"Don't move. Stay still..." writes American poet, Gary Snyder. "Take a look at one place on earth, one circle of people, one realm of beings over time."

Infinite numbers, delicacies, smells,
With hues on hues expression cannot paint,
The breath of Nature and her endless bloom…
wrote the 18th century poet, James Thomson, describing the summer.

The more I try to landscape my yard, the more I find that the plants are following their own minds and their own way, some taking over, others being choked out. No garden space, even in a perennial garden, stays the same for long. Well, maybe it does for a year or two, but then it shifts gradually over three or four years so that I don't see it move, and then I come upon it and suddenly realize that it is nothing like I remember it.

State parks and other lands in Ohio will be opened to oil and gas drilling under a bill that has passed the state Senate on Wednesday.

The Senate voted 22-10 on the legislation that sets up a commission to oversee oil and gas leasing. It also requires state agencies to create property inventories that could yield potential drilling sites.

The House has passed the bill, but would have to agree to the Senate's changes before it could go to the governor's desk.

The bill's supporters say Ohio could get fees and royalties of up to 9 million. Some proceeds would go to habitat protection and wildlife preservation.

When the days are hot and humid, I become slow and pace myself to the air. When the days are dry, bright, and in the 60s and 70s, I feel I should be outside, working or wandering. The glowing green of early spring sets me planning and dreaming.

When the canopy has closed above the woodland wildflowers, when winter wheat is a soft pale green, and the clovers and vetches are all coming in, then it's the best time of year for golden parsnip blossoms throughout the countryside.