{"content":[{"text":"The Joy of Watching Nature","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.088864,"width":0.24313799999999997,"height":0.020818000000000003}},{"text":"As I sit at my computer writing this, I can look past my monitor and watch the queen \n butterflies literally flocking to the blooms on Gregg’s mistflower, or the hummingbirds \n probing each tiny bloom on the prairie larkspur, both of which are growing just off the \n porch only a few feet from where I sit. Or I can watch the lesser goldfinches at the \n thistle feeder under the porch overhang. The entire view out my window is a collection \n of native trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses, and being able to see it all on a regular \n basis makes whatever I am doing here on the computer much more enjoyable.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.121616,"width":0.7442780000000001,"height":0.14096999999999998}},{"text":"And when I take my coffee cup and go out on the porch and sit quietly to watch all of the \n goings-on it is even more enjoyable. I never get tired of watching the squirrel climb over \n the back gate, run down the path, up the old cedar tree and over onto the post oak and \n down to the ground to see if the birds spilled any sunflower seeds. Or watching the \n cardinals taking a bath in the recirculating stream.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.274495,"width":0.7643730000000001,"height":0.10100700000000001}},{"text":"It is truly amazing to watch the barn swallows swoop onto the nest on the light fixture \n under the porch eve to feed the growing young. They (the adults or the brood) seem to \n never tire of this. They seem to be able to find insects in the air in a very short time— \n more than I thought existed.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.38726,"width":0.75502,"height":0.08096999999999999}},{"text":"This year it has been interesting to watch the old agave, with its only chance at \n immortality, put up an 18-foot tall flower stalk with huge flat yellow and green flower \n structures, all in a matter of a few weeks.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.479987,"width":0.720357,"height":0.060970000000000024}},{"text":"The point of all of this is just to describe what to me is one of the real joys of life, simply \n watching, observing and studying nature. And all of what I just described occurs every \n day in an area of about a half acre. The reason I am writing about this is to remind folks \n with busy, distracted lives, to figuratively, “stop and smell the roses”.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.55274,"width":0.7622420000000001,"height":0.07965}},{"text":"The nature purist will have noted that much of what I described above is not truly \n “natural”, because the bird feeders and the water feature were obviously something we \n added, and to be fair, the Gregg’s mistflower and the prairie larkspur, while native \n wildflowers, were planted. But my point is that you don’t have to be in a true wilderness \n to experience nature. You don’t have to drive to a distant park or hike miles up a trail or \n book some “outdoor adventure”. For most people you don’t even have to leave your \n back yard.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.645619,"width":0.75804,"height":0.141007}},{"text":"Bada Dioum, an environmentalist from Senegal said, “In the end, we will conserve only \n what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what \n we are taught”. I have been fortunate to have witnessed a number of instances where \n people have learned something new about the natural world around them and almost \n immediately came to value it more and were more inclined to conserve it.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.801107,"width":0.7516470000000001,"height":0.09839299999999995}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}