Make a Nature Friendly New Year’s Resolution

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My resolution for 2019? Dump the plastic. And not at the dump or landfill or recycling center. Just stop buying and using it. Easy, right? Maybe not. This year, however, I am resolving to use as little plastic as possible.

I already do a lot of things. I have a stainless steel lunch set I bring back and forth to work and take when I’m out on the road. I use a stainless steel water bottle and coffee mug as well as stainless steel straws. I buy handmade, organic soap without wrappers and am testing homemade laundry soap I can keep in a glass jar.

Look around the house. The car. The backyard. How much plastic do you use? Look in the refrigerator. Almost everything, including juice and milk comes in plastic. There are alternatives out there and this year, I’ll be buying the old fashioned cartons or glass containers. Buy grains in bulk and put in jars at home. Buy produce that isn’t wrapped and don’t use the plastic bags–bring my own cloth bags.

Go to the fish market or butcher and ask for freezer paper, not plastic. Our grandmothers did just fine with all that and it’s fresher, too.

We don’t use a lot of cleaning products at our house. We use plain old vinegar and baking soda for different tasks. Dilute the vinegar with water and keep in a spray bottle–glass, of course–and keep a jar or box of baking soda handy for scrubbing ceramic sinks, tubs, etc. They work on pretty much anything.

What about toothbrushes and toothpaste? You can make your own paste but it tends to be abrasive. And those bamboo brushes? They get nasty fast–I got rid of mine after two weeks. Yuck. I cleaned them like crazy but I swear germs just leered at me. Sorry bamboo brush lovers. I’m still working on a solution to this one. And shampoo. Shampoo bars dry my already thin hair out way too much.

Check out your sponges and mops. Planters. Decorations. How many are plastic? Plastic has slipped into our lives in almost every area. Can we solve the world’s problems by using stainless steel straws? Probably not, but we can help people become aware that alternatives to plastics are readily available by setting an example.

I’ll report here intermittently about how my year cutting out plastics is going.

How about you? Will you be reducing your use of plastic this year? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

 

New Online Nature Sketching Course!

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Are you hoping to start a nature journal this year? Wait no longer! I’m offering an online Nature Journal class for all levels beginning any time you want. You can sign up for one month and continue as long as you’d like. Sign up for a year and save some money as well as stay motivated. All you need is a sketchbook, a pencil and the willingness to try something new.

Yes, the weather may be frightful, but I’ll show you some fun sketching projects that will keep you drawing and interested all through the worst of the snow and ice.

Traveling? Bring your sketchbook and follow the prompts wherever you are!

Don’t wait–sign up before January 1 and save some cash! Just send me an email at capecodartandnature at gmail dot com and I’ll send you a PayPal invoice.

Sign up now and receive your first lesson on January 1 along with hints and a suggested supply list. Lessons will be sent once a week and you can begin any time you want.

A 30 day trial can be had for $20. Ongoing lessons can be secured now for the next calendar year for the sale price of $20 a month. I will send a monthly PayPal invoice on the 15th of the month (ie. on January 15 to start February 1) This will be a one time offering and is good from January 1, 2019 until December 31, 2019.

Sending a gift? Just let me know and I’ll send out a gift certificate online or by snail mail.

Thankful for Nature

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Hopefully all were able to enjoy a nice Thanksgiving, whether it was quiet or noisy, large or small. We are not big shoppers in my family so Black Friday is not a thing we do. No lines, no crowds–just a quiet day at home catching up on things. Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday. I hope you’ll join me in supporting the many talented artisans and small businesses we have on the Cape. This is the time to say thanks to the independent bookstores, the small, independent markets and coffee shops, the local breweries and wineries and shops and restaurants that stay open on our main streets all year long.

It’s easy to find things in nature to be thankful for, but it can also be easy to forget to look for them…here’s my latest Weekly Nature Watch column.

