My wonderful earthy, arty, well read people!

You are cordially invited to my tumblr. Yes, it’s not quite as exciting as cocktail party where we can all shmooze together over spritzers, BUT, seeing how you are all intelligent and enjoy the wilderness, good books and other inspiring worlds, I thought you would be perfect for the party.

You can find it at www.4directions.tumblr.com – and while you’re there, if YOU have a tumblr, please do let me know (you can send it in via the ‘ask’ button as well) so I can follow you!

Casual attire preferred, as always. *wink*

image via National Geographic

I came across this little guy (called a lilac-breasted roller!) while researching a new book – I just had to share it with you.

Creatures like this always get me to thinking about fantasy. I think one of the main reasons people love fantasy books so much is because of the possibility they represent. Magic, myth and legend are all deeply embedded in us and I think we’re drawn to the potential found in certain stories.

Of course, you’ll never catch me saying anything bad about reading, period.

But sometimes I think we forget just how magical, how fantastical the natural world can be; look at this bird!

Enjoy a little extra magic and color today – Happy Friday!

Okay, I’m the first to admit it’s been awhile since the last post. My bad.

But, the good news is I have a good reason.  (more on that later)

Today I wanted to share with you one of the coolest creature tricks I’ve ever seen. Spoiler, I can’t identify it exactly – but looks to me like some sort of American screech owl. Any takers?

To get the full effect, watch the video here – trust me!

What’s going on?

When up against a barn owl (which is only a little bigger than himself), our owl transformer puffs up. You know, using the ‘scare-them-off-I’m-too-big-for-food’ tactic.

But when he’s up against a much bigger owl, he opts for another strategy: camouflage. By stretching its whole body into a branch shape, he succeeds not only in freaking the bejeezus out of us but hopefully gets ignored by the bigger owl.

Not a bad trick!

I personally think he looks an awful lot like a vampire owl when he does that, but that’s a story for another day…

Although you shouldn’t trust a crocodile with your lunch, you can definitely trust them with your ideas.

This Wild Earth Croc-Book measures 3×5 inches and definitely won’t bite.

Happy Monday, all!

With spring teasing everybody and the longer days slowly arriving, I’ve been inspired to do some colourful work.

Each pendant is imprinted and textured with little piece of nature (buds, twigs, leaves, rocks, etc), and given a shot of colour using a very cool method that leaves me covered in ink. They’re then polished and given an enamel finish, so they can be easily cleaned. (I may do a little tutorial on this if anybody is interested.) Because they forced me to get outside and hunt for natural objects, I called them the Quest Collection.

As always, they are 100% polymer clay and up for grabs. All seasons are represented here, with a main focus on capturing a little of the outdoors in some vivid colour. Click to expand each piece, or hover over to see exactly what types of plants are used – I hope you like them!

N.B: The inking process makes these pendants quite individual and hard to replicate, so once a piece is gone – it’s gone! Of course if you like a specific colour scheme or plant request I can do custom orders for you, but replicas here are a no-can-do!

P.S I’ve just started using Flickr and am a complete newbie. If you want to connect, find me here!

I’ve noticed that most of the things that are truly precious in life are those that are easiest to take for granted.

Trees are a prime example.

Maybe it’s because we see them all the time. Standing out there through the seasons, facing the elements with that quiet, stoic attitude. We don’t realize that our breaths essentially come from them, and that the oxygen that we need to survive comes from their silent processes.

It’s very easy to forget that we owe trees our lives. After all, they’re not exactly asking for recognition.

Many ancients referred to trees as the ‘Standing People’. They stood silently, becoming the keepers of our stories. They also had many stories to tell to those who listened.

Trees are a lesson in timing. They don’t push for the next season – they allow their leaves to bud, grow, change colors and drop as the world tells them. They accept each stage as it happens and use their energy wisely. I would guess that trees don’t mourn the spring when winter arrives. Probably because the seeds for next spring aren’t far behind.

The effect of trees on people can sometimes be known as ‘tree medicine’. This is not medicine in the traditional sense (although you might find yourself feeling better around trees). It’s about tapping into the stability and strength found in trees, and considering just how much that tree has seen.

To honour trees, I started a collection called TreeSkins. These are pendants (and soon to be other creations) that reflect the stoic nature of trees. Simple.

