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Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast Podcast.

Today's tip is to get to know one bit of nature by visiting the same place repeatedly

at different times of the year. You can appreciate the natural world in a new way.

My family moved to a new house in January of this year. It's near some woods,

and so almost every afternoon when I need a break, I go for a short walk in those woods.

I vary my route slightly, but it's not a huge woods, so I am seeing the same scenery, most days.

And since January, that scenery has changed a lot. In January and February, some days were snowy.

On non-snowy days I could see the slanted afternoon light through the bare branches,

and appreciate that tree bark comes in an array of natural hues, white to dark brown.

Somewhere around the beginning of March, a few tiny green shoots poked through the dead leaves,

then there were the wildflowers, and a mist of green slowly rolling up through the brush,

the small trees, into the canopy. Each day the change was barely perceptible,

but over 120 days everything changed. And since I walked in that woods on

probably close to 100 of those 120 days, I saw those changes. I saw the sequence of spring taking

hold, and I will see what will happen, as everything mellows into summer, and then again,

as it models into fall. Maybe you have somewhere you could visit almost every day too,

...