The Bee Reader sculpture at the evolving MCEP Pollinator Park was installed in July of 2024.  It will be open to extend gifts of small paperback books for young readers and mature readers. Each month the Bee Reader will have two paperback books available. One geared for younger readers and one for mature readers. Please come and check it out. Each month’s selection will be available on the MCEP website with the book’s description.  If for some reason the books are not there just call us on 586 783 6008 and we will replenish the stock.

Our Bee Reader selections for November are:

All About the Presidents Search-a-Word Puzzles

By Frank J. D’Agostino

Learn about Adams’ pet alligator, Taft’s nickname, and more! Fun facts about 41 different presidents are the clues to these hidden-word puzzles. Names of family members, hobbies, pets, and other related terms appear within each puzzle — backward, forward, diagonally, vertically, and horizontally — and in a separate list of clues. Kids will have hours of presidential amusement! Solutions are included.

Creative Haven Celebrate! Day of the Dead Coloring Book

By David Edgerly and Chris Edgerly

Lift your “spirits” with this colorful celebration of the Mexican holiday in which families remember and honor their deceased loved ones. Created by David and Chris Edgerly, 31 elaborately detailed designs include iconic sugar skulls as well as dozens of whimsical skeletons, an important symbol of the festive event, in a variety of playful poses. Pages are perforated and printed on one side only for easy removal and display. Specially designed for experienced colorists, Celebrate! Day of the Dead and other Creative Haven® adult coloring books offer an escape to a world of inspiration and artistic fulfillment. Each title is also an effective and fun-filled way to relax and reduce stress.

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We hope you will enjoy this month’s selections!

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The Bee Reader sculpture at the evolving MCEP Pollinator Park was installed in July of 2024.  It will be open to extend gifts of small paperback books for young readers and mature readers. Each month the Bee Reader will have two paperback books available. One geared for younger readers and one for mature readers. Please come and check it out. Each month’s selection will be available on the MCEP website with the book’s description.  If for some reason the books are not there just call us on 586 783 6008 and we will replenish the stock.

Our Bee Reader selections for October are:

• The Adventures of Reddy Fox by Thornton W. Burgess

When little Reddy Fox gets too big for his breeches and steals a plump pet hen in broad daylight, the stage is set for an exciting tale as Farmer Brown’s boy pursues Reddy with loaded gun and Bowser the Hound. Fortunately, Reddy has wise Granny Fox on his side and, with some timely help from other woodland friends, manages to avoid an unhappy ending.
As this timeless fable unfolds, children will delight in Reddy’s risky antics and the commotion his behavior causes among Johnny Chuck, Drummer the Woodpecker, Peter Rabbit, and the other inhabitants of the Green Forest. Thornton W. Burgess, author of Old Mother West Wind and many other children’s classics, was a master at telling a good story that holds a child’s attention while instilling an important lesson in the most painless and enjoyable fashion. First published in 1913, The Adventures of Reddy Fox was one of his finest efforts. In this inexpensive Dover edition, newly reset in large, easy-to-read type, it will delight children (and adults) today, just as it did their grandparents.

• Native American Mazes by Winky Adam

This entertaining little activity book helps youngsters develop their problem-solving abilities as they navigate 33 exciting labyrinths and learn about Native American cultures. They’ll lead a Hopi boy to his lost Kachina doll, show an Apache hunter how to sneak up on a buffalo, and guide a Pequot to his campfire. Brief captions explain each of the mazes. Solutions are included.

We hope you will enjoy this month’s selections!

Mike Sohikian, a retired ironworker, has been a member of the Bridge and Structural Ironworkers Local 55 for 37 years.  He has had a lifetime of love and appreciation for art, but did not begin his art career until 1995. Since then, he has garnered acclaim and numerous prestigious awards and recognition for his paintings and sculptures.  Sohikian is best known for taking salvaged steel to new heights with impressive and innovative concepts.  He assembles industrial materials as well as reworks the materials into fascinating forms. 

This sculpture is the third of four sculptures by this artist.

Mike lives in Genoa, OH.  Mike has 4 sculptures in our program this year.  When we select the sculptures, we do not know who the artist is; just that we like the sculpture.

