Margaret Cheasebro

As the days get longer and the weather starts to warm up, it's more comfortable to be outside. One of the first things I saw when I spent more time outside was the weeds. They were popping up all over! They like the longer days and warmer weather too!

Plants other than weeds also like the increased light. Trees drink in that extra sunshine. Fruit trees gauge when it's time to sprout blossoms based on how much light they sense.

We're no different. Light revitalizes us. After the shorter days of winter, we drink in that light just as do the trees, the weeds and the rest of the plants. Light gives me more energy. I enjoy being outside when I feel the sun's warmth enveloping me. In spring that warmth is not too hot, so it feels really good.

Sometimes I like to lean on my hoe for just a moment and watch the sun filter through the juniper tree in my front yard. The light sparkles as it touches different parts of the tree. It tunnels through denser branches. It finds its way through every twig, needle and juniper berry on the tree, and it finds its way to me.

When I stand propped up against the hoe as I take a rest from weeding, I remember something my mother-in-law told me one spring day. She and my son, then about eight years old, were joking around as they chopped weeds near the house. When she took a break by using the hoe as a resting prop, my son looked at her with a smile aid said, "Someone's standing up on the job." She thought it was funny enough that it became one of her standard stories about her grandson.

Getting together outside in the sunlight brings families together in heartfelt, fun-loving ways. Yay for increased sunshine. Celebrate the light!

Five years ago, when I moved to the house where I live now, I went into the back yard and looked at a tall spruce tree. It seemed quite beautiful. In the evening, it looked a little sparkly. It seemed to be catching a hint of light from somewhere. I called it Sparkly Spruce.

Every time I went into the back yard, I would say, "Hello, Sparkly Spruce." It made the tree seem like a friend.

But I always thought there was a better name for the tree. For a long time, I couldn't figure out what that name might be.

Then one day this month when it was cold outside, I stayed inside and looked through the living room glass sliding door at Sparkly Spruce. There was something elegant about the tree, something almost regal.

I thought about calling it Mellik, a name that means king in Arabic. But that didn't seem to suit it. There was something feminine about the tree. I didn't know what the female version of Mellik was, but Meleeka sounded like it would work. The name seemed to fit the tree. Now every time I'm in the back yard, I say, "Hi, Meleeka." It's fun to think about having royalty living in my yard.

Do you have a favorite tree in your yard or somewhere in your neighborhood? It might be fun to figure out a name for the tree you like so much.

Stand near the tree. Study it. Notice everything about it. You may feel a sense of calmness as you focus on the tree.

What name do you think fits the tree? If no name comes, just keep noticing how comfortable you feel being around the tree. A name might pop into your head. If it seems to fit the tree, it will be a good name for it.

Every time you go by the tree, you can say hi to the tree and call it by the name you gave it. The tree might seem a little more special to you because you have given it a name.

The next time you are bored and wonder what to do, find another tree and go through the same process to give it a name. It's a fun way to be creative.

Breaking a bad habit can be hard. That's why I was glad to learn a different way to do it.

The different way is simple. Don't try to break the bad habit at all. Instead of focusing on it, think of a new habit you want to replace it with.

That sounds too simple, but I tried it, and it worked for me! It doesn't cost you any money, just a little bit of time, and not much of that.

If you've ever been around people who drive you crazy, it's easy to see their flaws. It's hard not to say something negative to them. The bad habit I wanted to replace was feeling upset every time I had to be around a certain person. Things the person did and said had a way of setting me off. Before I knew it, I could feel myself boiling over with frustration. That person really bugged me!

I had tried before to change the way I reacted to this person, but it didn't work. I was doing what a lot of us do when we try to get rid of a habit. We try to fight it, break it, get rid of it. The problem is that when we do that, we're thinking about the bad habit.

When I learned a different method to try, I was ready! Instead of focusing on the habit I wanted to break, I focused on a new habit I wanted instead. For me that focus was to see this person through eyes that saw only goodness. I named the person in my mind and said, "I see ____ through eyes that see only goodness."

There is a second part to the method, and this part is the most important. After you make that statement, take a deep breath and say, "I have the new habit."

If that's still a little challenging, try meditating on it for a few minutes. Meditating can sometimes be easier if you stand or sit near a tree. Say the new habit you want to form. Then look at the tree. Notice all its beautiful details. Feel calmness settle over. Then take a deep breath and say, "I have the new habit."

