Tag Archives: Nature

Our Hikes: Isle of Skye

I wish we had two more days on Skye. Between the delay in renting our 9-seater sprinter van, the screw that got jammed into the tire resulting in a flat, and the already tight schedule, there was much we didn’t get to see on Skye. Talisker whiskey distillery, Dunvegan Castle, and the Quiraing mountains, to name a few of our missed opportunities.

But all was not lost and we had a fun adventure, nonetheless. Adventures driving a huge van on single-lane roads, sheep getting in the way, and a few added pitstops to see something beautiful that was not on the itinerary – something that is in endless supply in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Here is a brief breakdown of the hikes we managed to fit in, what I thought of them, and if I recommend them (the answer, by the way, is yes. Yes, you should definitely do all of them).

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What is Public Broadcasting?

I thought I knew – but it seems I’ve opened up a can of worms that is taking way more effort to digest and understand. I thought “hey, let’s help spread the word about the importance of public broadcasting!” Now I need to figure out how we communicate across the nation. Either way, let’s also see if we can figure out what this administration just cut funding for, shall we?

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A Haggis Hiatus

Hi, everyone! How have you been?

I just returned from my vacation in the UK (all around Scotland and then a stint to London) and decided to disconnect while I was gone, hence my silence over the past two weeks..

Can’t say I’m super thrilled to be back – the second we touched down in D.C., reality pelted us hard, right upside the head like a noxious smell you weren’t expecting. One sad or embarrassing story after another about the happenings in the grand U.S. of A. came flooding into our phones and I realized coming back was a terrible idea.

Sigh.

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I Think We Are Being Invaded by Aliens

First there was one pile. Then a second. A third, fourth, fifth….I’ve lost count. I’ve stopped paying attention to how many piles I am finding, and have grown more interested in the color changes this life form is experiencing. From yellow to orangish to white. This extra terrestrial looking creature seems to bleach in the sun like coral in the reefs. It even looks like coral – well, up close it does. When you see it splattered about in a pile when it first appears, it definitely brings to mind the look of bile and foam that’s just been hacked up by your canine companion. The species: colloquially known as Dog Vomit Slime Mold.

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Today I Tasted the Devastation of a Wildfire

And I wasn’t even near it!

The air quality where I live has been generally poor, as of late. Not from one wildfire, but from two, plus a Haboob from the Middle East that blew sand halfway around the world to settle on the East Coast of the U.S.. It was the fire in New Jersey, however, that left a film in my mouth and throat and a grimy feel on my skin this past Saturday.

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Basement Gardening by an Unlikely Friend

Over the Hedge, the DreamWorks movie about a raccoon and a ragtag group of wild animals invading the suburbs in search of food, is a common story around many U.S. neighborhoods. We have foxes, raccoons, opossums, deer, skunks, squirrels, birds…and mice. It’s the mice who may have stirred up a bit of trouble for us this winter. We weren’t sure, at first, but we suspected they had made their way inside, rather than just them scratching on the rooftop, when the bird seed bag had been ripped open. The maddening sounds of something scurrying in the walls was no less concerning than the tap, tap, tapping on a floor as the days went by.

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Multicultural Gardener

There are many things about having more than one culture that have been a blessing and a curse. Never really knowing which one you belong to or relate to is high up there. You also tend to see boundary lines differently than those who feel a strong sense of belonging to a very specific place. Always existing just a little bit outside of a culture used to bother me, but I think as I’ve gotten older I am more….ambivalent about it. That perspective extends beyond the intangible fealty to culture and civilizations and into the physical world.

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Regenerating Life and Love: The People

I am going to pivot a bit on this one – bail on the format I was previously using (see my first three in the Regenerating Life and Love series: Intro, the Environment, and Animals and Fungi). When it comes to Mount St Helens, it is true that tourism, the logging industry, and other human activities have resumed in the area, but I am not certain how I feel about some of our resilience in the aftermath of this particular catastrophic event. When we speak about systems in nature regenerating life, we often look at them in terms of returning, recovering, and perhaps even overcoming (a forest fire might open up coniferous seeds to yield new forests or a species returning to spawning areas after an oil spill). We like things we can measure and track over time. Useful as that might be, it tends to also ignore the grey spaces of regeneration and healing. And for the human factor, this might be the most important bit.

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Regenerating Life and Love: The Animals (and Fungi)

At the risk of forging through the gate this week with another complaint about the human species, I want to lead with a personal frustration I have when I hear individuals reduce the importance of a species that is going, or has gone, extinct with a flippant toss of the hair, followed by a casual “who cares?” This is often embedded within a conversation intended to discredit environmental programs that favor a small endangered organism over that of human interest. Well, I’m pretty sure I speak on behalf of the organisms at risk of becoming extinct that they care. They probably care a great deal. Moreover, we should all care. Perhaps, if we just took the time to realize their worth….

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