On a cool afternoon this past week, I had the opportunity to speak with Carl and Sharon Koprowicz. We found a lovely spot at a picnic table under a large tree just outside Cromwell Valley Park's Sherwood House to sit and chat.  Armed with birding binoculars, the Koprowiczs do not let an opportunity to appreciate the park's wildlife pass them by. Since discovering CVP almost 10 years ago, they have been coming out to enjoy walking the trails almost daily, and for at least the last five  years they have been involved with the Habitat Restoration Team.  More recently, Mr. Koprowicz has taken on …

Cromwell Valley Park (CVP) is located on 380 acres in Parkville. It was established in an effort to curb urban sprawls and save the valley from one more housing development.  While we all need a place to live, we need to a place to play as well. Having a place that reminds us nature is not so far away is important. When Mike Pierce happened upon CVP in 2005, he was immediately drawn to the natural open spaces, the stream bed, miles of hiking trails and historical buildings. He knew he wanted to be part of this remarkable place.  Today, as the Cromwell Valley Park Council President, Pierce …

Like long lazy days, lemonade and hide-n-seek, fireflies are a part of summer. Who doesn't delight in observing fireflies light up the night? Fireflies, sometimes called lightning bugs, are not flies at all, but beetles in the Lampyridae family. This family of luminescent insects also includes non-winged glowworms.   There are roughly 2,000 species of fireflies distributed across much of the globe. In North America there are 23 genera and about 200 species. According to Janine Dorothy, an entomologist with the Maryland Department of State, in this area we have two or three species that …

I was glad for the opportunity to attend a geocaching class in nearby Cromwell Valley Park, as I have previously written about the activity for this column. I made my reservation and excitedly awaited Saturday, looking forward to the class and to discovering a new park. I made sure my GPS was charged and after breakfast I headed out for my adventure. Ironically, this is where the scheduled part of the adventure ended, for although I found the park with no trouble at all, I did not find the class. What I did find were people using the park for all kinds of outdoor activities. Among them was …

This article is the second part in a series about bats. For part one click here. Many of the 10 species of bats found in Maryland are in serious danger as a result of a fungus, commonly called white nose disease, and thought to affect bats exclusively. This may be because so many of our native bats are year-round residents—roosting in caves, trees, under bridges or other structures during the summer and hibernating in caves or old mines during the winter. While some bat species are solitary, many live or hibernate in large colonies, which are at the greatest risk of white nose disease. The …

Once you have an outside room to enjoy, you might find yourself looking for other ways to enhance and improve your outdoor space. I view my yard, garden and patio as a continual work in progress; this year I decided to add several new gardens and water feature. Actually I, or rather we (my industrious neighbor and I), decided and started planning, digging and building last fall.  We, or rather he, built a retaining wall and raised bed. Using reclaimed wood from an old fence, he built an arbor over a new walkway and steps connecting our yards. He planted bulbs and perennials before the first …

Some migratory birds come back to the same area and even the same nest or nesting site each year. While most birds do not require permanent housing, some choose to repair and improve the same nest season after season.  Many people choose where to raise a family based on things as safety, schools  and property values. Things are not so different for our feathered friends. They look for a place that is secure, where their progeny can safely develop, hatch and grow and fledge, thereby ensuring a bloodline is successfully passed on. This has little to do with anything other than primal instinct. …

With the warm weather we have enjoyed the past few weeks, like many of you, I have found myself enjoying my patio and garden more and more. Thanks to my friend and neighbor, we have two new large gardens. One is a stepped garden and one surrounds a newly built retaining wall. Together these two gardens run the length of our properties with a newly constructed arbor and walkway that separate the gardens but connect our yards.   The wisteria we planted last year is already vigorously climbing the new arbor, which my dear neighbor lovingly designed and built with his own hands using reclaimed …

While they may be diminutive little creatures that hide among the ferns and flowers, people have reported suffering their mischief from the beginning of time. They are fairies and many gardeners, both young and old, delight in creating fairy worlds for them in their garden—worlds that are limited only by imagination. The legend says that garden fairies are often the root of mischief. Electronics that suddenly stop working, car troubles, broken pots and kettles, anything that goes amiss might be suspected of fairy mischief.  The tale says that fairies do not intend these mishaps, but that they…

