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Terry Trueblood Birds Show Off in the Spring
Just about any time of year is a great opportunity to walk the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area. The birds are busy competing for mates and nesting spaces. The nest boxes for the tree swallows are up. Already, vacancies are few. Their iridescent feathers are dazzling. The music in the first part of the video is…
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Familiar Backyard Birds and One Sort of Familiar
We were bird watching the other day and saw a few birds we definitely recognized. One of them we puzzled about but finally decided was a sparrow. The Red-Bellied Woodpecker is familiar. We think it was a male. The Blue Jay is still interesting because when it’s not in the sunlight it looks like what…
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Iowa City Public Art Program 2023!
The 2023 Iowa Cty Public Art Program unfolds soon. The call for art submissions is on! The new temporary exhibits will go display August 7, 2023 through July 2024. Application information is at this link.
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The Secret of Wiffle Ball Farm
I sometimes enjoy watching one of the paranormal TV shows, “The Secret of skinwalker Ranch.” I don’t want to mention the word “skinwalker” too often because some people consider it dangerous to even say it loud because they believe the skinwalkers will latch on to you. It’s kind of a boogeyman thing. Anyhow, the actors…
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Celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week!
Teacher Appreciation Week this year started on May 8, 2023. I found my old report cards from Lincoln Elementary School in Mason City, Iowa. Lincoln was torn down many years ago to make room for expanding the Post Office. But I have my memories. I rediscovered reasons to celebrate the dedication of teachers. I don’t…
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Stamp Out Hunger NALC Food Drive
It’s that time of year again; the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) food drive. Learn more about it at this link. Donors can fill a bag with non-perishable food items and place it by their mailboxes, which letter carriers will pick on the second Saturday in May, which is May 13, 2023. Help…
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Reminder: NAMI Walk May 6, 2023 Terry Trueblood Recreation Area
This is just a reminder about the upcoming National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Walk on May 6, 2023 beginning at 8:30 a.m. at Terry Trueblood Recreation Area.
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Where is Juggling and Foosball on the Homunculus?
I saw an interesting article published in Nature about the homunculus being outdated because of a new brain MRI study indicating that there’s a mind-body connection between the motor cortex and neural networks controlling planning and thought. There’s a mouthful for you. It makes me wonder about a few things. For example, can I improve…
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Earth Day 2023: Water What We Want to Grow
Happy Earth Day! Yesterday, Sena worked pretty hard out in the garden spaces. She has planted ten river birch trees. I did my usual spring lawn edging, which followed the first mow of the season a couple of days before by the lawn mowing service. The vinca is coming up in the garden circle in…
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Ban Siphoning Ozone
I don’t know much about roundabouts, auto emissions, and the ozone layers, but evidently, they’re connected. Sena and I were talking about the roundabouts in Iowa City and Coralville. The definition of them and the instructions about how to drive in and out of them is simple although some drivers can get confused about the…
