Sunday, May 17, 2026

Operation Pollination


Wild bee populations in North America have collapsed by up to 96% in two decades, according to the Xerces Society, an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats. Unfortunately, in many places, the essential service of pollination is at risk from habitat loss, pesticide use, and introduced diseases.
 


My husband and I were invited to attend a Denver Metro South Rotary Club meeting held in the conservatory of the Colorado Governor's Residence at Boettcher Mansion in Denver, Colorado, because one of our friends was receiving a citizenship award from the club that day. 
One of the topics discussed that day was the upcoming "Operation Pollination," an Epic Day of Service at Denver Audubon Kingery Nature Center, held this past weekend, where volunteers planted native plants, assisted with garden maintenance, and helped with invasive plant removal. 

You can watch a YouTube video of this event at this link.
 

Amy Yarger, the Senior Director of Horticulture at the Butterfly Pavilion, located at 6252 W. 104th Avenue in Westminster, Colorado, was one of the guest speakers at the Rotary Club event, and spoke about the importance of invertebrates and things we could do to improve, protect, and care for their threatened habitats.


Butterflies I photographed at past visits to the Butterfly Pavilion.

The Butterfly Pavilion is the first stand-alone, Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited non-profit invertebrate zoo in the world and a leader in invertebrate knowledge, inspiration, and connection.
We have visited it many times with our grandchildren--you can see a couple of past blog posts about it at this link.


Yarger told us that pollinators are not just bees--they are anything that helps move pollen from one part of a flower to another. This movement fertilizes a plant, helping make seeds, fruits, and new plants. Some plants can pollinate themselves, and others use wind or water to move their pollen. But many plants need help from insects and animals like bees, butterflies, birds, bats, and even some small mammals.



We learned there are at least five ways to save pollinators by focusing on habitat:

1. Replace one patch of lawn with native plants. Residential yards have enormous potential as pollinator habitat, and converting even a portion of turf grass to native pollinator plantings makes a measurable difference.

2. Plant for the full season, not just summer. Use plants that bloom from early spring into late fall, and plant in clumps rather than single specimens so pollinators can find and use them efficiently. In Colorado, goldenrod and native asters carry pollinators through fall when almost nothing else is blooming, including migrating monarchs.

3. Stop fall cleanup. Seriously. Pollinators overwinter in hollow stems, attached to plants, and in leaf litter. Cutting down perennial gardens in the fall destroys these overwintering sites. Leave stems standing until early April. What looks messy to you is a nursery to them.

4. Leave bare dirt. This one surprises people. More than 75% of native bees are ground-nesters and require patches of unmulched, bare soil. A small, sunny, unplanted corner of your yard, left intentionally bare, is more valuable to native bees than most garden features.

5. Cut pesticides, especially neonicotinoids. Choose plants that have not been treated with pesticides, insecticides, or neonicotinoids. If you must use a pesticide, use the least-toxic option and apply it at night when bees and other pollinators are not active. Many nursery plants, including ones marketed as "bee-friendly," are pre-treated. Ask before you buy.


You can see charts for beneficial pollinator plants to grow in different areas in the US on this link on Xerces. 


One of the speakers at the Operation Pollination event was a woman who lives in my community who has totally replaced her typical suburban "all grass" landscape--see top photo in the collage above--with an amazing flower and vegetable garden--seen in the bottom photo! She was also instrumental in forming a "Makers Market" at our neighborhood community center, where locally grown vegetables and flowers, as well as handcrafted products, could be sold on selected weekends.  It was truly inspirational to see what one person could do!



Finally, this was our friend Stephanie, along with her son, after she received her good citizenship award for her volunteer work in our community. We were happy to be there to congratulate her!




As a bonus, after the Denver Metro South Rotary Club event, we were all invited to take a tour of the Colorado Governor's Residence at Boettcher Mansion. 
I took many photos there -- please come back next week to see that post.


As you can see in the photo above, the snow we received a few weeks ago is still evident on the high Rocky Mountains. We may get some more snowfall tomorrow when another cold front arrives after we had a very warm week. It is never dull weather-wise in Colorado!




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Sunday, May 10, 2026

Life Lately

I hope Mother's Day was a happy one for all! We went to scenic Golden, Colorado, and had a wonderful brunch at the restaurant in the Golden Hotel. 

They had a fun photo booth in the lobby, and so all the ladies took the photo above.

April and May brought beautiful spring flowers to our area, but...

...early May also brought us a cold front and a heavy, wet snow!

Because of our high elevation, we often get a few spring snowfalls in Colorado, and this one was well-needed, as our state has been in severe drought this year.


