Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.  Held during the last week in September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spot…

mmer programming at the Dorothy Bramlage Public Library’s Young People’s Department! There are exciting programs for all ages this summer! Some programs will be in-person, some programs will be Take and Make programs and others will be online or a combination of Take and Make and an online format.

It doesn’t matter if you call them carpenter bees, wood bees or whatever, if you have structures, including decks, around your property that have unpainted and untreated wood, you will have these bumblebee look alikes hanging around your property at least part of the summer. Even though they…

As you can imagine, my job allows me to look at a lot of plant growth issues either from plants brought into my office or onsite in yards, gardens, fields or pastures. There are many things that will cause plants to not grow normally. Some of these issues are caused by insects or diseases, b…

The internet is potentially an amazing resource. So many information portals. Literally a vast amount of the knowledge of the world lies at your fingertips for amazingly rapid retrieval. The internet has allowed us to stay sane during the quarantine. It allows us to step into the cartoon wor…

I was about town last week looking at a diseased tree when I heard a couple of adult cardinals just having a fit. I turned around and saw a young cardinal that had obviously done an early launch out of the nest that was probably about 2 or 3 days away from being able to really fly well. It w…

Some days I read something in the news and I just shake my head and quietly hope it goes away quickly. That was the case several weeks ago when I saw the headlines flashing “Murder Hornets...” I felt like Charlie Brown in every TV special. “Oh good grief!” Let’s just set the record straight.…

Most of us were introduced to the library at a young age and the message was very clear the library is where the books live, and if you want to be a great reader, you need to get a library card and checkout a many books as you can.  I remember my mother would take my siblings and I to the li…

Let me start by sending a huge, loud, and heartfelt Happy Mother’s Day to all our library moms! Mother’s Day is a day set aside to celebrate you and all the things you do for your family, and trust me when I say, you do a lot for your family! So, use today as a great excuse to take that extr…

Last week started off with several rounds of intense thunderstorms moving through the area. Thunderstorms this time of year can cause major damage to plants, or virtually no damage. By their very nature thunderstorms will have lightning, wind, rain, and sometimes hail. We experienced all fou…

Many serious gardeners have had seeds in the ground for over a month. But for a lot of people the gardening season doesn´t really start until they can plant their tomatoes. More on that later, but we are just barely on the cusp of tomato planting time.

Sunshine, warm weather, nice cool breezes…and an occasional thunderstorm or two! I guess that means the month of May is here! May is generally a busy time for us here at the library as we prepare for summer reading and summer programming. Though the library has not been open the last month, …

In the current era of stay at home orders, only go out for essential services, avoid crowds, etc. many homeowners are in a quandary, given they have more time around home, of what they should or shouldn´t be doing for their lawns. “Do I go to the hardware store to buy fertilizer, crabgrass c…

The mystery genre is one of the most popular among today’s fiction readers.  From cozies and suspense novels to detective stories and police procedurals, readers devour them and are constantly on the hunt for more.  In the era of stay-at-home and social distancing, they also sometimes need a…

Today as I prepare breakfast for my youngest daughter and wait for my oldest to wake up, I began to realize I am back to where I was three years ago when I was a stay at home mom. In just a few short weeks I became a teacher, housekeeper, as well as completing all duties as the head of the c…

I see a lot of yards around town, including my own, that has a lot of really

Our community, our nation, has been struck by a vicious virus over the last several months. It’s one that knows no boundaries, no race barriers, no age restrictions, and no income levels. Its closed schools, libraries, restaurants, and our favorite shops. It’s left our world turned upside do…

A week and a half ago we had cold weather roll through the area. Another

During World Wars I and II supplies, including food were often in short

Just this past weekend I was helping my family cut down old bushes and trimming the trees in our backyard. It was a beautiful day! Lots of sunshine and warm temperatures-the perfect weather for gardening! It felt like spring had finally arrived after a week of colder temperatures and foggy, …

About this time of year I start to receive phone calls of birds attacking windows. This is different than birds flying into windows. We see that all winter long. Birds are startled and don´t realize that the reflection of the outdoors in the window is not really a continuation of outdoors. T…

 Welcome to the new normal!  At this time of year this column usually focuses on the friends of the library and its annual meeting and gift basket drawing all of which have, of course been put on hold until further notice.  Instead, digital resources have taken center stage while families hu…

For twenty years, there was a place by my front door reserved for boots. Not just any pair of boots, not cowboy boots or steel toe work boots, but combat boots. The boots that work long hours without overtime pay, the ones that are caked in dirt and sand from foreign lands, the ones that hel…

Kansas, specifically Kansas weather, does not like evergreen trees. Or to put it more correctly, most evergreen trees don’t like Kansas weather/climate. When we talk about evergreen trees we are talking about pine, spruce, fir, arborvitae and cedar (junipers). To put it in perspective, Kansa…

March is the beginning of spring. March is also a busy month in the Young People’s Department at the Dorothy Bramlage Public Library! On March 2, the library celebrated Dr. Seuss Day! Children and families came in and made some fun arts and crafts including a hot air balloon, a Lorax mask, a…

The beginning of a new year usually includes a review of the one just completed in the form of a statistical report that the library files each year with the State Library of Kansas.  These numbers help paint a picture of some of the ways patrons use the library and to illustrate the story o…

I find strange ways to pass the time. I read the ads in Sunday papers looking for those outrageous claims of the latest amazing fast growing tree, or the instant deep green lawn grass, or the new miracle way to grow tomatoes. I spend time looking for these products in self defense because so…