Nature

The Deer Ate Them

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

Who was it that said “No good deed goes unpunished?” Seems so true on this count! Because I am so behind in getting flowers in pots around the house, I decided a couple of weeks ago to at least buy two big pots of lovely pink, dark-leaved begonias for the edge of my front porch. Left the impatiens behind because I know the deer love `em – begonias not so much. Or so they say.

BegoniasEaten

Looked out yesterday morning to see the begonias had been dragged down two steps and mostly consumed! This means that the deer had to literally come up a step or two to eat them. Now that’s a first! The irony of this is that even though I live “in-town” and am surrounded by farmland, fields, etc. the deer have PLENTY to eat. So they’re just cruisin’ for BegoniasEaten-2candy!

This is no surprise to anyone living in Hunterdon. If I come home late at night, the deer may literally be in the street, sometimes in my driveway. So my begonias are nibbled to the nub, and keeping anything on my front porch is out. Do I care? Nah. Not really. I love the deer – they are such elegant and graceful animals. I know they are considered one step down from vermin by many people out here. Not to me. I just have to be a little smarter than them in where I put my plants when I DO pot them and where the begonias will be recovering in safety.

The Gift of A Whale

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

blue-whaleThey heard him singing.  70 miles off the coast of Long Island and New York City, he sang …. a blue whale. This magnificent creature, nearly hunted to extinction in the mid-20th century, when nations created an accord to protect them, once swam these waters and sang.

Blue whales, at up to 108 feet in length and 190 tons in weight, are the largest animals to ever have existed on our planet. One can only imagine the excitement of the research experts of Cornell’s Bioacoustics Research Program when they heard a male singing only 70 miles offshore. Watch the video and read about this exciting discovery.

Among the most intelligent of all the animals on the planet, whales have been hunted and killed far beyond any need of subsistence; blue whales are an endangered species. Despite most of the world’s countries agreeing that these leviathans, especially those nearing extinction, need to be protected rather than killed, some nations continue the slaughter. It’s a wonder that whales come near us at all.

Yet they do. There are increasing numbers of true accounts of whales, (and dolphins as well), approaching man in every kind of friendly gesture. From choosing to swim with us to nudging our boats ever so gently and allowing us to pet them, they continue to approach us. Do they want us to know them? to save them? to save their ocean? These gentle creatures have no need of human contact, and yet they offer themselves to us – a gift.

Note: Photo is from free screensaver download from National Geographic.

Online Aquarium

/ still a dreamer / 3 Comments

Shark2Everybody knows how relaxing it is to watch fish in an aquarium, so here’s a little something to rest your weary mind. It’s an online aquarium called Shark Break.  The fish closely follow the moves of your mouse/cursor. You can choose different fish from the left and/or different ocean backgrounds at the right.

The providers of the site promote healthy oceans and kindness to sharks and other marine mammals, but I have not further explored their site to verify who they are, what they do, or what they’re about. I offer this link only as a pleasant little diversion to enjoy some well-thought-out ocean creatures swimming about at your command. Enjoy a little Shark Break.

SpiderMail

/ still a dreamer / 5 Comments

SpiderMail-SmallFor the last couple weeks, there has been a small guest in my mailbox. While she hasn’t cheerily announced “You’ve got mail,” her appearance has been as regular as my e-mail. Each morning when I open the door of my mailbox to put in outgoing letters or later, to retrieve the incoming, she is perched on more of less the same spot each time. At night, however, she ventures out and builds a beautiful, circular web on an unusual angle between my neighbor’s and my adjoining mailboxes.

She is an orb-weaving spider, (so named for the typical circular webs they weave), and known as a cross spider or garden spider. (I looked her up on two of my favorite bug sites – What’s That Bug? and BugGuide.) I speak to her softly each time I see her, and she rarely moves away. Sometimes if I pull out a magazine or something large, she’ll back up a wee bit, or if I move to the other side to get a closer look, she may face me a bit defensively. But what is most amazing was realizing that she seems to actually know me.

A neighbor that I see often was walking by with her young son recently and we got to talking. Of course, he’s interested in bugs! I showed them the spider. She was fine with me nearby, but when they came to look – and they were no closer than I’ve ever been – she got up and hid. I checked when they had left, she came back out. I feel honored.

SpiderMail-Big

Now she’s protecting a little cotton-y puff of spiders-to-be on the inside of the mailbox door. I still talk to her, but don’t stay long. She looks a little less filled out than I think is normal, and it doesn’t look like she built her web last night. Perhaps this is what motherhood is like for spiders and she’ll stay with her egg puff until they’re born. She’s really quite pretty with a lovely pattern on her back and shaded legs.

I don’t know how long she will be keeping an eye on my mail, but I do enjoy the opportunity of seeing this little spider each day.

Update: 5/29/09 – Today is the first day I have not seen the little guardian of my mail. Yesterday, she seemed tired, and it almost appeared as if a back leg were missing. I couldn’t tell. I did a visual search all about the mailbox a short while ago, no luck. Perhaps her job is done.

Living By Water

/ still a dreamer

How lucky am I? I live 3 houses away from a river. And walking 4 very short blocks, I can walk onto the bridge that takes me to neighboring PA.

delaware-winter

Yesterday I went out walking for my exercise and decided to take my camera. Something I don’t do often enough. I was immediately drawn to the river on this sunny day – blue sky, no clouds. I headed onto the bridge, not to go to PA, but just to see the river. Even in winter, with not a leaf in sight, it was magnificent.

delaware-winter2

I am happy when living by water. I am always happy to just be near water – the ocean, a lake, a river – there is something calming, inspiring and renewing about it. I wonder if this is universal or something belonging to just some of us. Is it because my family used to go the shore throughout my childhood and my Dad taught me to swim in the ocean? Is it because in my tween and teen years we used to vacation up at Highland Lakes every summer? Or perhaps that we used to go on a Sunday to Cooper’s Pond in the neighboring town and feed the ducks? I took some of my very first photos with my new Brownie camera there. Maybe it’s because I’m a water sign. Maybe I was once a mermaid. Maybe I am just forever enchanted by nature.

Our creativity, in whatever way we express ourselves, is influenced by all of who we are and who we have been. I believe when we reach inside ourselves and touch upon the good things, the meaningful things, in our pasts – or even find them for the first time – we are enriched in every way.  Yet we make so little time for these things … to let ourselves be with our own enchantment … to just let ourselves be. Today, for this, I thank the river.