You may need to say this to yourself a few times for the next few days. You don't have to be near a tree to say it. You can think it in your mind if you're at work or in a public place.

If the old habit tries to creep back, don't focus on it. Don't try to fight it. Just state the new habit. Then take a deep breath and say, "I have the new habit."

Give it a try. It worked for me. I think it could work for you too.

Now is a good time to search on the ground around trees in your yard or on public pathways through your town to find pine cones and other things that have dropped from trees. They make wonderful art work for anyone who has the patience and skill to create original pieces.

Many years ago, a friend of mine gathered some small pine cones she found and crafted them into a Christmas tree ornament. She gave it to me, and I have hung it on my tree every year since then. It reminds me of our friendship and of her ability to create lovely things.

Start close to home by walking around your yard to see what you can find on the ground. Twigs, pine cones, pine needles, dried autumn leaves, and little stones are among the many things you might find. If you want, you can invite family members or friends to join the fun.

Drop the items you collect into a paper or plastic bag. When you have enough, take them inside. If necessary, clean them off in whatever way seems most appropriate. If you choose a way that damages the item, don't worry. Just go out and find something else.

Once the items you collected are clean and dry, spread them out on a table or on the floor. Give them a discerning look. What item could you create with some of those pieces? If you think of something, move those pieces to one part of the table or floor and begin putting them together.

If what you create doesn't look like you hoped it would, set it aside and look at the remaining pieces. What could you build from them? Use your imagination. You can use anything to help you build your idea, such as a glue gun, cloth material, string, or colorful paper.

Keep working until you run out of time or want to take a break. There's no need to use up all the pieces. Anything left over you can deposit outside in your yard. Set the pieces you have completed aside.

Look at all the items you have created. Are there a few that you really like? Keep as many of them as you want. The others would make good gifts for friends. If you don't like some of the things you created, throw them away or give them to your cat or a neighbor's cat for a toy.

If you're looking for an interesting activity to do with your kids, here's a suggestion. Find out how many trees grow in your neighborhood.

Make a game out of it. Have your children don their tree detective hat, take their clue recording notebook, and grab their evidence collecting pencil or pen.

Then walk with them through your neighborhood. Decide how many blocks this activity should cover. Choose a number that will let everyone complete the activity without getting tired.

It's best to walk instead of drive, if it's not too cold, because you can spot trees more easily when you're walking. If you live in the country, you may need to drive for safety if there are no sidewalks.

Encourage your kids to spot every tree and record the number in their notebook. An easy way to do this is to make one mark for every tree sighted. Make the marks in groups of five. Then it will be easier to count them when you get back home.

Before you start, have everyone, including adults, make a guess about how many trees you will find. Write down each person's name and beside each name put the number of trees that person guessed. When you get home, see who came closest to the correct number. Give the winner a standing ovation!

Were you surprised by the number of trees you counted? Have a conversation with your kids about why people might decide to plant trees in their yard. If you have trees in your yard, talk about some of the good things about having them there.

This activity will give you several benefits. Not only will you discover how many trees are in one area of your neighborhood, but you will get some exercise. And you will spend time doing something fun and interesting with your family.

An incredibly intelligent woman has created a haven for rare trees that would otherwise be lost to the world. She has done this on 60 acres of land she and her husband own outside of Ottawa, Canada. They purchased the land in the early 1970s. Since then, Diana Beresford-Kroeger has saved trees, many of which have medicinal qualities with significant benefits.

She wrote a book about her experiences called To Speak for the Trees. It was published in 2019 by Random House, Canada. It is one of the most interesting and readable books I have come across in a long time.

One of the trees she saved was a hop tree known as Ptelea trifoliata. "That tree," she wrote, "has a synergistic biochemical that revs up your major organs and causes them to metabolize things faster. It allows your body to make efficient use of medicines, magnifying their potency, and reduces the amount that you need to take."

If people need chemotherapy, a combination of a medicine made with Ptelea and a chemo drug would reduce the amount of chemo they need. Then they could cope with side effects better because they didn't have as much of the drug in their body.

