Impressions of 2025

Nature makes quite an impression on me: it gives depth to my life daily, is foundational for our Iowisota venture, and inspires my pottery designs. As we close out our second year of programming at Iowisota, it seems fitting to reflect on some of the things that have “made a mark” (or impression) on us in 2025!

Living in the Driftless Area of Northeast Iowa makes an impression on me every day. This photo and the framing clips were taken from the "North Bluff" today, January 1, 2026.

On the personal side, a big impression occurred when our desire to include hikes and nature workshops in our Iowisota programming necessitated a change in insurance carriers. Who could have imagined how complicated it would become to blend our vision for an atypical business with adequate liability insurance! The lasting mark is positive; we made valuable improvements to our hosting procedures that I had naively missed, and we are grateful that we found a good insurance solution. The other big personal impression of nature this year was our bucket-list trip to Alaska. The vastness of the Alaskan landscape filled us with awe. But it also made us appreciate the beauty and abundance of the natural world that we get to enjoy every day here in the Driftless Area/ Upper Mississippi River Valley.

Our activities at Iowisota this year were impressive for a couple of old retired folks! Many of you readers have been to events and activities here, and you’re why we do this. Thanks for coming, we look forward to seeing you again! This year in workshops, Chris Gavin taught people about cooking venison, Sam Thayer taught about Spring foraging and prairie ecology (2 workshops), Dwight Zietlow taught Kordiall making, Joel Shoemaker, Becky Kobos and I co-taught a children’s pottery session, Ellen Zachos taught the art of making wildcrafted bitters, and Dennis and I taught tree identification. Despite open demonstrations being curtailed during maple syrup season by insurance and weather issues, we were still able to provide some private tours and made around 7 gallons of maple syrup and/or maple sugar. We hosted forestry and bird researchers for 67 person-nights; we enjoyed the ongoing connection with natural resource professionals, and they enjoyed a steep discount that stretches their research dollars farther. Twelve different groups or individuals stayed overnight for private retreats, plus we used the Gathering Room to host an Izaak Walton League meeting, an Iowa Woman’s Woodland Stewardship Network field day, and a women’s retreat for Christ Community Church.  We’re ringing in the New Year with a family retreat group using all six of our guest bedrooms. The laughter and community that groups share in the Gathering Room and guest kitchen are exactly what we’d envisioned. We look forward to figuring out what we will share in 2026!

One of the more “impressive” pottery things I’ve done this fall is to take soft clay out into the woods and make a bark impression; I dry and fire that formed impression, and then I can use that hardened form to make bark textured components for novel nature-inspired pottery pieces. I guess you could say that my impressions from 2025 will shape some of my pottery in 2026 and beyond! This last year I was able to complete enough pots to participate in two local art/craft markets this Fall, plus a few private sales. I’m looking forward to exploring new designs and glazes in 2026. We hadn’t originally intended for art and craft to be such a high component of activity and programming at Iowisota, but it just seems that nature gives birth to art! (e.g. my Art in Nature blog post from October.)

Our first formal workshop for 2026 is a hand-built pottery workshop series on January 10,11, and 24. As I write this post, we still have several openings. My first impression was that this would be a local event, but with the availability of our reasonably priced lodging, there is always the potential to stay a night or two and make it into a weekend art retreat, at least for the forming part of the class.

The things we experience make an impression on us, and the things we do make an impression on others. As we go into 2026, we invite you to come be impressed by nature at Iowisota (or anywhere else for that matter!) and to think about the marks you'll leave throughout 2026.