Is it going to rain, or is it not going to rain? Sometimes you just don't know, so we take it day by day, hour by hour, and hope for the best!

Saturday morning, you can explore the Nature Conservancy's little-known Queen's River Preserve in Exeter, on a guided walk led by naturalist Frances Topping, from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. You'll see a wide variety of mosses, ferns, lichens, flowering plants and trees. If it rains, bring a raincoat! You won't melt, as our moms used to say. Fee is $5 for members, $7 for others, call 789-7497 for info or to register.

The awesome Rhode Island International Film Festival offers some choices for the green set (and you can stay warm and dry indoors!). Notable is a documentary telling the story of Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her reforestation work. You can catch it Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at the Prov Library on Empire Street (or Sunday at 5 at McMillan Hall at Brown -- or maybe both -- check with RIFF for updates before going!).

Also, a short film about the Cape Wind controversy, "The View and the Vision," (15 minutes), will be shown Saturday at 2:15 pm in the Bell Street Chapel. Click here for more info, schedules, and more choices from the Film Fest.

This weekend also is the Newport Jazz Festival -- you can get your tickets at a discount and help support the great work done every day by Clean Water Action! You can get your tickets from CWA for just $50, that's 20 bucks off, or even better, volunteer to help them out at the festival and get in for free. For more info contact Annie Costner at 331-6972 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

You can find lots more great ideas for all ages --  hikes, bike rides, farmers markets, kayak tours, and more -- in NNN's Community Calendar.

It's been an abundant summer for our local farms, and if you're getting piles of fresh produce from your own backyard, or a farmers market or farm share, it can be a challenge to know what to do with it all!

Here are some delicious recipes to share, from Scratch Farm CSA member Ashley Paul, for cucumber soup and lemon basil ice cream. Just click on "More..." for the full details.

Learning our way around the night sky can be a challenge, especially with so much light pollution washing out the stars, but this time of year is a great time to get to know Jupiter. The planets are not fixed but move across our sky, and right now Jupiter is brilliant and bright, high in the Southeast sky early in the evening, and just about due South by 11 p.m.

With a good pair of binoculars, or a backyard telescope, you should be able to view Jupiter's four major moons, collectively called the Galilean satellites after the first person to observe them, using equipment of lesser quality than your own.

Next Tuesday, if the sky is clear, one of the year’s best and most observed meteor showers, the Perseids, should be at its peak. Ladd Observatory will be open, weather permitting. Go to Ladd's new Web site for more info.

The four Galilean moons in order of their growing distance from Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto. Photographed by Galilleo probe.

via: Francine Jackson, Ladd staff astronomer

What use is a beautiful urban bikeway, if nobody rides on it? The folks at the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council are working to help local kids enjoy their bike path, and to encourage that, they would love to have your old or unused bikes and bike gear, all kinds, all sizes, as long as it is in good condition (flat tires and other minor repairs are okay).

The WRWC  will host a Bike Rodeo, Saturday, August 23, 2 to 5 pm at Riverside Park in Olneyville, so if you can get your bikes to them before that, great!

Contact them at 861-9046 or send an This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for more info.