As promised, I uncorked the Dandelion wine last night that my son had helped me harvest for three years ago!
Smell
Upon uncorking the bottle, the smell was strong. Not a bad smell, just very strong and we worried we might be taking sips of vinegar instead of wine.
Color
A beautiful color. I had expected pale yellow or maybe a pale-yellow green color similar to the color of a faded dandelion flower, but in liquid form. This amber brown was really a nice surprise!
Taste
Strong! It has a unique taste and the best way I can describe it is somewhere between whisky and amaretto. It was very much like the kind of liqueur one might add to baked goods or cakes by the teaspoon. After a few sips I had a headache. I suspect the alcohol content might be on the high side. There was no way to test it that I know of without buying a special alcoholmeter. I’m convinced it could clean the sticker residue off a window though.
Final Thoughts:
I’ve affectionately nicknamed it “Pacific Northwest Hooch” or “PNW Moonshine.” It’s my first time trying to make something fermented. I’m still flirting with the idea of try to make Kombucha, but I would be the only one in the house interested in drinking it. We don’t have the fridge or storage space for me to go making any large selfish experiments. I’ll have to find an equally interested co-conspirator who could provide the storage space to work with!
As for Dandelion Wine, it was a lot of work to pull all of those tiny flowers off the heads and then to wait a minimum of a year before trying it after filtering it through two bottles over a matter of months. I’m curious how it would have tasted at the one-year mark, but not enough to go through the whole process again. I’m not much of a drinker to begin, so I’ll still to buying a bottle of wine or spirits from the professionals, as needed. This does answer my question of why Dandelion Wine is not a common wine option.
May you have a wonderful and pleasantly interesting week! Remember to get outside and remain curious about the world around you!
What’s a crazy or interesting thing that you’ve tried? How did it turn out?
Stay Tuned!
I’m planning a proposal on a new, low stakes, interactive Nature-led project together and a post about AI’s impact on Society and Nature. Hold my coat, I’ve got thoughts!
Fall Leaves Taken on Nov 3, 2025 By Melanie Reynolds
Hello Nature-led friends!
It’s January 2026 already and there’s a lot going on in the world! While I have many concerns about the fate of humanity and the fate of the planet itself, I’m still hopeful and excited about the year to come! There will always be opposing forces at work because of physics, but also because ideologically there is no one-sizes-fits-all utopia. A dog’s heaven is a squirrel’s hell. I will always be a voice for nature and the unseen. I hope you will too! Only 1/8 of my thoughts and ideas ever make it to this space but if it ignites even a fraction of passion in you to be part of the living world and lead with empathy beyond yourself. That’s good enough for me. We should all strive to remain slightly feral.
In 2024, I didn’t know how to tell you I had cancer or that I was fighting to get my mom out of a terrible rehabilitation center that she was involuntarily sent to by the hospital mafia in my hometown. So, I’m telling you now. Those things happened and I fought like hell and I’m missing a few spare parts, but I’m still here and I’m cancer-free and my mom is still here and in a much better place. I couldn’t have made it through either of those things without the support of my friends and family and the community at large. I’ve never been the kind of person who likes to do things by phone, but I called and called anyone and everyone that could help me. I wore out the pavement on a four-hour drive to and from my hometown and my home. I made new friends and allies. I was forced to learn, grow, adapt and innovate when all I wanted to do was sleep.
In 2025, I had to continue strengthening my body and mind to new realities. No one wants to talk about how long recovery because it’s boring and it can sound a lot like whining. It’s hard to give our bodies time to adjust to the slow process of healing when our brains are living in societies that offer next day delivery and 24-hour conveniences. In short, I messed up my feet trying to do a lot of walking for exercise and then I had that to also recover from. Sigh.
Autumn Alder Tree Taken on Nov 3, 2025 By Melanie Reynolds
All these pictures of fall tree colors I took in November. It had been raining a lot like it always does this time of year, but then it started raining harder for longer. By the second week of December, we got hit with two back-to-back and one smaller atmospheric river hit that caused multiple rivers to surpass flood stage in Western Washington. Several valleys flooded including the Skagit valley, Snoqualmie valley, and the Fraser River valley in southern British Columbia. Levees failed and over 100,000 people had to evacuate throughout the region. One person died after driving into flood waters in Snohomish and around 1,000 water rescues were performed.
We experienced flooding in the region before, so people are really good at coming together for those in need. When the Everett Animal shelter was in threat of being flooded people were quick to show up and take all 120 animals to their homes to be safe. I’d like to hope that a few adoptions happened as a result of the awareness that so many animals are available for adoption at just one shelter.
Below are pictures of the Snoqualmie Valley flooding that cutoff the city of Duvall from Redmond and Woodinville.
Flooded Farm in Snoqualmie Valley Dec 11, 2025. Mike JaglaFlooded Wood-Duvall Rd Dec 11, 2025. Mike JaglaDrone Footage Dec 11,2025.Morning Mist Snoqualmie Valley Dec 11, 2025 Mike Jagla
I’m thankful that the casualty number for this disaster as it currently stands is one person as far as we know. My heart goes out to the people who have lost their homes and cherished possessions to the flood waters. Some of the people recently flooded were flooded back in 2021 and the lack of funding and affordable housing means that people cannot “just move” out of harm’s way. No one can predict that a 100-year flood event is going to happen twice in five years while the government argues what they will and won’t pay for and when.