Check out some of his work at

https://www.facebook.com/russel.sohikian

Stop by our office located at 92 NB Gratiot in Mount Clemens and pick up a brochure of all our sculptures in the brochure box located on our front porch or at the Bonior Tree or Pollinator Park. There are now plenty of sunny days where a walk can be invigorating.

If you want to support our efforts, please send  a small tax-deductible contribution to keep the next show going in  October 2025 – 2026 and be sure to like us on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/MCEP99 

West side of NB Gratiot between Clinton River Dr. & Kibbee St.

The Bee Reader sculpture at the evolving MCEP Pollinator Park was installed in July of 2024.  It will be open to extend gifts of small paperback books for young readers and mature readers. Each month the Bee Reader will have two paperback books available. One geared for younger readers and one for mature readers. Please come and check it out. Each month’s selection will be available on the MCEP website with the book’s description.  If for some reason the books are not there just call us on 586 783 6008 and we will replenish the stock.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

By Jules Verne

When Professor Lidenbrock discovers a 16th-century manuscript that reveals a route to the earth’s core, he can’t resist the chance to investigate. Together with his whiz-kid nephew and an Icelandic guide, the professor heads for the crater of an extinct volcano. Tension builds as the trio descends: What bizarre creatures may lurk below? Will the supplies last, and how will the group return to the surface? Meanwhile, the explorers find themselves traveling backward through geologic time to encounter a living past that holds the secrets to the origins of humanity.

The grandfather of modern science fiction, Jules Verne published this gripping tale of adventure in 1864. Verne’s skillful storytelling blends realism and romanticism, and his gift for predicting future technological trends adds to the freshness and vitality of his novels. In addition to its action-packed excitement, Journey to the Center of the Earth offers the allure of a psychological quest, in which the trek itself is as important as the destination.

Reprint of the George Routledge and Sons, New York, 1876 edition.

The Birdwatcher’s Coloring Book

By Dot Barlowe

Thirty detailed illustrations to color depict a wide variety of U.S. and Canadian species and habitats, from an oriole perched in an apple tree to a bald eagle diving for fish in the Alaskan wilderness. Captions identify where species nest. Evoking the joys of nature, this book is a helpful companion to fledgling and experienced birdwatchers alike.

Dover Original.

MCEP Sculpture of the Week – 22

Artist Bio

Born and raised in northwest Kansas, Glenn Sweygardt received his BFA from Wichita State University in sculpture and painting  He then earned his MFA from the Rinehart School of Sculpture at Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore, Maryland.

For over 40 years, Glenn has been an active sculptor and educator.  With more than 50 solo exhibitions and multiple purchase awards to his name, he shows works both nationally and internationally.  His sculptures are included in many university, museums, outdoor and private collections.

Now an emeritus Professor of Sculpture at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Glenn continues to make signature sculptures in his Alfred Station studio.  His creations of steel, ductile iron, stainless steel, cast glass, cast bronze and aluminum are often combined with stone from around the world.  These sculptures range from monumental outdoor works to small, intimate pieces.

Artist Statement

The theme of my sculpture is the placement of myself in relation to nature.  While working in materials such as metal, stone, and glass, I am telling three-dimensional stories that capture my life experiences immersed in my perception of a collective consciousness.  It is my intention that these stories, spoken through an expression of form, texture and color, will enter into human consciousness and the fourth dimension.

You can see more of Glenn’s work on his Facebook page www.facebook.com/glenn.zweygardt and on his website www.glennzweygardt.com

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Rocky mountain blazing star (Liatris ligulistylis)

Also known as: Strap-style gayfeather

Rocky mountain blazing star (Liatris ligulistylis) is a type of aster found in the central United States and Canada. It sprouts large leaves near the ground and smaller ones higher up. A single stalk may produce as many as 21 flowers at a time. Rocky mountain blazing stars’ complex flowers are frequented by monarch butterflies and bleeding flower moths.

Rocky mountain blazing star, a perennial plant primarily native to North America’s central regions, has spread beyond its original range. It is known to be cultivated in areas outside its natural habitat, including notably in temperate zones. While primarily established within its indigenous borders, rocky mountain blazing star’s adaptability has led to it being introduced and cultivated in Europe’s gardens and landscapes.

You can see these flowers at our Pollinator Park located on the east side of Northbound Gratiot, and north of  Clinton River Drive and a parking lot.

