Nature's Languages

Have you ever been fascinated by all the different ways we communicate?  I think of ancient Celtic runes that look to me like leafless trees in autumn, the dots and dashes of Morse Code or Braille, the bird heads and loincloth-clad figures in Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Japanese grass writing (which is the equivalent of our cursive hand).  As I walked in the forest I came across many patterns and textures that made me think of the varied ways we preserve and transmit information, and took this series of photos in case any cryptographers out there are interested in trying to break nature's code to find out what is being relayed.

This is a tree, returning to the particles from which it formed.

With just a little imagination, you'll see a woodland sprite, seated,  Maybe it will take a lot of imagination.

This was in a burned-over area.

This is the one that reminded me of Morse Code.

These are some large and very regular woodpecker holes.  I suppose it could be a sapsucker that made them.  Looks like dragon scales to me.

I believe these to be wood fibers, or the layer that held the bark to the tree, perhaps.

Have you seen the petroglyphs left by ancient peoples, the ones that are maps of their travels?  This, too, is a map of some creature's travels.

Photography

I just scanned some of my old 35mm slides, not wanting them to fade into obscurity.  I put a lot of effort into creating these transparencies, imaging that upon retirement I would have a collection of "stock photos" that would have value.  These days, photographers who collected stock images on film are finding it easier, quicker and cheaper to go remake the images in digital format.  Sounds like fun, but I do not have a lot of free time these days.  I was not ready to part with some of these images and memories, so I have here converted them for web viewing.

This picture is the caterpillar of a Cercropia Moth (Hyalophora cecropia, North America's largest moth.  A fascinating creature in its own right, but observe, to the right, the tiny spider.  Cool.  The spider has a mite, most likely a parasite, attached to its leg.  The mite is the red creature.  So, there are three creatures in this nice macro image.  I took this photo in my back yard in Maine.

Speaking of Maine, and thinking of fresh Atlantic lobster ... .

College was in Massachusetts, and I had interests in photography and plant natural history.  I watched the seasons change, and the photo above is taken in the spring as the maple trees pushed forth new buds and flowers.  Though I was a fan of Kodachrome, the above image was exposed on 35mm Agfachrome film.  It has a marvelous grainy texture and warming tones.

The New England woods are dense and cool in the summer.  This image was taken near dawn in the late summer.  Sunrise, sunset, a hazy day after a rainstorm ... there, now I've given away the secret to an excellent photograph.  "f8 and be there."

I used f8 as little as possible, aiming more in the f16 to f22 range.  Ansel Adams was a member of the f64 group, but my Fujica camera didn't stop down for that kind of depth of field.  I closed it down as much as possible, using a tripod and in the above photo a sunset breeze gently moves the autumn leaves in front of white Birch trunks.

It's Ektachrome in this image.  It was the first roll of color film I ever developed.  Title:  After the Fall.

My college education included a January Term class called "Backpacking in the Slickrock Desert."  About 10 of us drove in a van across the country to Utah and spent 2 weeks backpacking in the Escalante Canyon.  We visited a few nearby parks and vistas.  This one, above, is the Goosenecks of the San Juan River.

In the summertime I was employed in Central City, Colorado ... see my earlier post for some images of that town at 8,500 feet elevation.  I watched the aspen leaf out in the spring, and turn yellow in the autumn.

This is a melting snowbank in Rocky Mountain National Park.

I took this image while visiting my buddy Eric in Chicago.  I believe it works because yellow and blue are complimentary colors.  Title: White Collar Worker.

I traveled to Scotland during my college years and took this photo of the ocean waters encroaching on a sandy beach.

The reason I went to Scotland is because I was the recipient of an Earthwatch scholarship to participate in an archaeological excavation of neolithic stone circles on the Isle of Arran in Scotland under the direction of Dr. Aubry Burl from the Hull College of Prehistory.  There is a low circle made of rounded stones in the foreground and a taller circle made of flat stones in the distance.  The excavation is taking place toward the mountain.

After graduation from college I moved West, finding myself in the Wood River Valley at the base of Bald Mountain, in the ski resort town of Ketchum, Idaho.  This frost was on my window, when I woke up at dawn.  As a kid I slept in an unheated bedroom in Maine.  During a snowstorm the cold, dry flakes would blow through cracks around the windows and melt against my face like tiny pinpricks.  So, it was not impossible to live the frugal life of a ski bum, sleeping in an unheated bedroom.  It was a royal pain, though, when the pipes froze and burst inside the house.

I moved West with my college buddy Murray.  That's him.  We hiked a trail we were later told was called, "Poison Oak Loop."  Kids, what morons.  Well, I don't think this was Poison Oak.  We didn't itch afterward.

As we worked our way West, we stopped in Salt Lake City for a while, where Murray's brother Spencer lives.  We climbed Mount Olympus for the view.  Murray is in this photo, too.  He is seen against the hazy inversion covering Salt Lake City.  I later saw a Japanese woodcut that used a nearly identical composition.  I was very influenced by Eastern art and philosophy.

I traveled around Idaho often, ranging far and wide.  This image shows a Whooping Crane.  As part of the attempt to save them from extinction, some Whooping Crane were placed in the foster care of a flock of Sandhill Cranes.  I went to the Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge to see one.  It is a white speck just a bit left of center.  The first snows of fall are dusting the autumn hills.

The Wood River Valley is home to many very active folks, and there are many sporting events.  I was very partial to cycling, and even entered one race with my clunky Schwinn Continental.  Mostly, though, I was a spectator.

