A lovely time this week was spent with President Marci and husband Joe here with us for a few days. Ate some seafood, rode some bikes, watched some birds. Next week, friend Mary will be down from Westmoreland County. Fly free, snowbirds!

Did a little time travel this week for the masthead - to January of this year and a snowy Ole Bull. That's a pretty little park in every season but it certainly offers a quintessential PA winter scene.

Last week it was a shout out to the English for a conservation minded initiative we are doing here in Pennsylvania; this week it's the French! A new law there will mandate that at least half the area of all parking lots in excess of 16,000 square feet (think capacity for 50 American cars) be covered by elevated solar panels. This could result in an 8% increase in the country's electrical capacity.

Well, guess what? DCNR has already done this! At Ryerson Station State Park, where the wonderful new swimming pool and water complex keeps Greene County and nearby West Virginia residents cool and happy, the parking lot is covered by solar panels. All the electricity the park needs is produced by these panels.

Heads-up that the EarthDayPA50.org website has been retired and the content redirected to our existing website. The blog posts we created in the weeks leading to the anniversary can now be found on the News page of the website in the Earth Day 50 category. Additional educational resources include the reading list we compiled (and continue to expand) featured on the Fun for Families page of Our Work-Recreation, and on Our Work-Stewardship you'll find links to information on climate change and invasive species.

I told the folks in PPFF central that probably the most intriguing discovery I made while cutting and pasting was the blog post by DCNR's Climate Action guru Greg Czarnecki. I had a picture of him in the images cache of the site and vaguely recalled importing a post he'd done on climate but it wasn't showing up in the blog. Color me confused. 

Ultimately it caught my eye that there was a blog post "in draft." When I clicked on it, sure enough it was Greg's. And the date it was last edited was March 11, 2020 - the DAY the WHO declared a global COVID pandemic. As I told the crew, I think I might have been just a hair distracted that day. I imagine some of the facts and figures from the post are due for an update but it is definitely worth reading - and perhaps reflecting on what we were all doing when it was intended to be published. #PPFFReflections

Meanwhile, DCNR's Good Natured blog shared the "secret" that the outdoor industry is a crucial economic engine for the commonwealth. Go ahead, buy those new boots and hit the trails in a new part of the state. Your visitor dollars make great things happen for everyone!

One of our regular readers wrote in last week to say that she just discovered the weekly online jigsaw puzzle. So it occurs to me that I should be a little more explicit every once in a while to let new readers know about them! 

Indeed - when you see me make some kind of cryptic remark that a picture of the week or other photo in Fridays makes a "nice jigsaw" or a "challenging jigsaw" or a "cruel and impossible jigsaw," you'll see that the text is linked. And that link is to Jigsaw Explorer, an online jigsaw app. Play one of theirs, create one with a picture of your own, and/or play ours. Either way, it's a treat!

And this week's puzzle is that Laurel Hill syrup array.

Calling all storytellers!

Early this year, a story about a couple that met while hiking caught our eye. It got us thinking about all the love stories that must have #paparks and #paforests as their settings.

Send a 60 sec. video or a picture with text telling your love story in a PA state park or forest to Brian Swift. Participants will receive a PPFF giveaway from the prize closet.

Of course, there are many types of love - romantic, spiritual, familiar, self-love, or passion for an activity or hobby. They all make great stories.

We're looking here toward the end of February for your trip planning pleasure.

Put a bookmark on the PPFF Events calendar and DCNR Calendar of Events so you never miss an announcement.

It's funny to contemplate but indeed Punxsy Phil is basically a big ol' squirrel. Pesky and unpredictable as they are, it's probably obvious!

Why do rhododendron leaves like those shown at Tuscarora in our picture above curl as shown in extreme cold?

Enter each week to increase your chances of a fabulous prize at the end of the month when I'll draw one entry from all correct answers received during the month.

As ever, blue boxes are pictures and news; green boxes are events.

Quote by Anna Deveare Smith

February 11 is Make a Friend Day

Make one in a PPFF Chapter Friends Group shown above!
Check them out at PAParksAndForests.org/friends-groups