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Archive for the ‘Nature’ Category

Posted in Books, Journeys, Lakes, Nature, tagged , , , on July 18, 2013| 1 Comment »

Bookish Wednesday

            “A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way.” Caroline Gordon

The dark mirror in the book of the same name is a dark lake. -- Photo by Pat Bean

The dark mirror in the book of the same name is a dark lake. — Photo by Pat Bean

The Dark Mirror by Juliet Marillier

Yup! I may be an old broad, but I still haven’t lost my ability to stay awake when I’m in the middle of a good book.

And the woods and rocks of the landscape are integral to the story. -- Photo by Pat Bean

And the woods and rocks of the landscape are integral to the story. — Photo by Pat Bean

But I must admit that it’s been a long time since I stayed awake reading – actually I was listening to an audible book – until 4:53 a.m. That was the time on the clock in my kitchen – I don’t have one in the bedroom – when I finally looked.

I had known it was late, but not that late.

The book was “The Dark Mirror: Bridei Trilogy, Book One,” by Juliet Marillier.

I  knew it was getting late last night, and I kept saying I was going to put the book down as soon as I found out what was happening next, but by the time I did that, there was something else going on that kept me reading. And so it went all through the night.

“The Dark Mirror” was the first Juliet Marillier book I’ve read. I was delighted to know she’s published many more.  This first, published in 2004, is an epic fantasy with tangled plots, characters with depth and good writing.

I just downloaded the second audible book in the trilogy onto my Kindle. It is 23 hours long. Let’s hope it keeps me as intrigued about what’s going to happen next as book one.

I predict many more sleepless nights ahead of me.

“O frabjous  day! Callooh! Callay!” – and who knows what this is from?

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: The Blood-Red Pencil http://tinyurl.com/lbxm4nv The woman, who is proofing and editing by book, “Travels with Maggie,” and I differ over the use of commas, which is probably why I enjoyed this blog so much.   Perhaps my writer-readers will enjoy it, too

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Posted in Journeys, Nature, tagged , , on July 4, 2013| 3 Comments »

America the Beautiful 

Spacious Skies: Whale Rock, Canyonlands National Park. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Spacious Skies: Whale Rock, Canyonlands National Park. — Photo by Pat Bean

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion’d stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev’ry gain divine!

O Beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

— Katharine Lee Bates

Happy Fourth of July

Purple Mountain Majesty: Mount Ranier

Purple Mountain Majesty: Mount Rainer — Photo by Pat Bean

     There are many things in this country that need to be fixed, starting with term limits for politicians so they won’t waste their time in office concerned about getting re-elected, and elected leader benefits – wages, health insurance, pensions – that are more in line with those of the average American.

From Sea to Shining Sea: Acadia National Park, Maine -- Photo by Pat Bean

From Sea to Shining Sea: Acadia National Park, Maine — Photo by Pat Bean

Hopefully, all of us can work together to fix these items, along with many other things.

But there is no place else I want to call home. What’s right with this country outweighs what’s wrong.

I thought this every day, when I woke up on the road as a lone woman traveler who felt safe. I can still get tears in my eyes when the Star Spangled Banner waves beneath a blue sky.

I am thankful to be an American, but I fully believe what Mark Twain wrote: “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: The American Soldier http://tinyurl.com/lwna8ms As a grandmother of a Marine, and mother of three who served in the military, thank you Chris Martin.

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Fate

Posted in Birds, Journeys, Nature, Travels With Maggie, Writing, tagged , on July 3, 2013| 6 Comments »

            “Fate is not an eagle. It creeps like a rat.” – Elizabeth Bowen

I’m a believer  

We never know what we're going to encounter on the path of life. And I wouldn't want it any other way. -- Photo by Pat Bean

We never know what we’re going to encounter on the path of life. And I wouldn’t want it any other way. — Photo by Pat Bean

          “We make our own fortunes then call them fate,” said Benjamin Disraeli. His words were the gist of almost all the quotes I could find on “fate.”

