At peak magnitude, seek out the goddess of love planet in a clear blue sky in the west-southwest during daylight hours, being extremely careful to keep eyes diverted from the sun.
Recently, while appreciating robust stems of perennial pollinator plants emerging in a well-established border, my gaze drifted to a stand of young swamp milkweed that had sprung up in a small clearing at the border’s back edge.
In this edition, native wildflowers appear in our region’s May landscape, their uniqueness enchanting us and urging us to include nursery-grown species native (not cultivars) in our yards and gardens: plants that will nurture co-evolved invertebrates and microorganisms that are being starved by expanses of lawn and pavement.
Join me, a naked-eye stargazer, and amateur astronomer Rick Costello on May 13 for "Stargazing Over Baldwin Hill," a guided tour of the night sky. Storyteller of the stars Susan Bachelder may make an appearance.
The sequence of events that involves each gardener’s planting natives supports biological diversity on a landscape scale. Native wild plant communities are increasingly diminished by choices that have dominated garden retailers and landscape designs for generations.
To be stirred by the nighttime singing of a chorus of coyotes communicating with each other is the only way most of us discover that coyotes inhabit our landscape.
The 17th century was a time of political terror and anxiety; but it also saw the uneasy beginnings of rationalism and the stirrings of science, emerging in what was still a medieval and authoritarian society.
“It’s all about having fun with technology,” says Southern Berkshire Regional School District Technology Director Chris Thompson on the district's new aerial drone program. “They are all learning basic skills that can all come in handy for them in the future."
Like dancers positioned at a distance from each other and destined to meet, Venus and Jupiter seem pulled ever closer over the course of the coming two weeks, culminating in their closest approach in our skies on March 1.
On each successive evening from today through Monday, January 23, at dusk—between about 5:30 p.m. and 6:15 p.m.—brilliant planet Venus and comparatively demure Saturn are seen in different positions in relation to each other.
Turkey fossils unearthed across the southern United States and Mexico date back 5 million years or more. Features associated with dinosaurs are evident in the wild turkey’s elaborate, fleshy facial appendages and coloring.