This last image is a beautiful waterfall in the Olympic National Park.  I had a strong desire to see the temperate rain forest, so after a winter of working in the ski resort I hitchhiked from Idaho to the Olympic peninsula and hiked into the forest and camped for a few days.  As I look back and reflect upon it, I am always thankful that I'm still alive.  Hitchhiking alone is risky business and scrambling up steep, wet, mossy hillsides for that perfect vantage point is problematic, too.  It was all worth it, and if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't change a thing.  These are the experiences and views that create a lifetime of memories.

Christmas Day 2013

After some cold weather dropping to the single digits in the preceding weeks (well, cold for Boise) Christmas Day warmed to right around the freezing (or melting) point.  Cyndi and I went out for a walk in Barber Park and enjoyed the day.

not birds

When Cyndi read my last post she commented that I had failed to mention the glorious weather and the fun times we had together. Mea culpa. I get so excited to see a "new" bird that other things get ignored. In this case, "new" meant "first time seen in Idaho." We are also keeping track of birds that we see in Idaho in 2010, and honestly, having so many things to track is getting to be more than I want to have to remember. Maybe I'll just watch for birds I've never before seen, anywhere, as my highest priority. It would make things easier and less stressful. And I don't think birding should be stressful.

In this photo Cyndi is not seeing any birds. I wonder why there are no birds in the pond? Where could they all be? Let's not tell her that there are some birds behind her!

We do see more than just birds. A few weeks ago we saw a pair of mink down by the Boise River.

When I went out in search of the Northern Shrike I could not help but notice that spring is arriving. The groundhog predicted more winter, but I think the groundhog was incorrect for Idaho ... the pussywillows are budding.

And Saturday was so warm I didn't even wear my coat ... just a hooded sweatshirt. What a joy to imagine the warmth of summer approaching. We enjoyed a picnic outdoors, on Saturday at the Ted Trueblood Wildlife Management Area with Bald and Golden Eagles nearby and a kettle of Ravens, Northern Harrier and a Red-tailed Hawk all sharing a rising thermal together. Our Sunday picnic was in the Snake River Canyon, listening to a singing Canyon Wren.

On Saturday we also saw this Skunk. Mostly I'm looking at the birds, but if somebody comes by, I snap a photo if I can.

And, on each of our expeditions we stayed out until the rosy colors of sunset warmed the sky and often reflected in the water. It can be hard to get me to go home on a fine day of birding, but the onset of darkness helps me to quit for the day.

I do get lost in the moment and forget that I'm hungry or tired when outside enjoying nature. Though birds currently get most of the attention of my camera (it used to be wildflowers), I do notice other things with my peripheral vision, and that makes the experience complete.

Birds

I'm going to share a few bird photographs today. I enjoy birding very much. Birds are quite amazing creatures. They've been on this planet for longer than mammals, have a variety of lifestyles and behaviours, and can do fascinating things. Like flying. Like flying thousands of miles nonstop.

Some of the birding adventures I'd like to do sometime soon include visits to Everglades National Park, Big Bend National Park and the Madeira Canyon area near Arizona's Sonoran Desert.

Cassin's Vireo


Barn Owl


Northern Harrier


Canyon Wren

To see more of my bird photos, feel free to visit my Shutterfly album.

In the Beginning ...

So here I was at the gym, on the elliptical, too impatient to watch commercials during the episode of Star Trek I was watching, probably due to my attention deficit disorder. So, I would channel surf and catch a few seconds of weather, or comedy, or election news. Today is a historic day. I'm sure of it. Tuesday, November 4, 2008. Election day. A day that will live in famy (the opposite of infamy).

They're doing the "exit polls" and most people are mostly concerned about the economy. Like 90% or so. Then there's the war in the Middle East, and some concern about terrorism. And I'm thinking about this, and having clever thoughts, or so I imagine, perhaps due to the free coffee from Starbucks, since I voted, and since Starbucks had a nice deal to give away coffee to everyone who voted. Thanks Starbucks.

When this blog gets famous, I'm gonna charge for plugs like that. But for now, this is my first post, and I got a cup of coffee already, so I kinda owe *them* if you know what I mean.

I think there are more blogs in the world than people, and I have never had a blog, so I'm thinking it's about time. And, there's the matter of all these thoughts. I have this urge to communicate, which mostly manifests itself as voices in my head. And they want to get out. Usually when I connect these thoughts to the mouth, somebody nearby wants to slap me, so I think I'll blog, and you can leave comments that slap.

There's lots I'd like to blog about. Nature, cosmology, psychology, beauty, humor, birds, photography, current events, politics. But I'll try to keep it short, because I have attention deficit disorder and it seems like when I begin to speak, others catch A.D.D. from me and wander off.

So, before you go, here's the thought for today. It's about the exit polls. Today most people are worried about the economy. I admit, it's hard to ignore the economy what with layoffs and foreclosures and big hypothetical bucks evaporating from retirement funds like a pile of chips in Las Vegas being scooped up with the big hook or rake or whatever.

But, I'm going to offer the hypothesis that it is short-sighted and stupid to select a leader based on fears over what is essentially a gambling addiction, playing the market ... the dot.com frenzy, or the housing bubble, or derivatives, or what-have-you. My hypothesis is that it would be long-sighted to select a leader based on issues of planetary health and the continuation of civilization. I'm always dismayed by breakdown in civil order, and I've seen it happen a few times during my lifetime. Unrest and mayhem followed after the assasination of Martin Luther King, Jr., after the Rodney King verdict, and in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. At those times I was pushed back against a wall by events which suggested that just beneath the shiny Wall Street veneer of our society lies the missing link.


Let there be light.

November 4, 2008