Author Archives: kkovarik

Hope you can stop by to hear a talk by my husband, Pete Kovarik, on how our Arboretum got started…I still can’t believe how far we’ve come!

February 09, 2013 (Sat)
Going Green in the Neighborhood: Peter Kovarik, Ph.D.
The Story of the Lower Olentangy Urban Arboretum
10 am Whetstone Branch Library
Location: 3909 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43214, 614-645-2275

Peter Kovarik, biologist and community environmentalist came into the Crestview neighborhood of Columbus looking to bring nature home. He found an existing network of like-minded neighbors interested in creating a place for the natural, native world in the city parks, ravines and on the streets of the district. Come here when it all started, what projects acted as stepping stones to community involvement and how it is leading to a greener, healthier neighborhood for everyone. Peter is an entymologist and researcher. He teaches biology at Columbus State Community College.

That’s Pete on the left, looking soggy but dapper on a mountain somewhere in a jungle/rain forest in Belize. He was collecting insects with John Shuey, on the right. It’s one of my favorite pictures of Pete!

Until next time!

Is anyone else having difficulties with this up and down weather? Two weeks ago, I was outside in just a sweatshirt and last week, I couldn’t get warm for anything. Thanks goodness for long johns, warm kitties and extra blankets! Later this week, it’s supposed to get up to nearly 60 degrees, then back into the 20s. I’m not quite sure what to make of it. It’s rather like seeing Mouse and Ciara on my lap at the same time with no hissing. I simply sit there in disbelief, not wanting to move and break the spell! And with the cold and snow, we’ve been very diligent about feeding the birds. Pete said that one of the sparrows that came to our feeder was a native one. It really was very pretty with its stripes on its chest. He’s not certain what kind it is, but he will keep the bird book handy to try and identify it. And Mama Cardinal came back; I hadn’t seen her for a while and was worried. And I finally bought some peanuts so that I can become a squirrel whisperer like my brother, Mike. Right now, mostly the squirrels see me coming and run away as quickly as they can. But there is one little guy who seems a bit more adventuresome who stayed nearby when I put out some of the peanuts. We’ll see how it goes!

The deep freeze has also been playing havoc with my hellebores that have started to bloom, including one that has never bloomed before. I never really think of them as a plant that needs protecting from the cold (they do flower in January!), but I think they have a limit on how cold they like it. It anyone has any tips, please let me know. The plants seem rather droopy right now in the snow, and I wonder that I should have covered them during this cold spell. And Jack Frost has tiptoed through the tulips, who had been poking out little green shoots. I fear for their safety under all of this snow!

Until next time!

Some upcoming events that might be of interest, including a talk by my husband on how our Arboretum got started…

January 12, 2013 (Sat)
Growing Caterpillars: Jim McCormac
10am at Innis House (Inniswood Metro Park)
940 S. Hempstead Road
Westerville, OH 43081

Jim works for the Division of Wild Life, specializing in non-game wildlife diversity issues, especially birds. Prior to that, he was a botanist with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. He is author of Birds of Ohio (Lone Pine 2004); The Great Lakes Nature Guide (Lone Pine 2009); and Wild Ohio: The Best of Our Natural Heritage (Kent State University Press 2009). The latter won 2010 Ohioana Book Award. Jim writes a column, Nature, for the Columbus Dispatch and has authored or do-authored over 100 scientific and popular articles in a variety of publications. His topic Growing Caterpillars is a tale of Birds, Plants, and Conservation. There are 3,000 or more species of moths in Ohio and nearly 140 butterfly species. The conspicuous winged adults are the often short-lived finale of a four stage life cycle: egg, caterpillar, pupa, and adult. It’s caterpillars that make much of the natural world go round and countless billions become food for other organisms. Without vegetation-eating caterpillars, most songbirds would go extinct, plant diversity would plummet and our forests would fall silent. The world of caterpillars is beautifully ornate, full of trickery and chemical warfare and both jaw-droopingly amazing and gruesomely stunning.