Diana has an impressive background. She earned both her undergraduate and master's degrees in medical biochemistry and botany from University College Cork in Ireland. She focused on "the hormones that regulate plants and the frost resistance of all species." She wanted to know what the margins of life were.

To start her PhD, she accepted an American Federal Fellowship to the University of Connecticut at Storrs Campus. There, she focused on nuclear chemistry. She studied the effects of nuclear radiation on biological systems in both plants and animals.

At the end of that fellowship, she went to Carleton University in Ottawa, to pursue her PhD research. She focused on serotonin and the tryptophan-tryptamine pathways. She "compared the function of hormones in plants and human beings." In it, she proved that such pathways exist in plants and, most of all, in trees. Her study showed that "trees possess all the same chemicals we have in our brains," she wrote. "Trees have the neural ability to listen and think. They have all the component parts necessary to have a mind or consciousness. That's what I proved: that forests can think and perhaps even dream."

When she and her husband bought their 60 acres of land, it included a huge field and quite a few trees. Concerned that rare trees were dying out, she decided to save as many as she could. Some, like Ptelea trifoliata, had important medicinal qualities.

She diligently searched for many of those trees and planted them on her property. People who learned what she was doing sometimes donated rare species to her. Saving rare trees has become her life's work. Read more about it in her remarkable book, To Speak for the Trees.

Gnarled old trees with holes and broken limbs are important for healthy ecosystems. That may sound strange, but it's true. These big old trees that have stood for hundreds of years help many kinds of wildlife find homes.

An article written by George Monbiot in the Aug. 13, 2021 The Guardian Weekly made a case for how important these ancient habitats are. They have often taken centuries to develop into a place where other species can thrive.

Monbiot writes, "Bats shelter in splits in the trunk. Forks hold tiny pools of water or pockets of soil. Jagged wounds where limbs have sheared, burrs and excrescences, scrapes from which resin bubbles, ivy, vines, lichens and mosses, tangles of twigs and derelict nests, peeling bark and fire scars are all crucial wildlife habitats."

Even more important that those, he adds, are holes in the trees that provide shelter for all kinds of animals. Even pesky woodpeckers and flickers help with this process. The holes their long, sharp beaks bore into trees eventually become homes for a variety of animals. As they bore into the wood, their beaks carry fungal spores that help to make the wood softer so holes can develop more easily. Trees that provide the best wood for boring into are big, old, and rotten.

Unfortunately, around the world many of these trees are disappearing. Major wildfires can wipe them out. When the trees go, the holes that provide homes for animals disappear as well.

Though removing dead or dying trees from forests seems like a sensible thing for people to do, in reality, Monbiot writes, it "is one of the most damaging human activities."

Those old growth areas with their gnarled ancient trees offer living quarters for so many birds, mammals, reptiles, invertebrates, and other kinds of life. Without a safe place to live, those life forms could not thrive. Those ancient habitats help to keep our world healthier.

Now that Thanksgiving is over and some of us may have gained a pound or two after feasting on turkey and all the trimmings, it might be fun and healthy to get some extra exercise.

Recently, I took a walk along the beautiful walkway that follows the Animas River through Farmington, NM, the city in which I live. It was great exercise, and I found some trees with unusual shapes. I snapped a few pictures of them. It's been fun to look at those pictures and remind myself of the trees' artistic shapes.

If you'd like to explore some areas near where you live, grab your camera or iPhone, put on a pair of comfortable walking shoes and bundle up if you live where it's cold. Then drive to places where there are quite a few trees. Take a walk through each area and enjoy the trees that you find. Take pictures of the ones with the most unusual shapes.

Some trees have a typical tree shape that includes a trunk and branches that grow upward from it toward the sky. But sometimes trees have taken on different shapes. Maybe they have several trunks with lots of branches spilling everywhere. Or maybe some of the branches have twisted into creative shapes.

When you find trees with unusual shapes, take a picture of each of them. Then make up a name for each tree so you can identify it later. Making up names for the trees can be almost as much fun as taking pictures of them.

Once you're back home, take a look at your photos. Decide which ones look so unique that you'd like to have prints made of them. Once you have the prints, choose a few that you'd like to hang in your house. Buy frames for the prints. Then have fun fitting each picture into the frame that suits it best. Find the right place to hang each one in your house.

