Please consider subscribing. All three will entertain, educate, and soothe your soul.

And now I recommend also subscribing to Jaron’s Curious Adventures.

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