52 Ways to Fall in Love with the Earth

Week 52 – Celebrating With Friends

tamarawendt — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:36:09 +0000

This final week of 52 Ways coincides with the Winter solstice. For eons people around the world have gathered together to celebrate, to share fellowship, and to express appreciation. Each week of this blog has felt like a mini celebration.

Thank you to all of the amazing photographers who have shared their beautiful images, everyone who commented and each of you who read the blog and shared with friends and family.

How do you plan to celebrate nature with the people around you in the next 52 weeks?

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Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere marking the first day of winter. Our Australian, African and South American friends are enjoying the longest day of the year as they enter summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

Provided by Grass Lake Sanctuary

Week 51 – Pieces of Venus on Earth

tamarawendt — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:34:31 +0000

When I heard that Venus transited the Sun in 2004 and will again in 2012, I wanted to know more. A friend explained that a transit is like an eclipse, in that Venus ‘stood’ between the Earth and Sun. During its journey a solar wind blew from the Sun to Venus, to Earth, blowing with it Venusian rocks, soil, particles and bacteria. We actually have pieces of Venus on earth!

With this in mind, I took a walk conscious that I was breathing in and walking on pieces of Venus. How amazing is that!

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Venus can often be seen near the moon and is the second brightest natural object in the night sky. This sister planet reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise and shortly after sunset. Venus is the only planet in the Solar System that rotates clockwise. All the other planets turn counter-clockwise.

Provided by For Generations to Come Sanctuary (Source)

Week 50 – Through the Eyes of Others

tamarawendt — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:35:43 +0000

A friend sent me this video of hundreds of starlings flowing together in the air. Seeing this… I feel like I am there witnessing a rare and beautiful event. It is incredible that these are birds… and leaves me speechless. I am thankful for the amazing windows into nature happening all around the world through cameras.

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People have long wondered how Starlings manage their incredible patterns of flight with out crashing into each other. Researchers have discovered that each starling interacts with six or seven other birds irrespective of the distance of these seven birds. Since each bird is flying in relationship to the 7 birds around them they all can shift direction quickly within a huge flock.

Provided by For Generations to Come Sanctuary (Source)

Week 49 – Thanks for Friends

tamarawendt — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 01:59:59 +0000

This week I’m feeling all the things I am grateful for. I am very thankful for being able to share my experiences of nature with you. Writing this blog, connecting with all of you and hearing your perspectives enriches my life.

How has sharing your love of nature affected your life?

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The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. ~ Marcel Proust

Week 48 – The Sky’s Tails

tamarawendt — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:23:33 +0000

There was a meteor shower here this week. It brought up memories of Haley’s comet visiting us years ago. When I see a comet and know that people all over the world are experiencing it too I feel part of something vast and am reminded that we are all connected in time and space.

What do comets evoke in you?

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(photo source)

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The dust tail of a comet can be up to 10 million kilometers or longer.

Provided by For Generations to Come Sanctuary (Source)

Week 47 – The Nature of Things

tamarawendt — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:08:42 +0000

The other day I was reflecting on where my keyboard came from – how the raw materials in the plastic were once plants and animals thousands of years ago.

It led me to reflect on how everything around me came from nature: the computer, the cup, the walls… and how people molded, transformed and combined trees, rock, clay and hundreds of other things to make these amazing shapes.

I felt a deep appreciation for the creativity and invention of thousands of people over time.

How do you experience the inanimate objects in your home?

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If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. ~ Carl Sagan

Provided by For Generations to Come Sanctuary

Week 46 – Separate Together

tamarawendt — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:20:39 +0000

I remember being amazed upon hearing that aspen groves are often one single plant connected underground. All these separate looking trees were actually the same plant! Knowing this made walking through a grove of aspen take on a very different expereince. I could feel how all of life is connected in ways I might not see.

What have you seen or learned in nature that gave you sense of connection?

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Some of the largest living organisms on earth are connected beneath the ground or underwater.

The Aspen tree forms large stands of genetically identical trees (technically, stems) connected by a single underground root system. These trees form through root sprouts coming off an original parent tree. The largest known fully-connected Aspen is a grove in Utah nicknamed Pando, and some experts call it the largest organism in the world, by mass or volume. It covers 106 acres and is estimated to weigh 6,000 tons.

A giant fungus called honey mushrooms in Oregon was found to span 2,200 acres (that’s 1,665 football fields), which would make it the largest organism by area. Another plant that rivals these land colonies in size is a strand of the giant marine plant, Posidonia oceanica, discovered in the Mediterranean Sea. It covers a band roughly 4.3 miles in length!

Provided by For Generations to Come Sanctuary (Source)

Week 45 – Flowing Through Us

tamarawendt — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:25:24 +0000

Did you know that a remarkable relationship exists between process of respiration in animals and the process of photosynthesis in plants? The molecule of chlorophyll (what makes plants green and soaks up the sun’s energy) has only one atom that makes it different from a molecule of hemoglobin (what makes blood red and carries oxygen)! (source)

After reading this I felt a deeper connection all the green life around me. That what is flowing through my veins is not so different from what is flowing through them.

What patterns in nature have drawn you into deeper relationship with the

larger community of life?

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I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do. They go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far! ~John Muir

Week 44 – Under My Feet

tamarawendt — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:33:38 +0000

I wonder sometimes what the earth is like under my feet. What it is like 5 feet down and 10 feet and on and on. Are there huge boulders or underground rivers, or crystal caverns? Where does the lava start and what does that transition look like?

What do you imagine the earth is like under your feet?

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Divers exploring a maze of underwater caves on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula have identified what may be the longest underground river in the world. The waterway twists and turns for 95 miles through the region’s limestone caverns!

Provided by For Generations to Come Sanctuary (Source)

Week 43 – Water Sounds

tamarawendt — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:27:35 +0000

Trickling water, rain drops, a babbling brook or raging river. There are so many sounds of water. Waves crashing or lapping. They each feel so different. I remember living near a stream one summer. It was loud and rushing at the beginning of my stay and a few months later is was a gentle flow. The changes in the sounds and water flow in the river became a part of me and I ‘knew’ the place in a more intimate way. It is one of the things I most remember from that summer.

What sounds of water surround your life?

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The speed of sound in water is often as much as 4 times faster than in air. It does depend a little on your water, fresh vs salt, cold vs warm, pressure, but it is much faster in all conditions – in the neighborhood of 3200 mph!

Provided by For Generations to Come Sanctuary (Source)