If your pictures are good enough, consider entering them into a local photography contest. If you win a prize or if someone decides to buy your photo, consider it a sign that you have the talent to keep taking and displaying unique pictures.

Have fun hiking, taking photos, and losing a few pounds after the Thanksgiving feast!

The Green Heart Project is planting thousands of trees throughout Louisville, Kentucky to learn if trees can prevent heart disease in humans. The project began in 2018.

Aruna Bhatnager, director of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville, is overseeing the effort with lots of help from interested people as well as $14.5 million in donations. Major donations have come from The National Institutes of Health and the Nature Conservancy.

Through the project, about 10,000 trees were planted in many neighborhoods in Louisville during the last three years. According to a 2015 report about the city's trees, approximately 150 trees a day die in Louisville, or 54,000 trees a year. They die from bigger storms, diseases, attacks from invasive beetles, and other factors.

The city has other challenges too, including homicide, suicide, cancer, drug addiction and angry reactions to the death of Louisville resident Breonna Taylor in 2020. Heart disease has become a serious problem in the city, which has some of the highest rates of cardiovascular disease in the United States, according to an article about the project in the May 2021 Discover Magazine.

Pollution levels are high enough that the American Lung Association has consistently given Louisville a poor grade for pollution levels. Research over the past 15 years has shown a correlation between air pollution and the development of heart disease.

The Envirome Institute wants to conduct environmental research that will help to create healthier cities. A pilot project of the institute recently found that planted trees reduced pollution by 60 percent around a local school, according to the Discover article.

Bhatnager specializes in environmental cardiology. He became fascinated by information he discovered in literature that both cigarette smoke and pollution impair nitric oxide production in the body. The molecule nitric oxide plays an important role because it helps to regulate insulin in the body, and it relaxes the inner muscles of blood vessels so that blood circulation increases.

He and his staff began doing toxicology studies to find out how many different pollutants affect our cardiovascular system. Their studies showed that pollution causes many problems. Among those problems is vascular damage in humans. In a study of mice, that vascular damage suppressed stem cells, which are needed to repair damaged blood vessels.

He also learned that dozens of studies show a relationship between living near green spaces and better health outcomes, among them lower stress levels and lower rates of asthma and depression. Bhatnager is convinced the Green Heart Project can make a positive difference in many people's lives.

The city of Farmington, New Mexico, has a wonderful herb garden at the Riverside Nature Center. There are lots of herbs, grasses and trees growing there, and all are identified with special plaques. Other cities may have similar resources as well. If you live somewhere else, ask the local Chamber of Commerce or visitors center if your city has something like it.

If you live in or near Farmington and want a peaceful, enjoyable and educational place to take family, friends or visitors, the Riverside Nature Center is a great place to go. And it's free! Turn off Browning Parkway into the municipal complex that contains some city offices, the regional animal shelter and the Riverside Nature Center. Follow the signs to a parking lot near the nature center. Don't be surprised if you see deer or chickens walking near the trail.

At the center, you can ask for a handout of all the herbs growing in the herb garden. There's a xeriscape garden nearby too. The handout even has recipes for making an herb blend and one that combines tomatoes with a variety of herbs. There's a recipe for lavender-lemon cookies and another one for apricot lavender jam. You will see some different kinds of lavender growing in the herb garden.

Plan to spend an hour or more walking among the herbs, grasses and trees that grow in the herb garden. There is a lot to see! Well-marked trails take you on pathways through the garden. If you get tired, there are tables and benches not far away where you can rest.

When some friends and I recently toured the herb garden, we felt so relaxed. Being near all that natural beauty has a way of calming you.

A visit to the herb garden gets even better if you add a visit to the nature center itself. It's in a building with lots of exhibits and even has some interactive things to do. You can select some mementoes of your trip at the gift shop. Sometimes you'll find used books at a very cheap price there. For more information, call the center at 505-599-1422.

If you want to stay a little longer, head over to the nearby regional animal shelter. Ask if you can take one of the dogs for a walk. The shelter relies on volunteers to help them walk the dogs waiting for someone to adopt them. The animal shelter is not far from the Animas River, where there are wonderful walkways built along the river. They meander near the water for a few miles through town.

If you're looking for something to do this month when the weather is still comfortably cool, try the nature center and its surroundings. It's an activity that your whole family can enjoy together.