 

 

Standing in thankfulness

On a day that couldn’t make up its mind, I stood listening to the chatter of a flock of sparrows in a nearby bush. Heavy lavender and gray clouds loomed overhead but from beneath them shone an eerie, almost golden light that topped the now naked branches of trees with its glow.

Leaves tumbled across the grass and around my feet while a squirrel stopped and surveyed the scene, perhaps to see what had me so entranced.

In this world of constant contact that is more and more ruled by screens and electronic communication, I was thankful for a moment outside. I had no reason to be standing there, I just was. A blue jay flew down from higher up in a tree and watched me, cocking its head from one side to the other. A second jay joined it. After a few minutes they seemed to decide I wasn’t dangerous to them and they flew past me to the feeder. A chickadee scolded me as it, too, came to the feeders but the cardinals just sat quietly deep in a bush, no doubt hoping I wasn’t noticing them there.

The longer I simply stood there, the more I could feel myself relax. I took a deep breath of the cool, damp air and I swear I could taste the imminent rain on my tongue. The smell of fallen leaves mingled with a touch of wood smoke from a neighbor’s wood stove. For a moment I lost touch with the world of deadlines, messages and to do lists. I was just a woman standing under a tree while birds and the wind whispered around me.

I am thankful for these little reminders that reality is not virtual or behind a screen. The cardinal hiding in the bush is real. So is the hawk on the top of the spruce in my neighbor’s yard. The clouds moved and changed shape and the ribbon of light disappeared into the gray. Raindrops splatted against the leaves, then against my face. It was cold, refreshing, clean. I felt my hair getting wet as rain dripped down onto my neck. It wasn’t uncomfortable. It was sort of lovely in a way that is hard to describe.

And then it was time to go in before I got soaked. Unlike the chickadees, I couldn’t stay dry hidden in a branch of the holly tree.

It is easy to become overwhelmed these days. We are bombarded with images in an unprecedented way. We hear about crises that we can do nothing about, almost hourly. We learn of deaths that leave us feeling helpless and devastated and often hopelessness feels like the only appropriate response to this relentless bombardment of bad news

And that is why I look for things to be thankful for every day. Nature is an easy anecdote for the pain and suffering in the world. Not that nature doesn’t have plenty of these, but if we choose to look for beauty and peace, it is easy to find. We don’t have to go far. Sometimes just stepping into our own backyards will do the trick.

Being thankful can become a habit. It’s free, it’s easy and it can take place anywhere, any time. Just step outside. Head to the beach, the pond, the meadow or the woods. Take a deep breath. Leave your phone behind. Turn off the car, the music, the chatter in your mind.

Even rain, snow, sleet and wind all have their place. We can be thankful for the ways they nurture the plants, clean out the old and broken and help us feel refreshed and renewed.

Even in times of stress, crisis and unrest, there is always something to be thankful for, even if it is the simple call of a chickadee or a cardinal sitting quietly in a bush.

All content copyright protected by Mary Richmond, 2018

 

When Fall Colors Come to Cape Cod

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Cape Cod always gets her colors a little later than the rest of New England. Blame that warm air coming off the ocean. Eventually, though, cooler temps do catch up with us. Our colors are subtler than those on the mainland, but I love them. Maybe because I grew up with them and they’re what I know…

Last week my column in the Enterprise was about the colors of fall. They no longer allow readers to read online if they aren’t subscribers, so I am posting the column here. Please remember this is a fully copyrighted piece and is not for any other use than reading here. You may share the post, with full attribution.

Changing colors

The changing of the leaves has been a sporadic, duller than usual event this year on the Cape. There have been some bright spots but mostly it’s been lackluster, even depressing. For me, it’s been an example of our physical landscape imitating our political landscape, too full of grief and despair to celebrate much of anything. Many leaves have simply dropped, never changing color at all, leaving their trees naked and gray against the November sky.

