nature
The Science and Nature of Wanderlust, tourism, landmarks for nature buffs and more.
Alabama Coastal Wildlife
It is not difficult to find coastal Alabama wildlife. The beaches, rivers, back bays, lagoons, lakes, and bayous are teeming with wildlife, much of it quite easy to find. On a typical walk on the beach, you will see great blue herons wading in the water, brown pelicans flying in a V-formation overhead, and seagulls diving into schools of small fish in the water.
By Bill Coleman5 years ago in Wander
Equinox Essentials & Epiphanies
I share my Birthday with the Earth. The Vernal Equinox brings the birds and the bees, and the pale green buds of new life. It’s the time to clear away the dead and make room, so the light can get to the tender green shoots pressing their ways through the soil.
By Sarah St.Erth5 years ago in Wander
Wilderness Break
What a dreary winter. Stuck in a room, stuck in a building somewhere away from lots of natural light and warmth of friends. It's been a difficult year. We, in the high Rockies, also have the challenge of being stuck inside away from extreme temperatures (not to mention extreme animals). But great obstacles need great inspiration. When there is a hint of warmth-above 20 degrees I'd say, we start going out. It is as if many of us fairly explode out of our doors waving to neighbors, smiling and shaking off the cold to just move! It is how we stimulate our minds, how we survive this difficult time. It's interesting how any potential challenge removed can be a stimulant-like a day of successful hiking through grizzly territory. If you are sitting there with writer's block, think: what is bothering me today that I can't do, see, or experience? Then, imagine that the huge obstacle that has prevented it (could it be COVID?) has just lifted like a black curtain. Close your eyes and imagine the total release! Breathe deeply into the experience of being absolutely unfettered from that wall. If you can, imagine the experience further-visiting with friends, feeling that hug or too hard pat on the back, or even a friend's sarcastic smile. Feel yourself smiling back. Keep breathing.
By eleanor joan guerrero5 years ago in Wander
Hawaiian Giant Centipedes – Hideous and Heinous – Wise Reasons To Avoid A Painful Encounter
In a tropical climate, centipedes are relatively common: creepy carnivorous creatures that inject venom to kill termites, small vertebrates, flies, moths, bed bugs, spiders, and cockroaches. Prehistoric and “butt ugly,” the vile creatures haunt the night, foraging for prey. Although their bite likely won’t kill you, the pain is excruciating and guarantees a trip to the emergency room.
By Marlene Affeld5 years ago in Wander
Una Via
I didn’t believe it for a minute. I mean, come on; it was Cancun for God’s sake, a city as about as hazardous as a park bench. So as my family and I walked to a restaurant near the lagoon, I was convinced those “Danger: Crocodile Zone” signs we kept seeing had to be some kind of wink-wink photo op for dumb tourists already juiced on a bucket of Coronas and a week’s worth of sunshine. And I totally got the joke: smiling and half-cocked, some moron would hug the sign while an equally be-slathered gringo snapped off a couple shots to email back home to relatives in Minnesota still shoveling out their coal bins. They’re nuts, they’d say between stamping their feet and blowing into their hands to stay warm. And then they’d smile; jealous.
By Christopher Locke5 years ago in Wander
The Lizard
She liked Spring. Could hardly wait for the first warm day, when it was comfortable enough to wear only a knitted pullover and stay outside in the sun long enough to find the first snow flowers poke their little green fingers through the snow without her toes starting to ache from the cold. She still called them snow flowers, because that’s what her grandma called them when she was a little girl. Nobody else calls them that here, she learned that over the years. They are called Lilies of the Valley in America. Which is silly. They are obviously Snow Flowers; they grow right out of the snow. What other flower is resilient like that? SO many other flowers grow in a valley. Fragrant, colorful and flamboyant… But can they survive and break through snow like these plain little white flowers? That’s not the only thing Americans got wrong... She learned that over the years too. She’s been here for 25 years now. It’s home, sort of. She doesn’t belong in the old country anymore, everything has changed and left her behind. But she never truly felt like she belongs here either; her soul felt homeless. She worked as a night shift nurse in a hospital and hated it. Not because of the work, but because of the people. She was a great nurse; sharp, knowledgeable, dependable and efficient but… she didn’t like people much, which is pretty unfortunate when one is a nurse. It wasn’t always like that, but time broke her. Time spent with people broke her. She couldn’t understand why people were so demanding, self-centered, cold, superficial, empty and deaf to truths. That’s not what she remembered from the old country, but that was so long ago… Maybe it’s not just the people here. Maybe people are just different now, everywhere. Or… maybe she became different. She didn’t know, but she grew tired of having to contemplate it often. She noticed that she forgets to think about all this when she is in nature. So she surrounded herself in it as much as she could. It was rejuvenating, liberating and the only time her soul felt at peace.
