The Easily Distracted Gardener

05/21/2026

💚

Most people hear a pileated woodpecker for years before they see one. The hammering sounds like someone beating a dead tree with a bat.

Then she lands on a trunk ten feet away — and the reaction is always the same.

She's the size of a crow. Every other woodpecker at the feeder fits in your hand. Your brain builds a template from downies and hairies: woodpecker equals small. The pileated breaks the template.

The rectangular holes in dead trees are hers. No other woodpecker cuts that shape. And the cavity she drills for nesting becomes the most competed-over address in the woods after she leaves — species that can't excavate their own depend on the ones she abandons.

The dead tree she's working on is the most productive thing in the yard 🌿

05/13/2026

💜

**Big Bird Surge This Weekend**

It doesn't get any better than this! The bird highway is coming back in a big way. The winds between 1,000 to 3,500 feet above the ground look perfect for a massive bird surge Friday night through Sunday night. A large variety of warblers are expected in this next wave. This will likely be the largest surge of the year and it is very possible this weekend into early next week will bring the best (or nearly the best) birding conditions of all of 2026.

05/09/2026

😂

04/14/2026

🌟

A comet that hasn’t visited Earth’s skies in 170,000 years is returning… and it’s already glowing brighter. ☄️✨

Comet C/2025 R3 (Pan-STARRS) is now visible under truly dark skies, and over the next 10 mornings, it will only get easier to spot.

This isn’t just another comet — it’s a once-in-a-human-history event.
The last time it passed by our planet, early humans were still sharing the Earth with extinct giants.

It will reach perihelion — its closest point to the Sun — on April 19, passing at a safe distance of about 0.5 AU (half the distance between Earth and the Sun).

Then comes its brightest moment:
On April 27, it will make its closest approach to Earth… shining at peak visibility.

But there’s a catch.

By then, this ancient traveler will disappear from Northern Hemisphere skies, making these next few mornings your only chance to witness it.

Miss it now… and you’ll have to wait another 170,000 years.

04/07/2026

Why?

03/23/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CX8cX4GQ2/

03/02/2026

❤️

Set your alarms early TOMORROW morning, March 3! ⏰🌕

A total lunar eclipse aka a “Blood Moon” is happening early Tuesday morning, March 3 and it’s a good one.

For most of us across the U.S., the lunar show starts before sunrise with peak totality around the middle of the hour depending on your time zone. During peak, the Moon turns that deep copper red as Earth’s shadow completely covers it.

No telescope needed. Just step outside, look up, and give your eyes a minute to adjust. Clouds permitting, this one will be hard to miss! Drop me your pictures if you catch it!

02/16/2026

 After a few warm days off and on, my plants are growing impatient. Witch hazel is blooming, elderberry bushes are sprouting, crocus are opening and the salamanders are starting to move. Come on spring!💛

02/16/2026

💙

Two nights.
Two eclipses.
One sky that won’t look the same again.

On February 17, a blazing Ring of Fire ignites the edge of the world.
On March 3, the Moon turns deep crimson in a total Blood Moon eclipse.

From Antarctica’s frozen silence…
to city skylines across the Americas
the cosmos puts on back-to-back spectacles.

Mark your calendar. Some skies only happen once.

01/16/2026

This asparagus fern is approximately 75 years old. It belonged to my great grandmother, and sat in a window sill in her tiny farm house during my mothers childhood. My mom lovingly took care of it, and now I have taken on the responsibility. Hopefully I can pass it on to someone else someday. It deserves the longest life possible.💚