Chuck Lura

I recently noticed some rose bushes loaded with rose hips. Most people think of rose flowers as adding beauty to the summer months. But the rose hips add interesting color to the fall and winter landscape. Seeing all those rose hips made me think that it is time to brew up a batch of rose hip tea.

CBS Sunday Morning aired a story a couple weeks ago on people searching out larch trees in the western mountains during the fall to observe their golden colored needles. Although there are no larch native to North Dakota, an introduced species is grown as an ornamental in the state.

Clinker bed at Coal Vein Trail, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

“Gobble, Gobble!” Thanksgiving is coming up next Thursday. The turkey, of course, will be center stage as Americans dive into this annual gustatory feast.

The Geminids Meteor Shower is coming up soon, as is the Ursids Meteor Shower. Although we are coming up on a full moon on December 15, which will interfere with visibility of some of the weaker meteors, these meteor showers are still worth checking out.

Have you been seeing more deer and road kills as you travel about over the last month or so? Most people probably attribute the visibility and accidents to the rut or deer’s breeding season. But there are several other factors that are also involved with the increase in deer visibility and accidents this time of year.

The poinsettia, a shrub native to Central America, is a member of the spurge family

Are you wishing the days were longer? If so, your wish will be answered. For people that live in the northern hemisphere, the shortest day of the year — the winter solstice — falls on Saturday, December 21, this year. The days will then begin to lengthen until the summer solstice in June.

Santa Claus is not the only thing that comes down a chimney. Some of you may have seen the recent story about the barred owl that came down the chimney of a home in Virginia and proceeded to perch atop the Christmas tree.

What is the most abundant mammal in North America? I saw that question used in trivia recently. The answer was deer mouse. I am not so sure about that, in part because deer mouse is used to refer to a genus of mice as well one of the species of the genus. Either way, deer mice are certainly one of the contenders.