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The Bee Reader sculpture at the evolving MCEP Pollinator Park was installed in July of 2024.  It will be open to extend gifts of small paperback books for young readers and mature readers. Each month the Bee Reader will have two paperback books available. One geared for younger readers and one for mature readers. Please come and check it out. Each month’s selection will be available on the MCEP website with the book’s description.  If for some reason the books are not there just call us on 586 783 6008 and we will replenish the stock.

Autobiography

The Story of My Experiments with Truth

By Mohandas Gandhi

“My purpose,” Mahatma Gandhi writes of this book, “is to describe experiments in the science of Satyagraha, not to say how good I am.” Satyagraha, Gandhi’s nonviolent protest movement (satya = true, agraha = firmness), came to stand, like its creator, as a moral principle and a rallying cry; the principle was truth and the cry freedom. The life of Gandhi has given fire and fiber to freedom fighters and to the untouchables of the world: hagiographers and patriots have capitalized on Mahatma myths. Yet Gandhi writes: “Often the title [Mahatma, Great Soul] has deeply pained me. . . . But I should certainly like to narrate my experiments in the spiritual field which are known only to myself, and from which I have derived such power as I possess for working in the political field.”
Clearly, Gandhi never renounced the world; he was neither pacifist nor cult guru. Who was Gandhi? In the midst of resurging interest in the man who freed India, inspired the American Civil Rights Movement, and is revered, respected, and misunderstood all over the world, the time is proper to listen to Gandhi himself — in his own words, his own “confessions,” his autobiography.
Gandhi made scrupulous truth-telling a religion and his Autobiography inevitably reminds one of other saints who have suffered and burned for their lapses. His simply narrated account of boyhood in Gujarat, marriage at age 13, legal studies in England, and growing desire for purity and reform has the force of a man extreme in all things. He details his gradual conversion to vegetarianism and ahimsa (non-violence) and the state of celibacy (brahmacharya, self-restraint) that became one of his more arduous spiritual trials. In the political realm he outlines the beginning of Satyagraha in South Africa and India, with accounts of the first Indian fasts and protests, his initial errors and misgivings, his jailings, and continued cordial dealings with the British overlords.  
Gandhi was a fascinating, complex man, a brilliant leader and guide, a seeker of truth who died for his beliefs but had no use for martyrdom or sainthood. His story, the path to his vision of Satyagraha and human dignity, is a critical work of the twentieth century, and timeless in its courage and inspiration.

Reprint of the Public Affairs Press, Washington, DC, 1948 edition.

Famous Cities Search-a-Word Puzzles

By Peter Lewis

Where are the Spanish Steps? What is the modern-day name for Byzantium? Where is Wrigley Field? These and many more questions are answered in these fact-filled puzzles, making them an entertaining and informative way to learn about famous cities around the world. (Answers: Rome, Istanbul, and Chicago.)
Scan the grids to discover groups of letters that spell — forward or backward, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally — the names of waterways, thoroughfares, airports, landmarks, government buildings, royal residences, and other notable aspects of 50 cities, including Rio de Janeiro, Mecca, Oslo, Montreal, Hong Kong, Athens, New York, and many more. All subjects are listed and identified in a section below the letter grids. And if you’re stumped, you’ll find solutions in back — but try not to peek!

Quite robust perennial with typical leaf cups, native to Central-eastern Canada to southeastern United States..

In average soils reaching 6′ tall x 2-3′ wide, but in moist loam can reach 8′ (in dry soil only 4′). Large yellow flowers (3″) show up from July till September.

Adaptable and tough plant, that will spread some by rhizomes to wide clumps or colonies.

It can grow in any soil – clay, average, with medium, moist or wet soil. Once established, it tolerates some drought. It can flop when hit by heavy storm or after very heavy rainfall (especially in full bloom with heavy flowers).

Hardy in zones 3 to 9.

Deer resistant plant, very good pollinator plant – attracts Long-tongued bees, butterflies, skippers. But also, some short-tongued bees, wasps, bee flies, and other kinds of flies also visit the flowers for pollen or nectar. Host plant for larvae of two wasps.

Goldfinches and other smaller bird feed on seeds, drink water from cups and hide and rest  in colonies of leaves.

If you are interested in receiving seedlings from this plant, please let us know by calling the office at 586.783.6008 or responding to this email. They will be available at the end of September.