It was windy and cold with constant rain alternating between sprinkles and torrents. Walking on Cannon Beach was not particularly comfortable, but watching the waves from the fireplace in our vacation rental house’s living room by was pretty great. If you go to the Oregon coast in November, you must expect early winter weather, and […]
Quite a mix of birds has collected around the bird feeders outside our kitchen windows this year. The Chickadees and Juncos vie with the House Finches, Nuthatches and occasional Sparrow for a place at the trough. Lately, the big birds – Robins, Doves, Flickers and Jays – have become more aggressive in getting their share. […]
Bird hunting in Texas involved covering a lot of ground, pushing through brush and mesquite, following behind the dogs looking for quail. We wore brush-resistant pants and jackets, but still ended up with plenty of scratches and cuts. We tried to avoid the prickly pear and cholla, but the dogs were hard to control. My […]
“Blue spaces are outdoor environments, either natural or manmade, that feature water prominently and are easily accessible to people. They can be anything from an ocean coastline, river, or lake, to a town pond, a harbor, or even a fountain. They are the aquatic equivalent of green spaces, a subset of the broader concept of […]
“Plastics typically are made through human industrial systems. Most modern plastics are derived from fossil fuel-based chemicals like natural gas or petroleum; however, recent industrial methods use variants made from renewable materials, such as corn or cotton derivatives.” ~ Wikipedia “Indeed, a recent study in the journal Science, authored by the researchers associated with the Pew report, estimated that some 11 million metric tons of plastic […]
“We should design man-made objects and products in such a way that we’re not destroying the resources, but that we’re basically borrowing them for a certain amount of time … And that we can take them out in their pure form and put them back into the system.” ~ Professor Dirk Hebel, Karlsruhe Institute of […]
As a kid, my family was well-off enough that food was plentiful, and our mother was a great Southern cook. Our dad also cooked — primarily the game we collected by hunting or fishing. Between having great food available and being a big kid, I have always been a ‘hearty’ eater. Nonetheless, there have been […]
“The rejection of grass is also an ideological shift, towards an acceptance that ‘nature is its own decision-maker’ and that ‘we had better learn to live a little differently with finite resources of water’.” ~ William Francis Deverell, environmental historian A friend sent photos today of Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado […]
“The concept that we could use it, throw it away, and it doesn’t matter where you throw it, and it’s going to safely disappear, that does not exist.” ~ Ramani Narayan, Professor, School of Packaging, Michigan State “The vast majority of plastic waste produced around the world is not recycled, but rather incinerated, landfilled […]
Everybody knows that gardening is a great pastime. Some might say I’m a bit of a curmudgeon, but I will note that every English murder mystery shows some old couple enjoying a day in their garden, harvesting wonderful bouquets and baskets of veggies. Of course, shortly you learn that one or both of them have […]
Writes of Nature 