February 09, 2013 (Sat)
Going Green in the Neighborhood: Peter Kovarik
The Story of the Lower Olentangy Urban Arboretum
10 am Whetstone Branch Library
Location: 3909 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43214, 614-645-2275

Peter Kovarik, biologist and community environmentalist came into the Crestview neighborhood of Columbus looking to bring nature home. He found an existing network of like-minded neighbors interested in creating a place for the natural, native world in the city parks, ravines and on the streets of the district. Come here when it all started, what projects acted as stepping stones to community involvement and how it is leading to a greener, healthier neighborhood for everyone. Peter is an entymologist and researcher. He teaches biology at Columbus State Community College.

I love snow. I love the way it makes the world look, all white and clean (at least until the cars make the snow turn grey). I love the way it makes the world sound, all quiet and peaceful. So days like today and Wednesday are wonderful for me. Granted, I didn’t have to drive into work on either day, so that might be something. But I even like to drive in snow, as long as I don’t have to be around too many other cars. And shoveling it, too!

We have been feeding the birds for some time now, seeing mostly English sparrows and our cardinal pair; the male cardinal looks striking in the snow. (TIP: we microwave the sunflower seeds before we place them in the feeder so that the seeds won’t sprout come spring.) But Wednesday brought out a whole new set of birds, many that aren’t commonly seen at our feeder: juncos, cowbirds and our woodpecker, who was feeding on the suet. Pete said the cowbird was unusual because they prefer, well, places the cows would like, such as open fields. They are such distinct birds with a brown head and black bodies. And the juncos are very beautiful, too, with grey bodies and white bellies. And we always have chickadees, one of my favorites. I took some pictures, but the birds are small, the camera’s only my iPhone, so the pictures aren’t the best. The first photo shows Mr. Cardinal to the left of the bird feeder; the second shows the juncos on the chair below and to the right of the feeder. If you squint, you can barely make them out…

Then on Wednesday, Pete and I took our favorite snowy walk into Walhalla Ravine. We took that way to get to an oak tree on the other side of Indianola that Pete wanted to photograph to show that the stream used to be on both sides on the street. The setting was absolutely stunning, with the snow clinging to the bushes and even the smallest plants. How one small snowflake sticks to a tiny, thin twig always fascinates me. Then, as we were walking, Pete said, “Deer!” At first, I thought he was calling me (although “Dear” isn’t his most often used term of endearment for me…). Then I looked over to where he was pointing and saw a doe calmly standing on the side of the ravine. Then I saw another one. It seemed so odd to see two deer in the heart of Columbus. Pete thought they might have come up from the Olentangy River. He took some pictures, but the deer were camera shy. Of course, when I was looking at them, one was in perfect form, looking at me with head raised and ears up. When Pete came over to take her picture, she decided that she has an itch on her flank that needs attention. Oh well!

On Thursday, a bunch of us gathered at OSU to bring back the markers for the Arboretum. They look amazing (thanks, Jake) and are amazingly heavy! Once the snow melts, they can be placed on trees on the walks. Until then, you’ll just have to wait to see what they look like.

Hope all of you are enjoying the snow as much as I am; if not, just be like Seamus and Ciara: settle down for a long winter’s nap!

Until next time and Happy New Year!

As this year comes to an end, I find myself reflecting on all of the events of 2012. Some of them were sad, some of them happy, some of them made me wonder about keeping my sanity. But through it all, I found strength in the love and laughter of my family and friends. And I found joy in the little things in my life: a purring cat on my lap, a cup of hot chocolate, a good book to read, a song that made me want to dance, a hug from my husband.  I hope that all of you will have the same, should you need it, throughout the coming year.

May your holiday be filled with joy and may your 2013 bring you much happiness!

Until next time!

Somehow, a Carolina wren managed to get into our home. We aren’t certain, but we think it might have found a way in through an opening that previous owners had cut into the side of the house by the back porch, a favorite place of these birds. The poor little guy came into our home, and with four cats, the outcome was never going to be good. To top it off, Pete was home at the time, and even the short time that it took for him to rush in to see what the ruckus was about was too long. The little guy was already gone.

