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Daily Connector | How COVID has impacted my life | Jim Fath

We all have stories to tell about how our lives have changed as a result of this pandemic. Some of you have asked, so I will tell of my particular journey. Mine starts with maybe having contracted the illness in late March--who knows how and when it will end.

Soon after I recovered from being ill, I was furloughed from my environmental science job at AECOM because all my projects were postponed due to the pandemic. As I was looking at options, I ran across a job posting directly addressing the pandemic and in late April found myself in...

Daily Connector | Epiphany here, there, then, now | Dan Halterman

January 6 is the end of Christmas. That’s what I learned as a child. My family tradition was to keep the tree up until Epiphany. I thought it strange that so many others had bare trees on the devil strip on December 26 (having tired of the thing after putting it up the day after Thanksgiving?) or January 2 (start the new year “fresh,” according to an aunt). We had no other Epiphany tradition or observance - it just meant Christmas was over.

The other, and more personally important, related tradition was selecting the tree on December 14 (...

Daily Connector | On the third day of Christmas...one Snowy Owl| Ruth Massey

On the Sunday afternoon following Christmas, I met Christina, Jen, Natalie and Maya at Alum Creek spillway to see the ‘resident’ snowy owl.

Snowy owls nest and spend their summers on the Arctic tundra. During winter, owls will move south into Canada. During irruption years, they will also show up throughout the US.

Often, when a snowy owl sighting is reported on a Birding page, its location is in an agricultural field or its length of stay in a given area is a day or two, meaning very few are able to find it....

Epiphany Blessings

Today (January 6) is the feast day of Epiphany when it is tradition to remember the visit of the magi to the baby Jesus. Even if our nativity sets typically include the three kings huddled around Jesus in the manger, the scriptures tell us this visit happened a bit later. (You try following a star and not showing up a little late!)

I recently learned about a tradition that many Christians use on Epiphany called “chalking the door.” On this day, many use chalk to mark their doors with the following symbols:

20 + C + M + B + 21

The numbers on the ends...

Daily Connector | On the second day of Christmas...a flock of Cranes a bugling | Ruth Massey

In the spring of 2015, when Ajay and I took the walk with Ted and Diane at Slate Run, we were prepared to see birds, brining with us our binoculars and bird guides. At that time, I was not checking birding sites on Facebook or checking eBird to learn what species of birds to expect. So when a pair of Sandhill Cranes landed in the tall grass in front of us we immediately assumed Great Blue Herons, but just as quickly noted the red crown and heavy body. A check in our field guides...Sandhill Cranes! Wow! A bird we had heard about but never seen.

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