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Phenology is phenomenal!   Phenology is a funny thing. It’s that special sense in nature that while things are changing, some things remain constant as well. Some people call it “Nature’s calendar,” a kind of botanical clock when rooting and blooming and seeding occur in perceptible patterns that vary according to weather, seasons, and climate….

Hickory Rain The sky is cool blue. Sun, searing hot. Big fat drops of rain are falling through leaves of a nearby tree. Pitter, patter, plop, plop, plop. Thump. Thump? Wait a minute. What sounds like rain is not, it’s bits of hickory husk that are raining down, with the occasional green nut thumping against…

A group of children stood transfixed on one side of Wright Creek. I followed their gaze and saw a bobcat kitten across the water, perched on a log no more than 10 feet away. The kitten held its steady gaze, silently assessing them. Were these smaller humans a threat? The children held their position. Was…

August Clouds They rise, puffy clouds piling on top of puffy clouds, rising into sky so blue and hot it hurts. A meeting room full of clouds expands into an auditorium, then a stadium. Do they bump into each other randomly and become one, these clouds, or is there some mysterious attraction of wet to…

Along the rocky edges and shorelines of Lake Jocassee the shy timber rattlesnake can be found resting quietly in its favorite coiled position. This is a cold blooded, venomous, ambush predator with a wide, triangular-shaped head. The end of its tail is black with a segmented rattle, active during warmer months and is commonly seen…

Keepers and Spoilers You, who love this place called Jocassee… you, who understand what a special place we have here… thank you for the respect you show both land and water, flora and fauna. Thank you for leaving the lightest of footprints. Thank you for leaving with all you have brought along to enjoy the…

Once in a while we luck up and get to see wildlife around the shore and occasionally swimming across the lake. This week Capt. Steve and his crew captured video of a mother black bear with her 3 cubs and me and my crew cautiously followed two wild piglets as they swam across the channel…

Low Water Down, down, down she goes; where she stops, nobody knows. Drought is taking its toll on Lake Jocassee. First, small sand beaches reappear, and boaters are happy to commandeer a private space. Rocky points extend further into the lake as water continues to drop. Rock, always lurking beneath the surface, rises from the…

  Now is the time to notice a quite showy plant, Devil’s Walkingstick or Aralia spinosa. This is a woody shrub to a small tree with large compound leaves arranged bipinnately. The leaf is attached to the trunk and can be two to four feet long and three feet wide making it the biggest leaf…

Discovery   This child. All of eighteen months, placed into clear baptismal waters at the base of Wright Creek Falls. Grandmother captures the moment in a photo. I wish I could have captured the look on this child’s face, his blond curls damp from the waterfall’s spray. It is a full-face joy, transcending amazement, transcending…

One of our favorite Jocassee Wild Child traditions is making a Mica Wish! Ever wondered what that sparkly, glittery “magic” is shimmering beneath the clear waters and along the sandy shores of Lake Jocassee? It’s mica…..a beautiful mineral found throughout our Blue Ridge Mountains. Each child chooses a piece of mica, holds it close, closes…

Bear A little past eight pm, and the sky outside holds plenty of light. I’m inside, working on this newsletter. I’m positioned so I can watch finches and hummingbirds at the feeders outside these over-sized windows. Movement catches my eye. I look up in time to see a black bear–a big one–step politely over the…