This orderly calendar comes into existence each year out of creative chaos on a cattle ranch in the heart of the Kansas Flint Hills.

Marva Weigelt, the calendar’s creator, is an avid student of nature. As she goes about the work of caring for cattle and prairie, she often carries binoculars, a 50¢ memo book and a digital camera. While she will admit to aspirations as a writer (all text in the calendar came out of her head and heart), she makes no claim to being a photographer, preferring to think of herself as a person with a camera who happens to live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Being present at the perfect moment to capture an image is more a matter of opportunity and grace than technical know-how.

This calendar offers a series of glimpses into a vital, remarkable and endangered ecosystem in which every tiniest component is essential and interconnected. Estimates vary, but most sources agree that no more than 5% of the original tallgrass prairie remains intact. In a world of fragmentation, the experience of natural wholeness reminds us of our own integrity. This is a portal to the tallgrass prairie and the spirit of the Flint Hills. Welcome.

Features

A saddle-stitched 11" X 17" wall calendar printed on USA-made 80# bright-white gloss paper for a rich color and high-quality look and feel. Each month features a full-color main photograph accompanied by Nature Notes, as well as smaller photos and notes (see full-size sample month). Major holidays, equinoxes, solstices and moon phases (including Native American moon names) are included, while still leaving room to jot down appointments and notes.

A one-of-a-kind regional Kansas calendar loaded with sights and insights from a full-time resident of the Flint Hills. Photographs and text are original creations. The calendar is printed by Kansas Graphics, a full-service commercial graphics corporation in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas for over 25 years.

A calendar that tracks time while inviting you to a magically timeless place, Spirit of the Flint Hills is thought-provoking, soothing and inspiring, in the spirit of the hills themselves.

This calendar came to life at a cluttered desk on a Flint Hills cattle ranch - 6 1/2 miles from a paved road and 25 from the nearest grocery store - in the utter heart of the hills. Here the rhythm and focus of daily life are determined by season and weather rather than by clock and calendar. They eat when they're hungry, work while there's light and sleep until the rooster decides they've rested long enough.

This is a glimpse into a vital, remarkable and endangered ecosystem in which every tiniest component is essential and interconnected. This is a portal to the tallgrass prairie and the spirit of the Flint Hills.

Sample Nature Notes