I agree, and yet I also disagree. I’m not a religious person, but there have been many times in my life when it seemed as if fate took a hand.

Most recently, it was after I broke my ankle and met Betty Ann, who was a dog walker, well of sorts. It was something she fell into while searching for a job. She was my next door neighbor, and thus agreed, for a pittance, to walk Maggie until I could take over the task again.

Recently I discovered, she had excellent editing skills. And again, for a pittance, she has agreed to edit and
proofread “Travels with Maggie,” the book which I desperately need to finish and publish so I can move on.

Every writer needs an editor, if for nothing more than to see what the writer really wrote, and not what she thought she wrote. She hadn’t even got past my dedication of the book, which read: This book is dedicated to my canine traveling companion, Maggie, and to John Steinbeck. His book, “Travels with Charley, was one of the inspirations for my vagabond lifestyle and also for this book’s title. I would also like to think the hundreds of other great travel writers who taunted me to discover my own adventures.

Did you catch the mistake? I didn’t. Think should have been thank.

I truly believe it was fate that brought Betty Ann and me together. What do you think? Or is that thank?

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: The Mockingbird and the Cat http://tinyurl.com/l4ebgew I’m both an avid bird watcher and a cat lover, so I’m a fence sitter on the issue of cats being allowed outside. I put a bell on my cat to give the birds warning, just fyi. But I sure do love this mockingbird’s attitude.

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Slap to the Mind

Posted in Birds, Journeys, Nature, tagged , on June 26, 2013| 4 Comments »

“When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.” — Buddha

I'm not sure I agree that every day is perfect just the way it happens, but I do know this is a "perfect" view of Colorado mountains. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I’m not sure I agree that every day is perfect just the way it happens, but I do know this is a “perfect” view of Colorado mountains. — Photo by Pat Bean

Goofing Off

One of my favorite TV programs is NCIS, which  I watch it on my computer as I have no TV. In the show, Gibbs, the boss, is always slapping Tony, the smart goof-off, on the back of the head.

And it would b impossible to say that this reflective view of an Alabama lake doesn't earn a "perfect" 10. -- Photo by Pat Bean

And it would b impossible to say that this reflective view of an Alabama lake doesn’t earn a “perfect” 10. — Photo by Pat Bean

Well, I felt I got a slap on the mind the other day, one in which I was beating myself  up for goofing off the day before.

It was one of those occasional (I’d like to say rare, but occasional is more accurate) days when I didn’t write, I didn’t sketch, and I certainly didn’t learn something new while playing my time-wasting computer games. Even Pepper was short-changed by getting only very short walks.  .          I was mentally beating myself up for my slothfulness when I read my first blog of the day. It consisted of only a simple quote:  “Stop   keeping track of the mistakes you made – It’s time to forgive yourself”

OK, I thought. Maybe I should take this message to heart.

A little while later, when I was studying my T’ai Chi manual, a new activity on my daily to-do list, I read that life is perfect even if it helps us learn there are better ways to do things, and that we should drop the self-judgment. It also said the only wrong thing you can do in learning T’ai Chi is tell yourself you were wrong.

That certainly took a load off my mind. At my age, learning new ways to exercise isn’t going to be easy.

But then if that wasn’t enough to keep me from beating up on myself, I read another blogger whose No. 1 goal had become “getting off his own back.”

You would think the world was trying to tell me something.

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Eye Beauty  http://tinyurl.com/p6sn68g I couldn’t resist this newly hatched egret.

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The Eyes Have It

Posted in Birds, Journeys, Nature, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , , on June 24, 2013| 3 Comments »

Weekly Photo Challenge

Free roaming bunny -- Photo by Pat Bean

Free roaming bunny — Photo by Pat Bean

“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.” T.E. Lawrence 

Black-crowned night heron -- Photo by Pat Bean

Black-crowned night heron — Photo by Pat Bean

           If you look at the world through my eyes, you’re going to see bunnies frolicking at campgrounds, like the one above near Mount Rushmore.

