Life With Ferris: Taking Time For Lightning Bugs Monday, July 12, 2021 - by Ferris Robinson
Lightning bugs
I wrote this column in what seems like another lifetime, when my boys were still babies. Now as a grandmother, I get to revisit a precious childhood and savor it because I know how fleeting it is. I also know now that there aren’t nearly as many lightning bugs as there were 30 years ago, and we need to protect them. “Watch, don’t catch,” pertains to these magical insects, and as soon as my granddaughter is old enough to stay up until dark, we will make a cozy spot in the yard with a blanket and watch with wonder as fairies seem to flicker through the summer evening. Hopefully these fireflies will be around for her to do the same with her own grandchildren.
Life With Ferris: Jane s Garden Monday, July 5, 2021 - by Ferris Robinson
Ferris Robinson
Beautyberry at Temple Park on Lookout
Jane s Garden features both natives and ornamentals
A pollinator garden at the Commons on Lookout
Mary Leland Hutchison and her husband Kelly
“In the past, we have asked one thing of our gardens: that they be pretty. Now they have to support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators and manage water.” - Doug Tallamy
Dr. Tallamy’s plan, the Homegrown National Park movement, is a simple grassroots action to restore biodiversity. He calls us all to take part, no matter how much land you have access to, whether it’s fields after fields or a front porch stoop. You can learn more at https://homegrownnationalpark.org/
Life With Ferris: Bluebirds Fledge And Leave Me Bereft Monday, June 28, 2021 - by Ferris Robinson
Ferris Robinson
I’m a birdwatcher. I love to watch the birds, even if I don’t know exactly what I’m watching. My friends Tina and Sam Currin are birdwatchers, too, but they actually can identify most everything they spy, or even hear. That’s my goal. In the meantime I text them blurry pictures of trees with an occasional colorful speck in them and ask them to identify the speck. They usually do.
I’m also a bird landlord of sorts. David and Vivienne Nichols gave me a bluebird house a few years ago, with instructions on how to set it up. We put it in the perfect spot, but no bird paid a bit of attention to it that first spring. The next spring bluebirds claimed it, laid eggs, and babies hatched! But they all died. I don’t know if it was the cold temperatures or the rain or what, but I was devastated. Vivienne comforted me with her own bluebird ups and downs, but I t
Life With Ferris: A Father s Gift Monday, June 14, 2021 - by Ferris Robinson
My father died eight years ago, and holidays, those special occasions we always celebrated together, are still hard. The gifts he gave me over my lifetime are numerous, so many I can’t name them all. I still have the cards from every orchid he sent, always showing up my husband.
Valentines Day is always tough. My sister, mother and I are still not used to Valentine’s Day without an orchid from him, usually accompanied with a handwritten note and his little drawing of a raccoon under his name.
Life With Ferris: Polly Moore Was A Doodle Monday, June 7, 2021 - by Ferris Robinson
Polly Moore with her grandson, Will
Polly Moore died five years ago, and she is missed by so many. The last time she came to my house for lunch, she gifted me a gorgeous pewter ice scoop that I kept with my ice bucket. Every time I entertained I thought of Polly as I plunged the pretty little tool in the ice. But I don’t entertain that often, and I decided I wanted to use it more often. And so I do. I scoop birdseed with it from the large glass canister, and I think of Polly regularly.