Individual trees also have particular strengths. To start, I chose the birch. This tree represents our ability to listen, see and reflect. Ultimately, birches mean realization. That’s a nice place to start.

The only piece of birch bark I had was a birthday (birchday!) card from a dear friend. (I have very clever friends).

Using that as inspiration, I made the first TreeSkin pendants. Can you see them in the pic above?

How about this?

They are 100% polymer clay, so you can take a little tree medicine with you wherever you go.

There are more TreeSkins to come – and I have a feeling I’d be kicked out of Canada if I don’t do a maple.

Keep it wild!

Update: A full gallery of Wild Earth Artifacts can be found here via Flickr.

If you don’t believe in dragons,

it is curiously true,

That the dragons you disparage

choose to not believe in you!

I told you this would get addictive.

Here’s another Wild Earth Notebook I cooked up this morning. I’ve hidden some tiny oak leaves all over to remind me of spring. Can you find them?

PS. Comments are back on so if you have any ideas for notebooks, drop them here!

I have to admit, I never set out this morning to make this. I had lots of scrap clay from my latest projects, but no idea what to do with them.

This is what happens when you leave me alone in a room with clay and a little Michael Buble.

On the far right is a shell, with a string of moss agate on the bottom left. There is also a small cluster of tiger’s eye in the top middle. I think the overall effect makes it look a bit like the forest floor.

You can imagine how this can get a bit addictive, so you can be sure to see more Wild Earth Notebooks in the days to come!

To custom order a notebook, contact me at wildearthintegration (at) gmail (dot) com

Keep it wild!

Okay, so it’s not my best title.

But there are some new Earthwings up and ready to go!

Don’t forget to check out the gallery above for more, or visit the nice people on the Artifacts FB page for updates.

Snowy Owl

Red winged black bird

Cardinal

I’m also happy to take suggestions or commissions for any of your favorite birds! Big Bird, anyone?

Keep it wild!

With winter in full swing here, there is lots of time for quiet pondering. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the lessons we can learn from ordinary things – things we might normally take for granted or not notice at all.

I can’t think of anything that goes more unnoticed than the humble rock.

We can learn a thing or two from rocks.

They start off sharp, with rough edges and points. But by rolling through the terrain, bumping into others, turning, reorienting and facing the elements, they ultimately become smooth.

It is much easier to navigate the world with smooth edges. Instead of crashing into something, you simply roll with it. Rocks teach you to roll through life, because being strong has nothing to do with being sharp.

Rocks can also teach you about strong foundations. You wouldn’t build a house upon a curved rock. Instead you’d find a flat one. Likewise, your intentions form the foundation of all your ideas, so it is important to give them attention. Rocks are physically and figuratively the poster child for solid ground.

To honor these humble rocks, I wanted to keep it simple. No etchings, no sculptures – just rocks.

These pendants are handmade from polymer clay and – wait for it – dryer lint, so they are very eco-friendly. Wear one to remind you to roll easily through life and enjoy the simplicity found among the rocks.

Ice Water Ring

Jade (my version)

Stuck in the River With You

Feelin’ Blue

Up close detailing – I love the flecks and facets!

Four Directions Ring

Mellowed Amber

Quirky

Amber & Jade

7 Sacred Teachings

(This rock has 7 holes, symbolizing the seven sacred teachings: love, respect, courage, honesty, wisdom, humility and truth)

If you would like your own river rock pendant, feel free to contact me at wildearthintegration (at) gmail (dot) com — various stringing options are available!

Keep it wild!

Feathers are underrated.

Not only do they allow birds to fly whenever they please, they also provide warmth, strength and a means of communication to others.

Feathers are also a world themselves. Birds use feathers to build their nests, keeping their young ones warm. Creatures live within their barbs, building cities that are invisible to us.

To some, feathers symbolize communication with higher realms and spiritual wisdom. Across cultures, the feather has become known as a symbol of the sky. Freedom.

“Look at the feather. In it is all that is – the ability to soar, to float, to reconnect, to come and go.”

With winter gearing up, I thought you might enjoy a splash of colour.

Monarchs are delicate and beautiful, but they’re also symbols of strength and perseverance. Using those paper-thin wings, they travel over 8,000 km a year – the longest insect migration in North America.

They also serve as a good reminder about growth and change – spending just over a week as a caterpillar and another two weeks inside a chrysalis, before emerging with as butterflies ready to fly away.