Needless to say, Pete was devastated, thinking he should have realized that the hole in our house might allow a bird to get inside, that he should have come quicker to see that the cats were doing, that this could have been prevented if only…I didn’t know what to say to Pete. I felt badly for him, for the bird, and for our cats. All they knew was that Peter was upset and that his feelings involved them. Mouse let me hug her (she never does that), Seamus stayed away from Pete’s lap while he graded (he’s always there), and Ciara just hid. They didn’t understand what they had done.

Pete went out and covered the hole with hardware cloth right away. The next evening, when I got home from work, we buried the bird in my garden with a small cairn over the grave. That day, all Pete heard was the wren’s mate calling. So we went outside and tried our best to let the bird know what happened. I think it worked; strangely, I felt that the bird understood what we were trying to tell him or her: that we were so sorry.

Just reminds us that everything on this earth is precious.

Until next time.

Well, after over three hours, my tree is decorated. For the past seven years, we have picked our tree out from the Forestry Forum at Ohio State, which had trees for sale this last weekend. The trees are from Ohio and fresh cut, and the proceeds all go to forestry students. For some reason this tree, although very beautiful and symmetrical, was hard for me to decorate. The branches were mixed long and short, which meant that I not only could I decorate the tips of the branches, but I could decorate closer to the trunk. Of course, dark ornaments couldn’t be placed in the darker recesses of the tree, and all those varying branch lengths made for lots a nooks and crannies that could only take smaller ornaments. Of course, the three and a half hours that I spent on my tree doesn’t include the additional time that I will spend moving ornaments around because I have two red ones together or a shorter ornament where a longer one should be. Or all the time that I spend putting back ornaments that my cat, Mouse, has batted off the tree and carried around the house. She especially loves the plastic icicles that I have.

For those of you who have a live tree for the holidays, here are a few tips to keep your tree fresh through the season:

• When you first get your tree, make sure that the end has a fresh cut.
• After bringing the tree home, make sure that the tree says in water at all times. This will keep the end of the tree from forming a covering of resin,
• Provide plenty of water for the tree, especially for the first few days in your home. The tree will take up plenty of water, so it should be checked daily.
• Just regular tap water is fine for keeping the tree fresh.
• Make sure that you look over your lights each year, especially the cords, before placing them on your tree.
• Finally, when your are ready to take down the tree, consider recycling it someplace that will turn it into mulch. Or, do like we do: place the tree in secluded corner of our backyard, where it will provide shelter for small critters and birds.

Until next time!

With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, it’s the time of year when I sit down and mentally think of all of the things that I am thankful for. The list is usually the same (friends, family, good health), but I think  it’s important to take the time (at least for me!) to remind myself of the many things I have in my life that bring me joy.

I am, as always, thankful for my husband, Pete, and the rest of my family in all of its shapes and forms. We just finished settling my father’s estate, so I am extremely thankful that my brother, Michael, was there to handle all of the legal details. I know I would have been lost without him. I am thankful that I have a mom who loves me just as I am and is always there to offer advice.

I am thankful for all of my friends, for their support and love, and the joy that they bring to me each day. You are all such an important part of who I am.

I am thankful that I have four wonderful “babies” in my life. My cats are a part of my family, and the unconditional love they give me is priceless. (And I’m thankful that I have friends and family who understand that!)

Finally, I am thankful for LOUA and all that it has accomplished in the last year. I never fail to be amazed that at what started as a little seed as grown into a wonderful arboretum. The word about our project as started to spread. It’s just so amazing. I know that as I walk around the neighborhood and see each of the trees that were planted with such love, they, too, have become like children in the sense that I worry about them thriving and growing strong. And I am truly thankful for all of the help and assistance that LOUA has received from so many groups, students, and community members that there are simply too many to mention them all: but a special thank you to FLOW and FOR and the OSU students and others who came with willing hands to plant so many trees. And, of course, to the City of Columbus and the Columbus Foundation. If I’ve left anyone off, I do apologize. Now I know how people accepting awards feel about making sure they don’t leave anyone off their list to thank!

Until next time!