Starting Today: March 2011

March 20, 2011

Orchid

I actually drew a picture today! Nothing profound or anything, just another of my rather typical doodles...

I'm not quite sure how much I like it...it's a bit wild on the color side for someone like me who typically gravitates toward black and white. In fact I took a photo of it in black white and am almost inclined to prefer this version...

Either way, I'm relieved to have experienced another day of creativity...I was beginning to think I'd lost the muse entirely. Plus, it was fun to listen to about 5 full hours of RadioLab and Radio West: two of my favorite public radio programs.

March 18, 2011

Birdsong

Today's sunrise was peaceful. Rather than just snap a few photos and hurry on to school I sat for a good long while on the piled-rock wall that runs all along Evanston's lake shore and watched the sun rise behind a curtain of clouds and turn the sky into a rainbow.

When I finally gathered my stuff and continued on up to NU, I noticed the air was increasingly filled with a near cacophony of birdsong...probably a bunch of amorous he-birds simultaneously advertising their desire to mate.

Until about a week ago the dominant seducers had been the cardinals...

but lately, bunches of red-winged black birds have taken over. I was fortunate to catch this one mid squawk...check out the way he puffed himself up and flared his wings...all part of the show.

And then of course there were the impatient screams of ubiquitous seagulls. I'm really proud of these next pictures by the way...it was a real challenge to get good mid-flight close ups!!!

There were also mellow warblings of robins, tweets and chirps from a bunch of little finchy-looking things, caws of mischievous crows, and a bunch of new songs from birds I'm as yet unable to name. Seems like the whole neighborhood's been catching spring fever! Me included...

March 17, 2011

Coolest Sunrise Ever

...but you have to look closely.

March 16, 2011

Sunrise Sequence

I'm about to head to the library and put in some good long hours writing the final paper for my Music & Memory class. It's turned into quite a project--I have 9 more pages to write before Saturday mid-day and really need to get busy.

Sunrise this morning was exquisite...and what's even better is this lovely ball of gas is predicted to raise our temps into the mid 50s today! I guess that's extra incentive to get a lot done on my paper--won't have to feel guilty about going out to soak up some sunshine!

It begins...

Nice eh!?

March 15, 2011

Red Sky in the Morning

Sunrise sequence...doesn't get any better than this.

March 14, 2011

Good Riddance

Happy 2nd day off of daylight savings time...yawn.

Sure is nice to be up for sunrise again.

March 1, 2011

Spring Ice

I know it's not spring yet, but the ice formations I encountered along my walk to school this morning seem to be the kind that could only occur when a sunny-warm-soggy-muddy day precedes a below-freezing night--and that feels a little springy to me.

This footprint for instance...

Yesterday afternoon--while the sun was shining and it was warm enough to walk around without a hat--some unlucky soul slogged through a muddy patch of grass on his way to firmer ground. Maybe he cursed under his breath upon realizing the extent of the mess accumulating on his shoes. Behind him, each footprint filled with water seeping up out of the over-saturated earth. Hours later--if one listened closely enough--the stillness of the frigid night was intruded upon by faint crackling as frost crystals began to grow from the pool of water still present in the footprint.

Here is a further sampling of some of the frosty formations I found this morning. The sun has been up and gleaming for a few hours now, so I bet most of these pieces have long since melted back into mud and sogg...

Though I'm certainly looking forward to warm summer days, I have to admit I'll also be missing all this amazing ice.

Happy March!

Great Books I've Recently Read

If you are looking for an "astronomical" read, Tyler Nordgren's "Stars Above, Earth Below" Is a great place to start. Nordgren explores a wide array of astronomical subjects by relating them to the processes, landscapes, history, culture, and dark skies that are so beautifully on display in our National Parks: solar system volcanism alongside Yellowstone National Park; Cosmology, Deep Time, and Deep Space alongside the Grand Canyon; Climate Change and the "Goldilocks Zone" alongside Glacier National Park; the life cycles of stars, and archeoastronomy alongside Chaco Canyon...and many more. The book is loaded with beautiful images and illustrations, and Nordgren's conversational storytelling makes complex ideas both accessible and memorable. The ideas in this book have enriched my own experience of observing, and I recommend it to others with two big thumbs up!

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A beautifully written book that illuminates one of the most quietly pressing issues of our time: the slow advancement of light pollution into our night sky. True darkness, and the natural light it permits, has been a source of inspiration for creative thinkers throughout history. It is crucial to our physical and mental health, personal safety, and continuing connection to the world around us. Its gradual disappearance behind a fog of orange skyglow is a tragedy that many around the world are working hard to prevent. Provocative, subtle, practical, and poetic, "The End of Night" reminds us that we need not fear the dark, but should instead embrace and protect its wonders so that future generations will still know first-hand the arc of the Milky Way sweeping across a deep sky.

I love and hate anthologies. The great thing about them is I come away having met a new bunch of inspiring writers. The unfortunate thing is that I know I'll never get to everything on my growing list of "must read" books. This collection is magnificent, with selections both poetic and practical, sobering and celebratory. And Lyon's introductory analysis of America's particular contribution to the oft overlooked and sometimes maligned genre of nature writing provides an illuminating perspective on the art, while also tying it to society's evolving perspective on nature and humanity's role within it. A few of my favorite features included selections by Barry Lopez, John Haines, Edward Hoagland, Rachel Carson, and Henry Beston.

A collection of essays and poetry by prominent western writers that illuminates the role of wilderness--and in this case, most specifically Utah wilderness--in sustaining an ethic of freedom, creativity, aspiration, and soulful bounty: "as the control plots against which we can measure the ravages of Progress." Its distribution in 1996 among members of congress and other top political figures, helped secure the creation of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. The selections are varied and heartfelt. They approach the issues of wilderness from unexpected perspectives, and invite the reader into landscapes of mythic dimension. "Carry water and use your wits."

Really great science writing often makes me wish I could go back to school and study whatever field it illuminates. This book makes me want to be a geologist or paleontologist: one of those that dig the truths of history from the farthest corners of the Earth, rejoice over the discovery of a tiny fragment of tooth or bone, and then connect that shard through the eons of time to the realities of our lives in the present moment...an age where the effects of human ideas control the path of natural selection and may now trump basic fertility as the driving force of evolution on our planet.

Starting Today