The salt marshes never fail to bring a smile to my weary soul, though. They range in color from luminous gold to rusty tones of orange. It’s a fleeting wash of color, as if from a watercolor brush. I stop and take it in while I can, let the richness as well as the delicacy of color settle in me, to help see me through the long winter ahead.

On a sunny, warm day last week I took a quick spin around the loop of my favorite neighborhood beach. A lot of people were out, and many were up to their wader hips in the water, using rakes and clear boxes to find shellfish on the bottom.

Hundreds of sanderlings ran back and forth, grabbing little morsels from incoming waves. Gulls floated near the folks hunting for scallops, hoping to snag a free handout, no doubt. The farther I went, the more people I left behind until I was the only one standing on the rock jetty overlooking a sparkling sea.

A small group of ruddy turnstones ran back and forth, doing their turnstone thing. Some were in full winter plumage while others were sporting an in-between sort of look. I wondered as I watched them if they will spend the winter here or move on. They are late for migrants but there are always stragglers at this time of year. Some stay for most, if not all, of the winter so I guess only time will tell. I do find myself wishing I could have conversations with some of these birds, but alas, so far that is not happened out loud.

The snow buntings were right where I’d left them a week or so ago. A few horned larks, perhaps the same ones that nested there this summer, were foraging in the grasses. Hundreds of dune mushrooms spotted the ground as I walked through what at first appeared to be a barren land of sand and rugged grasses. This is a mound of sand left by the dredging of the harbor a dozen or so years ago. It has lost the poetic quality it had before its sudden and rather horrible transformation, but it has its own charm, if I look close enough.

I turned a corner to head towards the bay and what I saw nearly took my breath away. The whole foot of the dunes was covered with gold that glimmered in the afternoon light. The buntings flew over, their underwings and breasts bright in the reflected light. The rosa rugosa leaves, so lush and green all summer long, had taken on a rusty orange hue that was so delicious and wonderful that no photograph I took could capture it. So, I drew and painted it instead. Sometimes art does what the heart and mind see when the camera cannot.

A song sparrow stood tall on a spindly branch and watched me. I couldn’t help but think it is the same one that watched me last winter, spring and summer. I have no way of proving that, just a feeling. Song and Savannah sparrows are prevalent here and nest at the base of the rose bushes each year. They have some of the best real estate in town, though the winters can be brutal there.

As I walked back down the beach, the water sparkled a brilliant blue. The sky was clear and the sun off the opposite shore shone white and bright. As a gull called out overhead I couldn’t help but think the change of colors was often sad, but also sparked with a glimmer of joy and hope.

 

Downy or Hairy Woodpecker?

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My feeders attract a fair number of our common woodpeckers. Downy woodpeckers are probably the most common. They are fairly small and often travel with small flocks of chickadees, titmice and nuthatches. They especially love suet.

These photos were taken through a window so aren’t great but you should be able to see the size difference.

The top photo is of a downy.  Note the red marking on the back of its head. This tells you it is a male. The female looks the same but does not have the red marking.

The hairy woodpecker looks a LOT like the downy woodpecker but it is much larger. As you can see in this photo, it is actually bigger than the feeder. It is also a male.

Beginner birders often have trouble telling these two similar birds apart. It’s easy when you have something to measure them against, like this suet feeder. If you’re lucky you might catch the two birds in close proximity but I wouldn’t hang around waiting for that to happen. Both these birds are easy to see in our woodland areas but as you can see, they also like neighborhood feeders.

You can learn lots more about these interesting woodpeckers by clicking on the links above.

Mary Richmond’s Column Now at Cape Cod Chronicle

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Where did Mary Richmond’s nature column go?!

Hi all–Some of you have noticed my column is missing from The Cape Codder and The Register. After my column was cut to two times a month due to budget cuts, I found a new weekly home with the Cape Cod Chronicle. The Codder was a wonderful home for 17 years but the future there looked uncertain at best. The editorial staff was always fantastic and it is not their fault that the changes occurred. I know some people have been writing letters. Although that is a lovely thought in that it is in defense of my column, it is not helpful to the editors. They fought the cuts as best they could. In the end, it wasn’t up to them but the owners of the papers.

