You may have already received an email with some of these amazing images, but I thought it was worth showcasing these artistic renderings of animals!
Italian artist, Guido Daniele, has produced a series of body art images that are captivating. When you get to the collection, click on each image to see a larger rendition...take a break to take in the detailed beauty of each image.
Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase finger painting!
My Sunday paper told me the news.
The columnist I'd read with anticipation each and every Sunday for years had passed away at age 79.
I knew him as L.M. Boyd, the author of the Grab Bag column in the San Francisco Chronicle. It turns out his column was syndicated in 400 papers under different titles...Checking Up, Draw Up a Chair, Fact or Fancy.
No matter what the title, each column held a random collection of facts about nature, people, the earth, space, love, war, and everything else under the sun. I, of course, loved the nature bits. In fact my 'nature' folder is full of Grab Bags I pulled out of the paper over the years. In a series of one or two sentence entries he could share an amazing amount of information with a bit of humor woven throughout.
Boyd retired in 2000, so I won't miss his column...I finally stopped looking for it in the Sunday paper. What I will miss is knowing he is out there somewhere seeing life through his magical kaleidoscope filter that showcased so many wonderful elements of our world since the 60's.
Can you believe the weather over the last few weeks?
One wonders what is going on! Although I can't really comment on the scientific reasons for these unusual weather patterns, I can talk about how to interpret this within the Seasons of Change metaphor.
Within my Nature's Wisdom Deck, weather represents the emotions people feel during times of transition. As such, think of each geographic region as a demonstration of how a person responds to a transition.
The other day I saw an interesting story about a specialist in migratory birds who sees these birds as a powerful tool for peace. As he notes, birds flying overhead don't see any borders as they fly from their summer habitat to their winter habitat.
In addition to his scientific study, this scientist sponsors a field trip in Israel that brings Muslim, Christian, and Jewish students together to learn about the birds. During the field trip, the students split off into threesomes, with one member from each group. As they cooperate to work on their assignments they also get to know each other as individuals. It was a heartwarming sight to witness.
Unfortunately recent violence prevented the field trip this year, the scientist continues his quest to use his work with migratory birds to show the various communities that they do have something they all share - the environment!
(I'm sorry I don't have links to more information about this story...I didn't have a pen handy to mark down all the critical informtion, but the story stuck with me so I decided to share it anyway. My hope is my memory held the critical details accurately.)
The other night my husband and I happened upon a television show called SPARK on our local PBS station that intrigued us both. The episode was called All Natural.
Chris Drury, a British land artist, used materials from nature to replicate processes found in nature and the body. As it happens Chris was the artist in residence at a local art center, Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, CA. He was on site this spring to create three installations - a 60 foot tall vortex out of willow branches that spiraled down around the length of a redwood tree. He also create a mural of enlarged fingerprints and a sculpture of vortex made out of pine needles.
His work reminded us of another land artist - Andy Goldsworthy, also from Britain, who was focus of the movie Rivers and Tides.
Both of these artists connect with the land and nature to create art installations that blend with their surroundings as if they have always been there.
If you ever feel you want to find a new way to connect with nature, watch Rivers and Tides or visit the websites noted here to get a sense of how they express their connection.
I just received this link to a series of pictures that chronicles the birth of a hummingbird...from egg to leaving the nest.
Exquisite close up pictures of something most of us will never see. Treat yourself to a front row site to this miracle at the hummingbird site.
At the bottom of each page click "next page" for additional pictures. In the last series of pictures you'll see a toothpick and a penny in the nest so you can get a feel for how small these creatures really are.
Amazing!
One of the columnists in the San Francisco Chronicle, Leah Garchik, always includes a "Public Eavesdropping" snippet in her column. The snippet is usually one or two sentences that were sent in by the reader who overheard the conversation. It's always amazing to see what you can learn about someone in just one sentence.
The one that caught my eye this week is: "I feel like I'm standing in someone's screen saver." One gent to another, while overlooking the Merced River, Yosemite Meadow, and El Capitan, overheard by Phil Frank.
Here's my question: Are we so unaccustomed to being in nature that when we are in one of the most stunningly beautiful places in the world we think we are looking at a picture on our computer screen?
Is our connection to nature limited to what we can pull up on our computer?
Having been a regular visitor to Yosemite over the last four decades, I can picture where these gentlemen are standing to take in their "screen saver" view. I know there's so much more to experience in that spot (and any other spot in Yosemite) than a two dimensional image.
What about the aromas of the forest?
The sounds of the river and the birds?
The wind rustling through the pine needles?
At some point this summer I hope each of us gets to spend some time enjoying nature in 3D. As Rachel Carson said, "Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the Earth are never alone or weary of life."
