PICS & PROVERBS #193 - 2022
Prairie Notes are monthly photo/journal observations from Tandy Hills Natural Area by Founder/Director, Don Young. They include field reports, flora and fauna sightings, and more, mixed with a scoop of dry humor and a bit of philosophy.
Prairie Notes are available free to all who get on the FOTHNA email list.
Pics & Proverbs - 2022
Prairie Notes #193
January 1, 2023
1) Pics & Proverbs - 2022
2) Your Membership Matters
3) New Species - December 2022
4) 14th Annual Manly Men Wild Women Hike is Here!
5) Videos of the Year - 2022
6) DFW Green Source Award Winners
7) Prairie Proverb - Pythagoras
01) Pics & Proverbs - 2022
Taking advice from the great philosopher, John Dewey, who wrote. . .
“We learn by doing when we reflect on what we have done.”
. . .it’s time to review and reflect on the past year via 2022's Prairie Proverbs from each of the past 12 issues of Prairie Notes.
2022 quotations include the usual quirky mix of naturalists, artists, poets, scientists, environmentalists, even my Dad. Each quote had a particular fit for the issue in which quoted, from the inspiring and still timely quote by author, Megan Mayhew Bergman to the perennially relevant words of Henry David Thoreau and Booker T. Washington. And I always find room for a few off-beat, unexpected quotes that reflect what was going on at the time like my own Dad and the poet, Richard Brautigan.
Herewith, for your consideration, Prairie Proverbs #I81 - #192, from 2022, with portraits of the quoted authors and selected photos from the same issue. Thanks for reading and for your continued support!
Scroll SLOWLY for best results. And, please, yes please, let these photos be a reminder of how incredibly vital YOU are to Tandy HIlls.
DY
Prairie Notes #181, (Pics & Proverbs_2022) - January 1, 2022
“If there was ever a time to bridge the gulf between science and faith, or to integrate a reverence for nature into one’s belief system, it is now, when suffering and loss are more constant than episodic, and the cost of our species’ greed has become evident.”
Prairie Notes #182, (Lonely Prairie Seeks ♥ & $) February 1, 2022
“All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.
I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.
I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.”
Prairie Notes 183, (Footprints In the Snow) March 1, 2022
“In this glade covered with bushes of a year’s growth, see how the silvery dust lies on every seared leaf and twig, deposited in such infinite and luxurious forms as by their very variety atone for the absence of color. Observe the tiny tracks of mice around every stem, and the triangular tracks of the rabbit. A pure elastic heaven hangs over all, as if the impurities of the summer sky, refined and shrunk by the chaste winter’s cold, had been winnowed from the heavens upon the earth.”
Prairie Notes #184, (Where Have All the [Wild] Flowers Gone?) April 1, 2022
“Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls picked them, every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?”
Prairie Notes 185, (Miraculous Creek Plum & Its Critters) May 1, 2022
“Now plums were ripening in the wild-plum thickets all along Plum Creek. Plum trees were low trees. They grow close together, with many little scraggly branches all strung with thin-skinned, juicy plums. Around them the air was sweet and sleepy, and wings hummed.”
Prairie Notes #186, (Diamond-Flowers Are Forever) June 1, 2022
“Who cares about these numbers? Obviously, we do! But more than that, we can use these numbers to justify that not only is there biodiversity here in the metroplex, but there is also an active constituency of naturalists that seek out and need this biodiversity. I use these numbers to demonstrate the need for wild areas in parks. Engaging with nature is a recreational act just as playing soccer or having a picnic is. Public park managers need to realize this and manage areas for us, and for the biodiversity that seeks out parks as refuges. Nature is necessary, and we’ve got the data to show it!”
Prairie Notes #187, (The Case of the Waylaid Waterhole) July 1, 2022
“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”
Prairie Notes #188, (Flamin’ Hot Field Report) August 1, 2022
“It’s un-mercifully hot, and drier than a powder-house!”
Prairie Notes #189, (Drought, Fire & Flood) September 1, 2022
“You see, I had been riding with the storm clouds, and had come to Earth as rain, and it was drought that I killed with the power that the Six Grandfathers gave me.”
Prairie Notes #190, (September Grass) October 1, 2022
“Autumn’s Door”
”I have been following the seasons around and this
one, autumn, is here again, new, turning the sumac
red. The clouds are heavy autumn clouds that hang
low and scud across the horizon, dragging their
dark, ragged edges over the brightly lit grain
stubble. Sometimes it’s as though a door has
opened into the landscape so that we can see clearly
each leaf, the sharp outline of each prairie grass,
and know for an instant just why we are here on
this earth that is so loaded down with beauty it is
about to tip over.”
Prairie Notes #191, (Poetry Written On the Hills) November 1, 2022
“There are some good things to be said about walking. Not many, but some. Walking takes longer, for example, than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed. I have a friend who’s always in a hurry; he never gets anywhere. Walking makes the world much bigger and thus more interesting. You have time to observe the details.”
Prairie Notes #192, (Rewinding_2022) December 1, 2022
“You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you have to overcome to reach your goals.”
02) Your Membership Matters
Your donations gratefully accepted HERE: https://www.tandyhills.org/donate
03) New Species - December 2022
The species count increased by ten in December from 1765 to 1775. New species include, a new fungi, a millipede and a centipede. See three of them below and see them all 1775 at the Tandy Hills iNat Project Page HERE.
04) 14th Annual Manly Men Wild Women Hike!
Celebrate your NEW year with a hike on the NEW trails at Tandy Hills. January 1, 2023 at 10 AM sharp. Check the LINK below for complete details. May the force be with you.
https://www.tandyhills.org/manly-men-and-wild-women-hike-hills
05) Videos of the Year_2022
If you prefer moving pictures, four short videos showing the amazing diversity and wonderment of Tandy Hills were recorded throughout 2022. Access these and many other videos, HERE: https://www.tandyhills.org/video
06) DFW Green Space Award Winners - 2022
The 2022 Green Source DFW Sustainable Leadership Awards were held on December 4, 2022 at Botanic Gardens in Fort Worth. Several of the winners this year have connections to Tandy Hills. They deserve a BIG shoutout.
Longtime, Friends of Tandy Hills (FOTHNA) supporter, Suzanne Tuttle won the Environmental Educator Award and John MacFarlane, Chair of the FW Sierra Club won the Conservation Activist Award. Both have generously given their time and resources over the years to support FOTHNA.
Two past winners were able to receive their awards late due to the pandemic canceling past GreenSource awards events. Haley Samsel, environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report won a past Environmental Reporting Award and Lon Burnam won a past Lifetime Achievement Award. Here’s a hearty congratulations to all these winners and FOTHNA supporters.
Watch a short video created by Julie Thibodeaux of the event, HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uSbTj-S_ss&t=175s
10) Prairie Proverb
“Leave the road, take the trails.”
Prairie Notes© is the official newsletter of Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. All content by Don Young except where otherwise noted.
