The New School Year

It's a foggy morning with clouds hanging low in the Little River valley. We are reaching mid-August now, but the weather here in northeast Indiana feels more like mid-September. With the onset of late summer-fall, the cicadas start singing and serenading one another and reminding all us human folks that summer is drawing to a close (in a relative sense) and that school is just around the corner. Don't you just remember those days? Well, this particular event begins on Monday for our two oldest nieces and in a few weeks for our youngest so we made a point to get together with them to hang out and enjoy some local natural areas.

Last weekend Steve, Tamisha and I scoped some waterfowl at Eagle Marsh and sighted some great egrets.

We also observed lots of wildlife at Lindenwood Nature Preserve including this painted turtle...

Pipevine Swallowtail...

and harbinger-of-fall leaf...

In a connecting thread of the two events that did not go unnoticed by me - my sister, her two stepchildren, and I saw 5 or 6 Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars moving about along the trails yesterday morning also at Lindenwood Nature Preserve.


Paper wasps were active in their nests and so we marveled at their beauty for a while.


And sometimes I find the excitement of a child is just too much for words...

Wishing you ladies much luck and success in this next school year!