Category Archives: Nature

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Surprise!

by

Life continues; a new cycle begins.  It’s the shortest day of the year.  Imagine our ancestors noting the the diminishing of  light and wondering anxiously if the sun would return…and it does!  We are so used to “knowing” all this that we can grow so jaded and incapable of surprise and awe.  But why not retain the ability to be surprised, delighted, bowled over by the wonder of Life?!  And also to include Death in that cycle.  One of my favorite passages from Walt Whitman (from Leaves of Grass, “Song of Myself”):

“What do you think has become of the young and old men?

And what do you think has become of the women and children?

They are alive and well somewhere,
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceas’d the moment life appear’d.

All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.”

Looking through my files of photos, I found two that I remember as being surprising moments of serendipity, both of which are of birds.  Birds are surprising.  They alight and fly off at their own whim, so catching one on camera is a gift.  The first shot is one I took with the little Lumix when a hawk landed in the maple tree right outside my bedroom window.  To have this elegant wild predator just a few feet from my hidden wide-eyed face was a real treat.  I had to take the shot through a dirty window, but still…

hawk surprise

This second shot is one I took the first time I went to a State Park with my brand new Canon Rebel T3i in hand.  Sandhill cranes were flying overhead, and I took a chance that perhaps with this new camera, I would actually get a clear image.

cranes

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons

by

Changing Seasons is this week’s theme, but  Nature is always changing, and the parameters we use to describe a “season” are artificial.  I would imagine that any nature photo would depict change in some way, so I am anticipating a lot of cool nature shots will be hitting the blogs this week.  Yippee!  I do have one to share, taken last February as ice was melting at Wehr Nature Center.  Spring arrived very early in 2012.  Climate change is noticeable here in Wisconsin, as it is in many parts of the globe.  How do you live with change?  Happily accepting and learning from it?  Resisting and avoiding it?  Oscillating on that spectrum somewhere?  It’s always interesting to observe myself when change manifests.  The challenge for me is to be gentle and not judgmental in that observation. 

I have another picture to share, but I can’t post it except in words.  Late last night, I heard the call of a Great Horned Owl outside.  It was the second time in a week that I’d heard it.  Steve had heard it a few days ago and called me in to his office to listen.  I thought at first it was the hoot of my own breathing in my head as I grew quiet to listen.   Then, unmistakably, a pattern emerged.  I looked up the audio track on the internet to identify what kind of an owl it was.  We went outside to look.  It was coming from west of our house, but a street lamp shone in the mid distance making it impossible to see anything in the trees in that direction.  Last night, I heard the sound again from the bedroom.  I looked out the east window at the top of the stairs and saw a silhouette in the tallest bare tree in the neighborhood.  It looked like a huge cat with pointed ears, bunching and stretching way up in the tree.  The cloudy night sky reflected the city lights just enough to show an outline.  The wavy old glass, dirty and screen-covered, made it even more difficult to make out, even with binoculars.   But there he was, large and spirit-like, hooting in the night air.   I knew this mystery could not be captured on film, so I resolved to keep it in my head and share it in story. 

changing seasons

Unknown's avatar

Wehr Have You Been?

by

Yesterday, I returned to the Wehr Nature Center where I had volunteered as a trail guide for their school programs before I got a job as a historic interpreter.  It was good to see the place again, the furry and scaly and feathered and leafy friends as well as the humans.  I was helping sell snacks for their Homemade Holiday event.  Families bustled about creating holiday decorations and cookies throughout the building, while a moist, gray blanket of fog settled warmly outside.  When the activities were over, I grabbed my camera and headed out for a walk around the lake.  Dusk crept up, and Canada geese honked loudly from surface to sky, jockeying for shelter for the night.  It was as if I was looking at an old friend wearing an expression I’d not seen before.  Some things had changed: new fences were in place.  The duck blind at the edge of the lake had been repaired.  I felt like we’d both been out of touch for a while.  I sat down on a bench to renew our acquaintance. 

December silhouette

December silhouette

Old and new

Old and new

Wehr

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections

by

I do a lot of reflecting in my mind.  Every so often, I also do it with my camera.  This week’s photo challenge prompts me to share a few shots.  It’s not coincidental, probably, that my reflections show the natural world off some man-made surface.  A window.  A puddle in the pavement.  How often do you feel that you’re looking at real life through the rear-view mirror?  What is it that keeps you from turning fully around and facing it head on? 

reflections

reflections 2

Unknown's avatar

Two-Minute Cosmic Worship Break

by

My mother serendipitously re-sent me a video that I had been searching for amongst my 4,000 saved e-mails.  I am in need of this video on a regular basis, and once you see it, you’ll know why.  I think I may have posted it before, but like looking up to see the horizon, it must be done often to stay sane.  Enjoy, re-blog, share…repeat.  (Not like shampoo instructions, which are entirely bogus.  Who lathers twice in one shower?)

I can’t seem to get the screen posted right here, so click this link until I figure it out.

Well, okay, it seems that WordPress requires a space upgrade to get the screen to show.  Please click the link, though.  I promise your two minutes will be rewarded!

 

Unknown's avatar

Hiking in Hunting Season

by

It was a quiet Sunday along the Ice Age Trail…until the Packer’s football game ended.  “Blaze orange” jackets and shotgun blasts began to add noise mid-afternoon.  Steve and I are both creeped out by the gun culture.  Not that we don’t acknowledge the usefulness of procuring food and enjoying exercise.  The violence that these weapons invite seems to us completely unnecessary.   Is that an integral part of “hunting”?  Why is hunting a social norm in the Midwest?  I don’t remember fall being a time when people went hunting when I lived in California…they were mostly anticipating ski season.  Anyway, here’s what I shot on my excursion:

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Green

by

Like Kermit says, it’s not easy being green.  It’s not easy building green, either.  My son has a degree in Construction Management and is interested in green design.  He’s having a hard time finding an entry-level job in this field, but it seems like a very useful career in the long run.  7 billion human beings generate a lot of construction; we need to be wiser about how and what and where and when we build because it makes a huge impact on our environment.  That’s common sense.  What does it look like when that is taken into consideration?  It takes time.  It takes money.  It takes intelligence and skill.  So, “forget it” is the conclusion many construction companies take.  Fast, cheap and easy…up goes another WalMart with a parking lot the size of an inland lake. 

I’ve visited two LEED certified buildings here in Wisconsin.  (click on the links to read about their energy-saving and environmentally responsible features) The Schlitz Audubon Nature Center was certified on the Gold level.  It houses a pre-school, among other facilities.  The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center was certified on the Platinum level.  Built where Leopold died while fighting a brush fire, it houses office and meeting spaces, an interpretive hall, an archive, and a workshop organized around a central courtyard.  I took some pictures for my son at the Aldo Leopold Center, and this prompt is the perfect opportunity to post them and share!

Unknown's avatar

You Know It’s November When…

by

The temperature drops 30 degrees overnight.  Oh, but we were warned, so we went out to embrace the front, the wind howling from the south, still warm.  The clouds gathered in the valley, the sky darkened, the weeds shuddered…very gradually, drops began to fall.  It rained all night.  This morning, I went through the house pulling the glass panes down over the screens in all the windows.  The furnace rumbled to life every few minutes.  The trees are mostly bare.  It is late fall at last and winter is just around the corner.  I dearly wish I had a fireplace or woodstove…

Unknown's avatar

Weekly Photo Challenge: Renewal

by

This prompt complements my previous post for today, I think.  Renewal, new beginnings, evolution, the marvelous process of life.  I have two photos that illustrate this concept, both taken with my old camera (the little Lumix, not the Rebel T3i).