Tag Archives: nature

Freezing fog….

1 Reply

It snowed again yesterday. If you read my last blog about snow, you know that I love snow.

It was a beautiful late afternoon snow. A few inches of big thick globs of snowflakes fell quickly, clinging to everything-every tree, shrub, plant, and little winter sleeping buds. Then, right before I went to bed, the National Weather Service issued an advisory for areas of freezing fog.

Freezing fog? I had never heard of this phenomenon.

So I posted a warning of this potentially dangerous weather on Facebook, and then I googled it.

Wow, the images were awesome. Meanwhile, comments on FB indicated that others didn’t know much about it either. A friend posted a definition, another mentioned climate change, but one friend that lives down in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina wrote “…here in the mountains it is called Rim Ice…. that fog will freeze on everything…. it is beautiful…. you will need to get ready with a camera…”

I was already on that, camera ready, I didn’t sleep much last night, every few hours I got up to look outside. This morning brought a winter wonderland, but still no freezing fog. I wonder when a series of weather conditions will bring the chance of freezing fog here again.

~Elizabeth

Happy Birthday Aldo Leopold

Leave a reply

“There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.” ~Aldo Leopold

One of the books currently on my nightstand, A Sand County Almanac, was written by Aldo Leopold, who was born in Iowa on January 11th, 1887. Sunday was his birthday.

Aldo was a man that really knew how to look closer…

He was an author, educator, scientist, forester, and pioneer environmentalist. Considered the father of wildlife conservation, his book is a basis for modern conservation science, policy, and ethics. It is a significant work, right up there with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and Thoreau’s Walden.

Leopold was a prolific writer, mainly for professional journals, technical books, and magazines, but in the late 1930’s he became determined to reach the general public with his writings. He began to re-write his essays to inform people of how the natural world worked, and to inspire them to protect it. In 1948, just after Oxford University Press agreed to publish the collection, Leopold died of a heart attack while helping a neighbor fight a brush fire. With help from his family and colleagues, one year later, in 1949, A Sand County Almanac was published.

The set of essays, in three parts, chronicles a year of nature observations, a section of life experiences, a group of philosophical writings, and ends with his famous “Land Ethic” essay. It defined a new relationship between people and nature.

“We can be ethical only in relation to something we can see, feel, understand, love, or otherwise have faith in.” ~Aldo Leopold

Leopold understood that ethics direct individuals to cooperate with each other for the mutual benefit of the community. He asserted that the collective community should include non-human elements such as soils, waters, plants, and animals…“the land”.  He wrote “That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics.

For more info, check out: http://www.aldoleopold.org/home.shtml

~Elizabeth

quote-a-thing-is-right-when-it-tends-to-preserve-the-integrity-stability-and-beauty-of-the-biotic-aldo-leopold-110847

I took my tree down today…

2 Replies

I took my Christmas tree down today. An event I dislike because I love my Christmas tree and I love having its beautiful greenery in my home. This year’s tree was the most beautiful tree ever.
I say that every year.

Before I had children it was not unusual for me to leave it up for many weeks, even months.
Once, my tree remained until Easter! (It also helps to preserve the tree if you keep your thermostat very low.) But my son’s birthday is mid-January, and remembering how my sister never seemed to like that her birthday was tied up in the Christmas holidays, I have always made sure to get the tree and decorations down and put away before his big day. My son is grown and lives in his own home, but I have maintained that habit and it’s for the best.

When the tree was totally uncovered of decoration, I put in out in the yard for the animals.
Birds and small mammals will seek shelter in its branches and leaves, resting, staying warm, and hiding from predators. For a while it will stay near a bird feeder; hopefully I will be able to use it as a prop to get some good photos. Eventually it will be taken back to my large brush pile, where it can continue to provide shelter for birds and other animals.

How do you feel about your Christmas tree? Do you put one up? Did you put your tree out in the back yard for the animals to enjoy? I’d love to hear your comments.

~Elizabeth
IMAG0857

Red Fox Sparrow

1 Reply

This was no National Geographic photo shoot: there I was, on my belly on the pantry counter, camera lens stuck out the open window into the 11°F early morning air, trying to focus on the RED FOX SPARROW just outside. Two of my cats were trying to squeeze their way out of the slightly open window,  while my husband traipsed back and forth in the nearby driveway, crunching noisily on the ice and snow.  I admit, the photo probably shouldn’t be published, but hey, a Red Fox Sparrow, five feet from my kitchen is newsworthy in my opinion.

What a beautifully colored bird. The Red (or Taiga) Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca iliaca) is our eastern subspecies of the Fox Sparrows. “Slate-colored”, “Sooty”, and “Thick-billed”, the other three of the four main subspecies, are all found in specific western areas of the United States. I have seen Fox Sparrows before, but not this closely and I think this one was a perfect specimen. Just look at those lovely cheek patches and thick streaking on breast and flanks! Another interesting thing is the coloring of the beak- all yellow on the bottom, and yellow turning to black on the top of bill. Not a bird commonly seen during breeding season, winter is the time we get to spot them scratching about in the leaves on the ground, searching for food. This little bird was hanging out with several White-throated Sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis) here in my yard, a fairly northernmost part of it’s winter range. How nicely it blends in with the snowy winter landscape.

~Elizabeth

New Year, New Day

6 Replies

Happy New Year and welcome to my new endeavor!

For years I have wanted to make a journal of a year of my nature pics, experiences, observations, and studies. This is the year! Rather than keeping my journal privately stored away in my computer, I am choosing to be modern and utilize a blog. I have never before written a blog.

I will attempt to capture in photographs the natural area surrounding where I live- river, marshes, and bayside- as it changes throughout the year. And, as is my habit, I will look closer, with my eyes and heart, camera, books, or internet, and share what I discover.

I have already learned today that creating a blog can apparently also help me be more organized and disciplined with my day, better articulate my thoughts, and more intentionally live my life. Wow. This year will bring me a closer look at myself as well.

So, here goes…. I’m heading out to check out the marsh and river on this first day of looking closer….

~Elizabeth