Category: Nature

  • The Lyrebird

    The Lyrebird

    Every once in a while you’ll see something and be totally amazed by it. I was recently made aware of the lyrebird, a ground-dwelling bird native to Australia. First and less importantly than its main skill, it’s a beautiful creature with a colorful plume. Second (and this is what makes the bird amazing), it is…

  • Lotus Flower

    The lotus seed starts in the muck at the bottom of a pond. As it grows and reaches the surface, a beautiful lotus flower blossoms. Still rooted in the muck, it rises above it all up into the pure air and flourishes beautifully, above the denseness, the darkness, from which it came. Of course not…

  • Sitting on a Park Bench

    Sitting on a Park Bench

    A lone maple leaf detaches from its life source, fluttering down into the pond to join its fallen friends already soft and brown with decay, the first casualties of an inexorable winter rapidly approaching. A fish hides in the leaf’s shade and nibbles off a snack. A bigger fish lurks deeper, hungry. The leaf fed…

  • Cascade and Porter Mountains, Lake Placid, NY – Adirondacks

    Cascade and Porter Mountains, Lake Placid, NY – Adirondacks

    Below are some pictures from Cascade and Porter Mountains in Lake Placid, New York, within the Adirondacks. Just shy of 6 miles total, it’s a relatively easy hike if you’re in reasonably good shape. Cascade Mountain has a bare summit with an incredible 360 degree view. Porter has a wooded summit with an amazing view…

  • Franconia Ridge Loop

    Franconia Ridge Loop

    As per my last post, this is the hike we did on 8-17-13, the Franconia Ridge Loop in the White Mountains, New Hampshire. Because so many other websites have information on the hike, I won’t go into detail other than to post a few of the pictures I took. For information on the hike, click…

  • Expectations II

    Expectations II

    This is the follow-up post to this post. I returned home a few hours ago with the usual post-vacation blues, which as far as I can surmise, are 100% unavoidable. I’ll get right to the meat. My expectations were not only met, but exceeded, as far as having a good time goes. We all had…

  • Expectations

    Expectations

    It’s Wednesday night as I write this, but I scheduled the post to be published Thursday night, while I’m out in the boondocks of New Hampshire in the White Mountains. I’m staying in a Dartmouth-owned cabin with my girlfriend and seven other friends from Thursday through Sunday. We have no set plans other than a…

  • Morning (Version II)

    Morning (Version II)

    This is an alternate version of this post, which you should read first if you haven’t already. The peepee yellow sun rises slowly above the horizon, its vomit orange rays illuminating the quiet forest with its ancient trees, their diarrhea brown trunks and snot green leaves slowly coming to life in the soft, flaccid light.…

  • Dogs Save Owner from Grizzly Attack

    Dogs Save Owner from Grizzly Attack

    Story first published on the Alaska Department of Fish & Game website: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/ Grizzly bears are one of nature’s most ferocious predators, weighing up to 1,500 pounds and able to run up to 30 miles per hour. Although rare, there are several grizzly attacks each year, usually in response to a perceived threat to their cubs…

  • Food for Thought: We Are Fish in a Pond

    Food for Thought: We Are Fish in a Pond

    As I sat in the park the other day eating my lunch and watching the koi and the goldfish in the murky pond, it occurred to me that we are in many ways just like those fish, where the pond is our world. The surface of the pond to the fish is like the edge…