Honey, wax, even meade are all familiar bee products, but these remarkable little creatures give us so much more than the obvious; bees are tremendously important to agriculture and the foods we enjoy.  Commercial beekeepers are perhaps less concerned with direct bee-related products such as honey, and far more interested that as they collect pollen—from which they make their life-sustaining sweet goo—they pollinate a wide variety of plants that feed our country and much of the world.  As pollinators, worker bees fly from flower to flower collecting pollen, some of which they tuck into a sort…

While there are some similarities to our own society that make empathy easy, in most ways their world is so vastly different than ours. Theirs is a matriarchal society in which the comparatively few male bees serve one single purpose. They do no work at all, have no stinger and live simply to propagate. Once their purpose is served they are driven from the hive, which results in their death. All other bees in the colony are female, and each has a specific purpose or job.  Some are worker bees who collect and bring back nectar. Others make honey.  Some fan the sweet rich liquid with their …

Beekeeping, or apiculture, is equal parts art, science and passion. One might be hard-pressed to find an individual involved in beekeeping who doesn't have strong feelings about it. Modern day apiarists, much like their ancient forefathers, continue to study the habits and needs of bees in an effort to improve on their methods of caring for hives and producing products. These improvements have resulted in the preservation of the colony when harvesting honey, wax and other bee products.  A change came about with the development of moveable hives in the 17th and 18th centuries, despite …

Spring can be both a blessing and a curse, particularly for those with seasonal allergies.  As a gardener, an outdoor enthusiast, an animal lover and a longtime allergy sufferer, I know all too well the sniffing, sneezing, puffy eyes, itchy ears, sore throat, drippy sinuses and over all malaise that accompany all we love about spring. The bright leaves and buds on the trees; the lawns greening back up after a winter of lying dormant; the lovely aromas of blooming flowers make some of us miserable. One of the ways some people find relief from seasonal allergies is by consuming locally grown …

I recall a long-ago conversation I had with a young woman expecting her first child. As she and her husband prepared for the birth, she ran across an article about the environmental impact of disposable diapers. She was so concerned that she asked me to explain more eco-friendly options.  We discussed landfill science and what that actually means. We discussed the use of cloth diapers and the result of the processes and chemicals used to clean them. In the end, she chose to use a combination of cloth and disposable diapers. What brought this distant memory forward from the fog-bound reaches …

While we may lose an hour of sleep, how wonderful is it to crack the windows and allow crisp, fresh air to fill our homes with the wonderful, natural scent of clean?  Spring rain showers awaken our gardens and fill our landscapes with beautiful blooms, which cause some of us to itch and sneeze. There is always a give and take with nature, and although I am one of those who suffer from allergies, I can think of little more enjoyable than the warm sunshine on my face after the long, cold winter. I don't even mind that the rain also results in mud—with three dogs, there is more feet wiping than …

March just might come roaring in like a lion this year. Are you ready? Spring is a perfect time to clean up the garden, make repairs and adjustments to your outdoor furniture and to get your outdoor living spaces ready for a summer of enjoyment.  If you have not already done so, now is the time to plan out the next season’s plantings. Last year I waited too long to buy my giant elephant ear bulbs and by the time I went looking for them, shortly before they should have been planted, there were none to be had. Oh sure, there were potted varieties, but not what I wanted and as I plant them in …

If geocaching is a modern day, tech-savvy, treasure hunt, then letterboxing is its older, low-tech cousin, or maybe its parent or even grandparent. Letterboxing certainly came first, and some believe it was the foundation for geocaching.  Letterboxing finds its origins in Devon, England, at Dartmoor. It is generally accepted that James Perrott, a Dartmoor guide, placed a bottle in which visitors could place their cards at Cranmere Pool on the northern moor. The bottle, first placed in 1854, was soon replaced with a letterbox, in which hikers on the moors could leave a letter or postcard. They…

Until recently introduced by a friend, I had no idea what geocaching was.  When Heather Johnson of Parkville learned I would be writing a weekly Outdoor Living column, she mentioned geocaching and suggested it be the subject of an article.  I had never heard of this activity, so off to the Internet I went.  What I found online, together with Heather’s enthusiastic endorsement, sold me on the virtues of geocaching.  The general idea is simple.  Geocaching is a modern-day kind of treasure hunt.  Containers, called geocaches, or simply caches, are hidden all over the world, quite possibly right …