You’re going to see lots of birds, like this black-crowned night heron, which I snapped eating a bug in a Texas pond.

And you’re going to take time to visit art galleries and museums, and notice architectural details, like these fish handles on an aquarium, whose class walls reflect the trees near its Albuquerque, New Mexico location.

Fishy handles. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Fishy handles. — Photo by Pat Bean

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Two for today.  Somewhere Over the Rainbow http://tinyurl.com/l6ducht Music to calm the mind; and When the Ants Attack http://tinyurl.com/n8kkdrh The kind of blog that lets you into the crazy world of thought – so that you know you’re in good company

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Quote for the Day

Posted in Birds, Journeys, Nature, Quote for the Day, tagged , , on June 20, 2013| 2 Comments »

“In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.” — Alice Walker

Only a Tree

Shaped by wind coming off the Gulf of Mexico. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Shaped by wind coming off the Gulf of Mexico. — Photo by Pat Bean

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: The Daily Echo http://tinyurl.com/myb66tl Only a bird … and only a great blog.

 

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Posted in African Safari, Birds, Nature, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , on June 18, 2013| 3 Comments »

Weekly Photo Challenge: Curves

            “In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” Aristotle

Barn swallow nests with a curved opening. -- Photo by Pat Bean.

Barn swallow nests with a curved opening. — Photo by Pat Bean.

They Abound in Nature  

            I’ve flow across America many times, always if possible in a window seat, where I spent much time staring at the earth below. I found that the land was almost always sectioned off into an endless array of squares. We North American humans, it seems, like our boundaries straight and neat.

BeusPond1_May25_2007          I realized just how true that was  hen I flew in a plane over Kenya and Tanzania, where a landscape square was a rare thing.. Here the land retained much of its natural curves.

It was more picturesque, and I liked it better.

            Bean’s Pat: http://tinyurl.com/lez6u6y Follow along as a historic Lonely Planet Journey is recreated. It’s a fantastic armchair travel adventure for those of us who can’t afford to take the trip for real.

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Zucchini Again? Why Thank You!

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Books, Journeys, Nature, tagged , , on June 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

            “The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.” – Albert Einstein

Blooming this morning. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Blooming this morning. — Photo by Pat Bean

Morning Walk with Pepper

            I have many friends who find joy and relaxation digging in the dirt and making something grow. I appreciate them greatly, probably more so because I’m not one of them.

Simple and elegant -- Photo by Pat Bean

Simple and elegant — Photo by Pat Bean

The only thing outside of a potted plant that I’ve ever successfully grown was a patch of strawberries, once.  The robins, who knew the exact second they would be ripe, enjoyed them.

For most of my life I faked an appreciation of gardening, perhaps trying to convince myself I enjoyed getting hot and dirty and pained from stooping over.  It simply seemed unwomanly to admit that I didn’t like digging in the dirt.

Finally I accepted my true self as a non-dirt-pottering kind of woman. It felt good.

I love gardens, and gladly eat the delicious tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas and all the other home-grown vegetables that find their way into my kitchen. I even eat the zucchini that is a never-ending gift from my gardening friends.

And no morning would be complete without a view of Mother Nature's handiwork, the Catalina mountains. -- Photo by Pat Bean

And no morning would be complete without a view of Mother Nature’s handiwork, the Catalina mountains. — Photo by Pat Bean

And I dare say no one could appreciate their flower gardens more than me. Such live, growing beauty seeps deep into my heart.

So today, I just want to send out a big thanks to those responsible for my apartment’s flower gardens, and all the other hard work of keeping the grounds  trimmed and edged and growing. I find some new growing miracle on almost every walk.

And thanks to Mother Nature, too.  Mountains and wildflowers seep deep into my heart, too.