My first column, now called Nature Connection, was published about 6 weeks ago. Here’s a photo of that first column in print. One of my former editors, who now writes for the Chronicle, dropped it off for me, hot off the press!

 

The Cape Cod Chronicle is a privately owned paper and writing for them feels like coming home. I hope you will pick up the paper or read my column online.

You can find a more recent column here.

All those brown birds of a Cape Cod fall

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Hi all–lots of time has passed without a post but those of you who follow me on Facebook and Instagram know I’ve been super busy. While posting some photos on FB this week I realized that many people are easily mystified by all those LBJs of the bird world. LBJ was a president but it’s also the code for LIttle Brown Jobs and you’ll hear birders refer to these a lot, especially in the fall.

Most of you probably have noticed tons of blackbirds all over. These flocks are mixed, full of grackles, starlings, cowbirds and red-winged blackbirds. Look at the two birds on the feeder (I apologize for the blurriness–taken through a window and at a distance). On the right is a female house sparrow. The larger bird on the left is a female red-winged blackbird. You can see that the red-wing is larger and has a different shape than the smaller, stockier sparrow. Their beaks are different and so are the striping patterns.

This little bird was traveling with a pair of song sparrows  in my yard this week. It isn’t a song sparrow, though. It is an immature cowbird. It’s a late one so it fooled me–fortunately Sue Finnegan, master birder and banding expert, was able to ID it for me. Many of us have house finches at our feeders but check out this trio. Their markings are much more distinct than the drabber house finches. They have distinctive eye patterns as well. These are immature or female purple finches. I’ve yet to see a male in my yard this fall, but I check often.  Have you seen these scrappy guys around? These are starlings in their winter plumage. The glossy guy on the bottom left is a grackle. Here’s another shot of a house sparrow(L) and a female red-winged blackbird (R) And then there’s this little guy. Hiding in the grasses, feeding on seeds is its favorite thing to do in the fall. This is a song sparrow. Stripey with a noticeable dark spot on its chest, these are small sparrows often found on the ground, rarely at or on feeders. And, these are only a few of the LBJs you might find on the Cape in the fall. Identifying these birds can be challenging and fun. Keep your guidebook handy and study the size, shape, markings and behavior of the birds you are watching to help you identify them. I hope this helps! Each link will take you to a page with much more information.

Summer Class Schedule

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It’s that most wonderful time of year again! Time to sketch and watercolor outdoors! No experience needed….

Here’s the list of dates and locations–please print for future reference. Pay as you come, $20 cash per class. Also, if you come to 10 classes you will get the 11th one free!

Email me the week of the class to let me know you are coming. Foul weather will cancel and sometimes locations will be adjusted. I must know by 6 p.m. the night before the class if you are coming.

Provincetown classes will begin earlier and last longer but will cost the same. We can meet in Orleans and carpool to save on parking.

Thursday, June 7, Fort Hill, Eastham

Thursday, June 14, Provincetown

Wednesday, June 20, Peterson’s Farm, Woods Hole

Thursday, June 21, High Head Dunes, Truro

Wednesday, June 27, Sandwich Marina, Sandwich

Thursday, June 28, Wellfleet

No classes week of July 4

Wednesday, July 11, Private garden in Dennis

Thursday, July 12, Atwood House and Gardens, Chatham

Wednesday, July 18, Railroad Bridge, Bourne

Thursday, July 19, Orleans

Wednesday, July 25, Private garden in Sandwich

Thursday, July 26, Monomoy Center, Chatham

Wednesday, August 1, Osterville Historical Society, Osterville

Thursday, August 2, Highland Light, Truro

Wednesday, August 8, Bray Farm, Yarmouthport

Thursday, August 9, Provincetown

Wednesday, August 15, Highfield Hall, Falmouth

Thursday, August 16, Marconi, Wellfleet

Wednesday, August 22, Long Pasture, Cummaquid

Thursday, August 23, Wellfleet Harbor, Wellfleet

Wednesday, August 29, Green Briar or Game Farm, East Sandwich

Thursday, August 30, Herring Run, Brewster

May on Cape Cod

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Ah, May….It came in like winter and is heading out almost like spring. Must be Cape Cod. This sure has been a rough spring weather-wise but those warm, lovely days? Can’t be beat and maybe we think that because they’ve been so rare.