One of the things that bothered me most is the amount of AI videos and pictures I saw that quickly popped up on Facebook and other social media sites that callously exploited the disaster for peoples’ own amusement and greedy dopamine hits that had nothing to do with what was actually going on. Really people and animals were affected and when other people start to question what’s true and what’s not true, it can impact disaster response and the amount of aid and donations that people and organizations could receive for recovery.
I’m currently volunteering four hours a week at a youth shelter and advocacy organization because I believe that when you don’t know what else to do with yourself and you want to help others, you should start with the people closest to you. Show up for your community in a way that works for you. It can be one-time, it can be once a month, or it can be once or twice a week. The level of commitment is up to you. Just reach out to organizations that support causes you care about and see how you can help. I find it fun and rewarding because I know I’m doing something that matters. It’s cathartic to help others even when I feel like a walking disaster on the inside.
Now, go play outside and/or go read a book to shelter animals!
It’s been too long. Yes, yes, I know. I’m sorry, but as the title of this post clearly explains, you can’t keep my love inside or more accurately; you can’t keep my love indoors. Those of you who are regular or semi-regular commenters here are always with me though. Your part of the audience that lives in my brain.
At the start of this summer, I took the dog for an early morning walk to snap a picture of a new house that was under construction near me. I was planning a post about the struggle to find balance between the need for more housing and leaving “corridors” for wildlife. As I arrived before the construction workers so did a medium-sized black bear who was also not expecting any humans to be there yet. We took one look at each other and promptly turned around to walk back from which we’d come. My dog didn’t even have time to register the scent of bear and was none the wiser. Just as well, no need to make a fuss and wake the neighborhood about it.
I never made it back in time to take the picture and now that the house is occupied by a lovely lady, her little dog and husband. I’d be a creep to take a picture of an innocently occupied house without a good explanation. I’ve continued to try to organize my thoughts and attempt to articulate the need to find balance between creating more housing, preferably affordable housing, and providing safe corridors for wildlife to travel through. If you’re not an American, let me just say that in the United States we have big feelings about what property rights should and shouldn’t allow. For many, our feelings about it are very much ingrained in our individualistic idealism of freedom.
I first learned about the idea of wildlife corridors through Stephen Kellert’s book Birthright: People and Nature in the Modern World (2012). I consider Mr. Kellert one of my personal mentors. I refer to his books often to help frame my own ideas. As a Yale Professor in the School of Forestry he helped pioneer the philosophy of Biophilic Design. Sadly, he passed away of cancer in 2016.
Here in Washington State, we have what’s called the “Growth Management Act.” It dictates that every city must build new housing based on the city’s size and other criteria so that no one city is responsible for the State’s housing availability. Most of the ecological focus of the act focuses on surface water management and salmon restoration. I suppose it’s admirable that now they’ve finally decided to get serious about salmon run restoration and recovery before complete extinction, but it’s not without pointing out the economic value of keep enough salmon alive to be harvested. Salmon = $$$. It’s also a big part of the northwestern cultural identity for many Americans and Canadians whether we’re indigenous or not. Call me a fish snob if you want too, but Atlantic salmon is subpar to Coho and Sockeye!
I frequently worry about my wild neighbors, but not in the way that people might think. I’m happy to see the bears, coyotes, bobcats, and many more animals. I worry about other humans. My fellow humans, you can get so unnecessarily dramatic about things sometimes. When it comes to wild animals, I think it’s a lack of education, yes? At least once a day a siren will go by on the nearby main road and without fail, as long as they are in the ‘hood, the coyotes will go off howling and yelping along with it.
I think it’s funny. A coyote can be mid-stalk towards a rabbit meal when it’s suddenly overwhelmed to join the siren song of a fire truck going by a few streets over. A pack of them going off sounds like chaos, which also sounds like a pack of teenage boys going off about something. I know many people would also find a pack of teenage boys laughing and talking excitedly scary too. People, what to do with you? There are more important things to worry about!
So that’s where I’ve been. Outside helping native plants fight the good fight towards recovery and sustainability while also enjoying all my wild friends, human and non-human alike! I should be more actively looking for a paying job, but, but, but, the plants, the fresh air, the sun… I tried to get some outdoor summer work at gardening centers and parks maintenance, but with no previous employment experience to my credit, it was a no go.
I recently finished and interesting and entertaining book…
You Look Like A Thing And I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works And Why It’s Making the World a Weirder Place By Janelle Shane
I think she did an excellent job of discussing what AI is and isn’t for non-technical people. I highly encourage you to give the book a try or check out her blog (link below) if you’re worried about AI taking over the world and/or need clarity about what Artificial Intelligence means. AI means more than just one form of machine learning and it’s an important distinction. As with all things, I’ll tell you it’s not the entity you need to worry about but the people behind it and their motivations. In our modern hyper-capitalistic societies, it’s getting harder to find people who genuinely have our best interest at heart. Sincerity is not something we can allow to go extinct.
The Nature-led Life 