Category: Trip report
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Counting Our Blessings
There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million. ~Walt Streightiff We had a wonderful holiday break this past week, spending time with and enjoying both families. The past few days we discussed some of the varied rituals of the holidays – specific foods for the… Read more…
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Returning
When the uniqueness of a place sings to us like a melody, then we will know, at last, what it means to be at home. ~ Paul Gruchow It has been almost a year since I went back to work. Don’t get me wrong, I feel lucky to have landed in such a wonderful place… Read more…
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Muir’s Mountains
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. ~John Muir It is appropriate to start this post on Muir’s beloved mountains, with… Read more…
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Hiking Among Giants
Walk in the Sequoia woods at any time of the year and you will say they are the most beautiful and majestic on earth. ~John Muir I am far behind in posting about recent events, sightings and travels. But I guess that is a good problem to have – doing and seeing so much that… Read more…
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King of the Marsh
Wherever there are extensive marshes by the sides of sluggish streams, where the bellowings of the alligator are heard at intervals, and the pipings of myriads of frogs fill the air, there is found the Fresh-water Marsh-hen… ~John James Audubon, as described by his friend, John Bachman, 1840 This post should have been written a… Read more…
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Just a Bird…
Spend time every day looking and listening without any ulterior motive whatsoever. Look not as a writer, or as a philosopher, not even as a scientist or artist—look and listen, simply, like a child, for enjoyment, because the world is interesting and beautiful. Let in nature without the vast and complicated apparatus of duty, ambition,… Read more…
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Baby Buffalo
Are you there? Can you hear me? Somewhere near me? In the morning, long ago, had to hold you so close, had to never let go. Time on the river sliding on by. Hard to believe, wink of an eye. Where’d you go, Baby Buffalo? ~James Taylor – song lyrics from Baby Buffalo I have… Read more…
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Our Special Place
The land retains an identity of its own, still deeper and more subtle than we can know… Our obligation toward it then becomes simple: to approach with an uncalculating mind, with an attitude of regard…To intend from the beginning to preserve some of the mystery within it as a kind of wisdom to be experienced,… Read more…
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A Festival for Bears
May this intelligent animal always have a place. We need to better understand bears. ~Mike McIntosh Last weekend was the third annual Black Bear Festival in Plymouth, NC. I have missed the previous ones due to trips to Yellowstone, but I finally managed to visit this year. I was curious how the festival was organized… Read more…
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Where Insects Fear to Tread
There is no exquisite beauty …without some strangeness. ~Edgar Allan Poe Part two of our quest for carnivorous plants took us first to the Green Swamp, a well-known NC Nature Conservancy preserve site in Brunswick and Columbus counties. It was getting late in the day, so we went straight to the main access point, a… Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 