 

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Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , on June 7, 2013| 4 Comments »

Time Changes your Life

“Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.”– Khalil Gibran

And your Journals

I write these days more about nature than I do about the daily chaos of living. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I write these days more about nature than I do about the daily chaos of living. This is  a photo of Taggart Lake in Wyoming.   — Photo by Pat Bean

Henry David Thoreau once said that his journals became less personal as the years went by and he found less drama and entanglements in his life.

Reading those words gave me pause to contemplate the changes in my own journal writing. This blog actually makes up about 90 percent of my journaling these days.

In it, I talk much more about birds, nature, magical landscapes, my dog Pepper, writing and the books I’m reading – and my reactions to these topics — than I do about the personal business of living.

That’s quite the opposite of my early journal writing, when I was bogged down in raising children, trying to find love after it failed me again and again, worrying how to survive until the next paycheck, feeling that I wasn’t good enough, and worrying about children who were nowhere to be found at curfew. I probably had enough chaos in the first 50 years of my life to keep a soap opera going daily for 20 years.

And I could journal forever about the birds I see every day, like this northern cardinal. -- Photo by Pat Bean

And I could journal forever about the birds I see every day, like this northern cardinal. — Photo by Pat Bean

Some of that inner anguish, when I could face it, was written down in my journals in the expectation that no one would ever read what I was writing but me.

In total contrast, here I am today keeping a very public journal, and loving it. I won’t say that my life doesn’t still go through an occasional soap-opera installment, but time has given me plenty of experience to know life will continue on even without the drama.

            Bean’s Pat: Memory Lane at the Museum http://tinyurl.com/ljrr9eb I love the comparison of scenes. A Thomas Moran print of Shoshone Falls on the Snake River hung in my home for many years. The artist also painted  Devil’s Slide in Weber Canyon, which was located  not to far from my former Utah home.  FYI: The reason  the color of  Morning Glory Pool in Yellowstone has changed is because of human pollution especially coins thrown into the hole. The first time I saw the pool, many years ago, it was still emerald green,

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Bird of the Day: Kingfishers

Posted in Birds, Journeys, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , on June 4, 2013| 4 Comments »

            “When birds burp, it must taste like bugs.” – Bill Watterson

Belted kingfisher: I tried to capture the jazzy look and attitude of kingfishers in this sketch.

Belted kingfisher: I tried to capture the jazzy look and attitude of kingfishers in this sketch.

Cute and Good at Catching Fish            

If it’s a kingfisher, however, that burp will taste more like fish, especially if it lives in North America.

Although there are three species of  kingfishers –among the 30 or so that roam this planet – that call America home, the only common one is the belted kingfisher. It can be seen in all of the mainland’s 49 states.

A couple of pied kingfishers, which were among the favorite birds I saw in Africa. -- Wikipedia photo

A couple of pied kingfishers, which were among the favorite birds I saw in Africa. — Wikipedia photo

My first view of this bird took place on the Big Hole River in Montana, where I saw it sitting on a log that leaned out over the water. It was waiting for a fish to come within bill range.

I sat quietly, not too far away, until I saw the bird make a successful catch. I still remember the thrill of that moment.

I saw the second of America’s kingfishers, the ringed, at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. This southern tip of Texas is the only place the bird can be seen in this country. The Rio Grande Valley is also habitat for the green kingfisher, which I’m still hoping one day to see. I might get lucky. The green kingfisher also comes up from Mexico to visit southeastern Arizona, which is my current home.

Meanwhile I have five more kingfishers on my life list. The collared kingfisher, which I saw on the island of Rota near Guam, and four that I saw while on safari in Africa: the pied, woodland and malachite in Kenya and the grey-headed in Tanzania. Just 23 more to go now.

And just for the record, the pied kingfisher was among my favorites of the 182 life birds I saw during my two-week visit to Africa.

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: http://tinyurl.com/mhc93p8 My favorite blogger is out of her element, but still making science fun. I particularly loved waking up this morning to the Periodic Table song.

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