By Szilvia Beylik5 years ago in Wander
Fingers Crossed
*A torn page with scattered water marks shoved between the cover and front page of a faded black journal* Chances are it's my skeleton smiling at you instead of me... Oh god... I hope it's my skeleton, please let me be a skeleton by the time you find me and not a halfway there, all bloated grossness... yuck. Forget that imagery please. Fortunately, there are so many little critters around I think they'll make quick work of me. I wonder if the venom in me will kill some of them. Does venom work on insects or worms or whatever? If I do get eaten and break down I am technically recycled which I'm all about so, I guess I like that better than the typical coffin situation. So, I am either dead or we are laughing over this wine in hand. Let’s see... What could save me right now? Chaac left for help right after I got bit, we are three days out from a town that maybe has a phone, so best case scenario he gets there and calls an emergency heli evac to find me in this dense jungle, needle meet haystack. What else... someone much more prepared than me who packed the correct antidotes for this region's venomous creatures happens by this secluded grotto, that would be nice. Orrr I internalize this venom and it makes me stronger like Poison Ivy from Batman! Please door number three! If I had to put odds on it, a thousand - a million? - to one I'm a goner. Goner is a funny word am I right? It's weird, I know I'm basically done for but somehow I'm in a peaceful place, just reflecting... could be the morphine I injected to numb the terrible burning pain coursing through my body but, here I am, calm as a cucumber staring up at the chef’s knife. Great idea alert, someone should sell this. Who needs a cocktail or a beer just take two parts venom, one part morphine and three parts dehydration bake in Mexican jungle sauna for a few days and voila! Don't get me wrong, this is definitely a bummer, I. Am. Bummed. A little more time on this big beautiful world, that would have been nice. I haven't even entered the "real world" and I'm already saying my goodbyes which is total BS. This trip was supposed to give me the greatest thesis ever and the doors of every curator and museum would fly open! They would pay me to travel the world exploring and looking for artifacts of past civilizations. Instead I go on my first trip and screw it all up. Anyway, sorry if my last words are weird, I'll make up for it right now, we found it! If you are traipsing around these parts then you probably know what I am talking about and I guess we didn’t “find it” find it, we found out where it definitely is which is just as good if you ask me. Well, at least it should be there. There is no way anyone found the guide post, the area was in total ruin, no one had been there in decades and it's the only thing that points to the final resting place of the artifact. Maybe it's the delirium or the venom eating my brain but I think it would be fun if you had to solve something instead of me just handing it to you on a silver platter. Yea, I had to work for it, and now you do too! Just, think about where you are the people and the heritage. OK, ready?
By Kevork Derderian5 years ago in Wander
Herbarium
The botanists at the Botanic Gardens had been annoyed with me for months. Any plant I came across that looked interesting, I’d bring to them asking what it was. It didn’t take them long to ID the plants I brought them but they weren’t very welcoming to my presence. I started showing up once a week, and soon once a week became twice a week. The first plant they ever identified for me was a clipping from a bush growing in my front yard called “Rue”. They told me that the scientific name was Ruta graveolens and that at one time it was considered medicinal. I found out after doing some research that the plant had a gentle antispasmodic function and could ease cramping and spasms in muscles. I found this to be incredibly fascinating. I never looked at plants the same way after that. My mind concluded that all of the plants in my area were worth investigating. I decided to gather wild weeds regularly to have them identified by the experts.
By Owanrin Obara (Monticue Connally)5 years ago in Wander
A Little River's Gift
The late afternoon sun trickled in through the canopy as Lydia fanned herself with the day’s newspaper. She always made a point to stop by the little convenience store on her way to the riverside to grab herself the latest print. Not that she ever read the news of course, but it sure provided the greatest relief from Alabama’s blistering summer heat.
By Ellie Lennon 5 years ago in Wander