Source: Leah Garchiks column in the Datebook section of the San Francisco Chronicle on June 20, 2005
Thirty years ago, archaeologists found a collection of date seeds during an excavation of King Herod's palace on Mount Masada on the shores of the Dead Sea. Those same date seeds were placed in the archives until earlier this year when Sarah Sallon, an expert on the medical properties of plants, found out about the collection of seeds and asked if she could try to germinate a few of the seeds.
Although the archaeologists thought she was c-r-a-z-y, they gave her three seeds. Together with Elaine Solowey, a botanist who specializes in growing rare plants, they set out to bring the seeds to life.
Although the botanist was quite skeptical at first, she decided to give it all she had because she knew that 1000 year old lotus trees had been successfully germinated in the past.
With the help of a growth hormone to stimulate germination and some carefully chosen fertilizers, they started the process of growing the seeds. The first five weeks entailed watering the dirt. An then, the impossible happened! Leaves started to grow.
As soon as the seeds sprouted, the research team sent several seeds from the original collection for carbon dating. The results came back that the seeds were 2000 years old (+ or - 50 years). These seeds came from the same era as the revolt that happened on Mount Masada in A.D. 73.
Link to The Seasons of Change: Seeds in nature are much like ideas in our own minds. Do you have an ancient idea that might sprout if you took the time to nurture it? With the right conditions and attention, you might be amazed at how your idea grows.
Source: Seed of extinct date palm sprouts after 2,000 years by Matthew Kalman in the San Francisco Chronicle on June 12, 2005.
In the early 70's I remember my mother pointing out a Western Bluebird at The Sea Ranch on the northern California coast. She was thrilling with the sighting and her excitement was contagious. I was twelve or thirteen at them time and the sighting made an impression on me.
That was the last time I saw a Western Bluebird, even though I've been to Sea Ranch many, many times since then.
This week I was delighted to see that a pair of Western Bluebirds have been spotted in the dunes of the San Francisco Presidio--for the first time since 1936!
Birders credit the restoration project that began in 1996 when the National Park Service took over the Presidio from the US Army. After re-sculpting the dunes, volunteers from the Presidio Trust have removed nonnative plants and replaced them with a variety of native species. These plants, in turn, attracted the insects the birds require to survive.
As Arthur Feinstein, the conservation director of Golden Gate Audubon, said "If we restore, they will come."
In fact, other restoration projects are seeing similarly positive results. Watch for more stories of restoration in this blog.
Link to The Seasons of Change: Are there any elements of your environment that could be restored? Have nonnative aspects of your environment overrun your life? Are you spending too much time watching television, spending time with people you don't enjoy, surrounding yourself with stuff that's not really you? Are these nonnative influences keeping you from doing what you enjoy most?
If so, start your own restoration project. Bring back the parts of your life that make you thrive...then watch as your life is reborn.
Source: Birders tickled blue by Jane Kay in June 4, 2005 San Francisco Chronicle
When Brazil was discovered by a Portuguese explorer in 1500, the rain forest stretched out over 2000 miles. Now only 7 percent of the "original" forest exists. Whether the forest cut down or burned down, the results are devastating. Mudslides kill villagers -- often the poorest of the poor live on these hillsides. The loss of habitat impacts animals and plants alike. Even the climate changes, becoming even hotter than before.
An innovative restoration program began sixteen years ago when slum dwellers started plant acres upon acres of native trees. So far, they've replanted 4500 acres...4 million trees...and they have 2500 acres to go by 2007. 190 other shanty communities are one a waiting list to join the program.
The benefits of this restoration project are many:
(The one fly in the ointment...feuding drug gangs make work in the forests dangerous.)
Many experts are commending Rio on it's reforestation projects. Some believe that these local efforts to turn biospheres around is likely to be more successful than trying to tackle the same issues at a global level.
What's particularly inspiring about this project is that the reforestation project also has distinct economic benefits for local residents. Hopefully other communities will take on similar projects.
Link to The Seasons of Change: As you look at improving your own life, don't feel you can't make a move because your problems are too large. The key is to start somewhere and keep going. Perhaps you want to start with improving your living environment, finding ways to give back to your community, or creating ways to add joy to your life.
Each step you take is likely to improve something in your life. What you can't always predict is how that improvement will loosen up other aspects of your situation. Do you think the reforestation project leaders expected natural springs to come alive as a result of planting the trees? Sometimes the ultimate results are surprising and nurture further growth.
Source: Article by William Finn Bennett in San Francisco Chronicle on June 3, 2005 - Rio's poor sprout life anew on denuded rain forest hillsides