My husband and I braved the drive to Denver on that snowy night to attend Opera Colorado's beautiful production of Puccini's opera, Madama Butterfly. 


 In typical Colorado style in spring, the temperature rose to the 70s F (21.11 C) the next day, and all the snow melted!


Besides going to a Wildlife Refuge, a Mansion, the Denver Zoo, and the Littleton Museum, we have been busy over the past couple of months with our grandchildren's happy occasions — sports, prom, and music and dance recitals.


Spring has also brought more birds and baby bunnies to our yard, along with the usual hungry deer.


Look what we saw heading west on Interstate 70 recently--our first glimpse of a "Waymo" car!  Waymo is a fully autonomous driverless taxi, and it is currently in service in 11 states, with Denver, Colorado, now being tested as one of the many new areas where it will become standard for hire, 24/7.  Our daughter experienced riding in a Waymo taxi while on a business trip in Arizona, and she really enjoyed it and felt completely safe. The company conducts extensive testing to ensure safety and reliability in various conditions, and has been testing its ability to drive in snow and ice in Colorado. Right now, have been using drivers, just in case, until they are assured of safety in our city. Waymo will start the autonomous service in Denver and work toward expanding into the metro area and Denver International Airport sometime this year if all goes as planned.

Have you ridden in a Waymo? How was the experience?


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Sunday, May 3, 2026

A Littleton Museum Visit With Friends

 


The Littleton Museum, located at 6028 S. Gallup Street in Littleton, Colorado, is one of the region’s premier cultural destinations and one of the top ten history museums in the United States.. It features two authentic living history farm sites, one representing 1860, and the other 1890, located on the museum's 40 acres. Earlier this year, the Littleton Museum renewed its accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, a prestigious designation held by only 3% of museums in the country, and was the first museum in Colorado to be recognized as an Affiliate of the Smithsonian.
The museum building includes a permanent exhibit focusing on Littleton's history, as well as two rotating galleries.

 


We went on an outing with friends to see the newest history exhibit at the museum, which presented a selection of objects from the museum’s collection of historic artifacts that celebrate both the 150th anniversary of Colorado’s statehood and the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.  This exhibit will run to the end of 2026.


Please click the photos above and below to enlarge them for easier viewing of the contents and writing.



As the nation commemorates the semiquincentennial – or 250th – anniversary of its founding throughout 2026, Colorado will be celebrating its 150th anniversary, called the “sesquicentennial.” Because Colorado is the only Centennial State, it is the only state that will observe dual anniversaries with commemorative events year-round.

Please click on the photo collage to enlarge it.


The Littleton Museum's History Gallery had multiple timeline displays in the exhibit that began with evidence of the area's prehistoric days, to the native tribes that lived here, and the Spanish and French explorations of the area, before the 1859 Colorado Gold Rush brought more European settlers west and to what would become Littleton.


According to the Museum website and displays:

"As the fledgling metropolis of Denver City began to grow, the need arose to construct a series of ditches to carry water to farms and businesses without ready access to rivers and creeks in this arid land. Among the engineers hired to lay out this system was young Richard Sullivan Little of New Hampshire.

Surveying in an area several miles south of Denver, Little fell in love with the site of present-day Littleton. Upon filing a home stake and other land claims, Richard brought his wife Angeline from the East in 1862, the dry climate all but curing her asthmatic condition, and began to farm. The Littles joined with several neighbors to build the Rough and Ready Flour Mill in 1867, providing a solid economic base in the community for years to come.

In 1872, the Littles filed a plat to subdivide much of their property into the village of Littleton. When the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad reached the area in 1871, settlement began at a rapid pace. By the time of Colorado's statehood in 1876, there were schools, churches, a hotel, stores, and many of the other trappings of western settlement. In 1890, the 245 residents voted to incorporate the Town of Littleton."



The museum displays had many interesting period artifacts...

...we spent a few hours reading and learning about Littleton's history and development.


I also enjoyed seeing the beautiful handmade quilts on display...



...this one depicted scenes of an early Littleton





The quilt above, and the one below, were made to celebrate Littleton's Centennial in 1990.




The grounds of the Littleton Museum have two historic farm sites dating from 1890 and 1860.


There are also many farm animals on the grounds.

 
We all enjoyed visiting the 1865 first schoolhouse in Littleton, where a costumed reenactor teacher told us and some schoolchildren who were also visiting the museum on an outing, what going to school was like in that era.


After leaving the museum, we all had a delicious lunch at Romano's Italian Restaurant, which has been a favorite fixture in downtown Littleton since 1967. 
We had this pretty view as we left Littleton to drive West, back toward the Front Range foothills, where our neighborhood is located.

It was the end of a perfect afternoon!




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