My New Journal

For my birthday, which was Saturday (I'm 62 now!), I received from one daughter an all-media sketch book and from the other daughter, the book, Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E Roth. I have been keeping a nature Journal since then in my new book. Here is a crop of one of the pages (which didn't scan well because the book is too large to fit on the scanner.) You can see some sample pages here.

I also received from my daughters Last Child in the Woods*, by Richard Louv, The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Micahel Pollam, and the Wild Braid, by Stanley Kunitz. Thank you VERY MUCH! :-D

From my husband, I received: an 8 gig "extreme" card for my camera, a viewer (which you can see here, if interested), and a new Singer sewing machine so I can put larger pockets in my jeans to nerdily carry more gear.

What do the gifts that one receives say about them? :-D

*View a rant poem that refers to this book here, if interested.

PS: I haven't had time to post all the links yet, so if interested in them, come back later. I have some work I have to do FIRST.

Sidewalk Saturday/the Invisible Trail

Tannin prints; another new post from what used to be the blog called The Invisible Trail but is now being moved here. I am fascinated in the fall by the way the leaves give up their tannin and make leaf prints on the sidewalks. Click images to view larger.

Death at the Spiral Grove

Something is killing the trees at The Spiral Grove, which I consider to be a sacred place. Acid Rain, Global warming, a new pest? I don't know, but it makes me sad! :-(

This is one of the posts I have moved from The Invisible Trail, a blog that I plan to shut down because I don't have time to keep it up and no one goes there anyway.

The responsible culprit may be the alien woodwasp! :-(

Alien woodwasp that could threaten nation's pine trees found in Fulton, N.Y., by Cornell researcher

By Susan S. Lang

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Despite dozens of interceptions at U.S. ports, a public enemy has infiltrated the nation's borders. Taken captive in Fulton, N.Y., and identified by a Cornell University expert, the adult female alien is the only one of its kind ever discovered in the eastern United States.

read more.