Once each month, meet a naturalist at a county park for an introduction to what’s going on with plants, animals and insects as summer progresses. Then head out for a naturalist-led hike to look and listen for nature in action. Dates and locations: June 20 at Spicer Lake Nature Preserve; July 18 at St. Patrick's Park Harvest Room; August 22 at Spicer Lake Nature Preserve. All dates meet 9-11 am.

An introduction to reading and understanding the Bible. Open to anyone. Participants in the course need to have their own copy of a Bible (whether online or hard copy) to read and use during the course. Participants should bring their copy of the Bible to each class. Weekly readings will be assigned, participants in the course will benefit most by completing the assigned readings. We only have six weeks for this course, so the assigned readings are very important. You will get the most out of this course if you have one hour a week to do assigned readings.

Mystery Stories have been around for a long time but sometimes the detectives aren’t actually detectives, but humble members of a religious organization with a desire to help. 

•A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters (Brother Cadfael)

•The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton (Father Brown)(This is a book of Short Stories, we’ll read two of the stories)

•Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman (Rabbi Small)

Drum Circle is a fun, educational, and accessible musical experience that celebrates diversity, inclusion, and expression! Participants of the drum circle will learn about various percussion instruments from all over the world and the proper technique for playing each instrument. The goal is for everyone who participates to discover and share their sense of rhythm with each other, even if just by clapping along! Dancing encouraged!

Surprise your teenage and young adult family members this holiday season when you put a strategy game on the dining table and ask them to play. Dave has played hundreds of strategy games and has selected a few games that are not too long to play (1 to 1 1/2 hr typically) and not overly complicated. (Did you know that the largest convention held in Indiana every year is GENCON, a board game convention. Takes the entire convention center in Indy and Lucas Stadium. 75,000 attendees!

We will briefly cover the events and processes that lead to the topography and geological features we find in the Great Lakes area. We will focus on geological methods we employ today that help us to understand the events that occurred in the distant past. This means that entire epochs must be covered in a matter of minutes, however, understanding these events may well help you to visualize how the earth's surface continues to be reshaped.

How often have you wished you had asked your parents, grandparents, or aunts and uncles about what life was like when they were younger? Young people usually don’t think to ask those questions until older loved ones are not around to answer. So, this is your chance to write down the stories of your life so that the younger generations will benefit from your wisdom, discover how you overcame difficulties or reached goals, and learn what life was like before computers and cell phones. The instructor will present topics for you to choose from, such as memories of your parents, your first job, etc., and class discussions will help spark ideas for your stories. You won’t write a complete autobiography as such, but you will wind up with a collection of memories that will become a cherished legacy for the younger generations in your family. Bring paper and a pen or a laptop if you wish, and don’t worry about spelling or grammar: It’s all about the stories! Copy fee of $1 at first class.

The May and June selections from the 2025 Fernwood Botanical Garden Book Club are Extraordinary Insects (2018) by Anne Sverdrup-Thygesson, a professor at Norway's University of Life Sciences, and Horizon (2019) by Barry Lopez, a member of the Notre Dame 'Great class of 1968'. Our long form reading, a Gen Z term for book, page count over our 6 week group discussion class will be 778 pages. 202 for Norway and 576 for Notre Dame. Here is a recommendation from The Guardian in favor of reading Lopez, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/14/horizon-by-barry-lopez-review.