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Snack bar? I'm guessing, and it truly is a guess, that these birds found a watery snack bar on the Refuge Drive. The feathered critters didn't seem the least bit concerned about having their picture taken.
This week, you get two thousand words, more or less. Clean and simple. Well, only if you happen to believe that a picture is worth a thousand words. As you may have heard, we've been having another one of our once every 500 years or so floods. I think this year's flood event would the second once...
Bad combination? A squirrel and wires. This bushy-tail paused for a photograph, then scampered off to do whatever squirrels do. Some, apparently, make bad decisions with wires and high-voltage situations. This image was "solarized," as opposed to a squirrel which may have been "energized" as the result of a bad decision which had nothing to do with a pink, drum-playing bunny.
First up this week: We had a Chuck spotting one day during the past week or so. You may recall, or you may not, from a previous colyum that we mentioned our buddy Chuck. Chuck is a woodchuck, or groundhog. Yours truly had spotted Chuck a number of times, but hadn't seen him in a while. Then, during...
The Trail of Tears State Forest on a recent cool spring night. We had motored to the state forest to share its beauty with a visitor from the east. This is one of the images that yours truly has had fun creating with the use of a nifty "solarize" tool in Photoshop.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave, especially when it's Monday morning, a deadline is fast approaching, and a famous dead poet has not stepped up to write this column, mainly, of course, 'cause he's still dead. That's why you get to see a whole bunch o' pictures this week.  When it comes to the...
Looking for Easter eggs? Checking out the pantry? A groundhog, AKA a woodchuck, was spotted in our backyard early Monday morning. The critter didn't seem to have a worry in the world.
So, I'm going through the Monday morning routine, getting ready to start another week at The Paragraph Factory.  I glance out the back door. Much to my surprise, I spot the back of a furry brown head, streaked with a fair amount of gray (hmmmm...just like mine), which belongs to a critter taking a...
This killdeer was quite content to have its picture taken. Yours truly spotted the feathered critter one morning recently near Cobden. I'm guessing that by its behavior, the killdeer may have had a nest nearby.
This week...a few random observations, thoughts and meanderings... ...all of you folks who have started mowing your lawns just need to stop doing that...RIGHT NOW...you are making the rest of us look bad... ...perhaps you heard about this one...seems that regular folks will have an opportunity to...
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, maybe millions, of lady bugs were congregating in the structure which your intrepid photographer visited during Sunday afternoon's adventure.
"I still haven't found what I'm looking for..." ...the song of the same name, I think, by the aging rock music group U2 seemed appropriate as I headed home last Sunday afternoon after another forest bathing experience. By the way, Bono, the guy in charge of U2, should know better than to end the...
An extremely rare wood vine snake, seen on the left, had wrapped around its prey when it was spotted on one of my walkabout misadventures. The wood vine snake, which is generally an extremely shy creature whose only natural enemy is a termite, often does not show its head.
One of the biggest days of the year is fast approaching. Without an onslaught of TV commercials, special preparations in stores or even choirs practicing their favorite music of the season. We're talking about the imminent arrival of April 1th, which, if my calendar is correct, once again is going...
I’ve always enjoyed American Legion baseball. My interest began when I was a very young child chasing foul balls at the Murphysboro City Park baseball diamond for the American Legion baseball team.  My father, who was the head umpire in charge, made it all worth while and would give me 25 cents for...
This picture has absolutely nothing to do with wood chips, daffodils or geology. I just liked the pic, and it made me think of a couple of songs, too..."Time for Me to Fly" and "I'll Fly Away."
So many things to learn about...and so little time...but, before we get started...a bit of a... ...WARNING: Some, if not most, of the stuff in this week's colyum could well interest one or two people. Maybe three. Maybe not... ...here we go... ...during the past week or so, I learned that... ......
Daffodils...on Friday evening...yours truly took this picture during my daily walk. Snow was in the forecast for Friday night...
Ugh! Monday morning. Here again! Wake up! It's still dark! Look outside! And, in the immortal utterance of the legendary blockhead Charlie Brown, "AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!" Complete with a whole bunch of exclamation points!!!! Just so you know, this writer absolutely does not like exclamation points! Don't...

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The Gazette-Democrat

112 Lafayette St.
Anna, Illinois 62906
Office Number: (618) 833-2158
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