Beach walks have been brisk right up through this week. Winds have been steady and some days so much sand has been blowing that it’s been difficult to walk without getting sand blasted. Some days, however, have been just perfect. Terns are here, piping plovers and willets are nesting and ospreys are calling overhead. Doesn’t get much better than that. This weekend marks the beginning of the summer season here so solitary walks will be more difficult to pull off over the next few months.

You may have noticed lots of fluffy white flowered shrubs along the beach and even along the median strips on the highways here. These are the famous beach plums blossoming. Jam makers note these locations for future plum picking.

Many people confuse the beach plums with the fat orange and red rose hips of the Rosa rugosa, commonly called the beach rose. These are just coming into flower and by late summer the hips will be all over. They are also edible thought not as sought after as their purple plum cousins.

Earlier this month I participated in Mass Audubon’s Birdathon. My youngest grandson came along for the full 24 hours of birding and proved himself to be a wonderful bird spotter. The Birdathon is one of Mass Audubon’s biggest fundraisers and our team aimed to raise a certain amount of money. If you’d like to contribute, donations are being accepted up to June 1.

About 6 weeks ago I decided to join a #100dayproject in which you pledge to do something for 100 days and post it to Instagram or Facebook or whatever. I decided to sketch something in nature every day for 100 days. Although I regularly sketch, I don’t think I’ve ever worried about doing it daily. I’m on day 53 as of today and have been faithful to the challenge. It’s been a blast. And, my little sketchbook is a diary of sorts of spring waking up on the Cape. If you are interested in keeping a nature sketchbook, I’ll be offering an online class this summer. You can email me at capecodartandnature at gmail dot com for more info (I can’t add email links here for some reason.)

Spring is finally here!

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It’s been a long, hard haul, pulling spring into shore here on Cape Cod. Our springs are always fugitive things, playing hide and seek with us for months, but this year was especially brutal with March bringing a quartet of high level storms.

Today is May 2, however, and spring is springing up all over. Mayflowers are in bloom in many of our scrub woodlands. Look for them on sunny sides of paths. They love disturbed areas.

Fiddler crabs are enjoying the sunny, warm weather as well. Look for them in tidal areas near salt marshes. Often you will see the telltale holes but no crabs. That’s because they hear you coming. Try standing still where your shadow is not cast over their holes. In a few minutes they will usually re-emerge and go about their business. Don’t move or talk, though, or they’ll scurry back to safety.

Over the past week or so, the weather has been wet, foggy, cold, hot, sunny, cloudy, stormy and sublime. Sometimes all in the same day! Bad weather does make for good sky photos….

There’s nothing like a calm, beautiful morning at the beach, though. The photo below is from this morning’s walk at Kalmus Beach. Piping plovers were flirting, gulls were catching spider crabs and the sweet song of a horned lark warbled out of the dunes.

I’ve also been spending a lot of time walking in the woods. This week I’ve been in the woods in Hyannis, Barnstable and Mashpee. Lots of birds, including towhees, pine warblers, chipping sparrows, woodpeckers, red breasted nuthatches and a broad winged hawk in Mashpee. A red shouldered hawk at Long Pasture in Barnstable.

On the home front, the orioles, catbirds and hummingbirds have arrived so put out those feeders for these hungry migrants. Stay tuned for the amazing warbler show which will be busting out on Cape Cod in the next few weeks.

As always, I’ll be doing the Mass Audubon Birdathon. More on that in a few days.