Cocktail party tidbit — you can tell a male from a female by the black spots on their hind wings. Males have them, females don’t.

It’s easy to ignore the birds around you.

But to Aboriginal people (living centuries ago as well as today), birds were important animal totems that often acted as messengers.

I like the sounds of that.

Although humans still look to nature as a ‘how-to’ manual for many problems of design and industry (biomimicry is all the rage, you know), I think looking to animals in a more personal sense would greatly benefit each of us.

To celebrate birds as animal totems, I created a line called Earthwings. People identify with different animals, so if any of the birds here strikes your fancy you may want to pay attention and see if any make an appearance in your life.

Check out the descriptions to learn about each bird and its messages to you.

Blue Jay

For those of you who have met this guy, you know he is the rock star of the bird world. Very chatty, very brave and endlessly curious. Many believed that his azure feathers mirrored the sky, helping one to see their life with clarity and truth. Blue Jay reminds you to communicate well and be assertive with your needs.

Eagle (1/wrapped around shell, 2/with medicine wheel 3/free-standing with beading)

If you ever get a chance to travel to eagle country, do it. The sheer size and power of these birds will stop you in your tracks. Traditionally, eagle represents skill, leadership and protection. Observe the way they find the thermals in the air to soar and they’re also a lesson in ‘work smart, not hard’.

Raven

Ravens, like wolves, have a bad reputation. But that’s the beauty of raven. He could care less what people think of him. The latest experiments show ravens executing incredible feats with tools, but their intelligence is nothing new to us. Cunning and skill are traits of the raven, along with an ability to keep and pass on information. If you connect with raven, you are most likely a smart cookie who knows all your neighbours’ secrets.

Parrot

Parrots might seem an odd bird for this mix, but who am I to exclude the colourful? Australian aboriginals know more about parrot, believing he is a sign to keep material things in their place. Loving the sound of their own voice, parrot also teaches humility.

Blue Feathers

This is my own addition to this mix, because I think there is a very important message to be found in blue feathers. Why? Because there is no such thing as blue feathers! There are no blue birds on the planet.

Really!

The blue feathers we see on jays, herons and other blue birds is actually the product of two optical illusions. One occurs because of how we see light and the other is due to the physics of the feather itself. So the feathers aren’t blue, but they look blue.

The message that I’m choosing to take from this (and thus endeth the long winded explanation) is that the world is more mysterious than we know and if you want to see blue feathers, you will. Knowing how something works doesn’t change the magic of it occurring in the first place.

I’m planning on doing more Earthwings and animal totem pieces, so if you’d like to send in a suggestion for a creature that you relate with, email me at wildearthintegration (at) gmail (dot) com.

(comments are off due to spammy problems for the moment).

Keep it wild!

As I’ve been begrudgingly preparing for the Canadian freeze ahead, I’ve noticed a lot of these cheeky monkeys outside my window. If nature gave out an award for sheer spunk, I would vote for the chickadee.

They weigh less than half an ounce, but chickadees are powerhouses when it comes to surviving winter weather.

Their feathers are covered with tiny barbs, which makes them act like Velcro – sticking together with each other to preserve heat.

Their teeny legs – no wider than a matchstick – are bare to the cold and wind. If you tried that, you’d freeze your toes off. But chickadees are well designed – they cut off the blood supply in their legs to keep from freezing!

You also have something in common with the humble chickadee. Although it’s hard to notice, they routinely shiver and flex their chest muscles to stay warm. Only when they do it, it’s more adorable.

Don’t forget to feed the birds this week!

I have always had what people call an ‘overactive imagination’. I see figures and faces in the shadows of dark laundry hampers and every noise in my house is caused – I’m convinced – by a beast or critter just waiting to pop out from the wall.

I think we all start out that way. As I got older and continued through high school, university and finally grad school, I learned that most people slowly lock away that part of themselves. They trade stories for “serious work” and frivolity with fact. Apart from a select few, most believe that imaginary things are not real - and therefore, not important.

Inklings, silliness and daydreams have no place in adult life. They don’t really matter.

I have a bone to pick with this idea. Imagination, in my opinion, is the biggest world-shaping quality we possess. Some might argue that our use of technology holds that honor, but where do you think *that* came from, hmm? Imagination. A-thankyou.

When we were closer to nature and to the patterns of life and other animals, we were much more open to stories.

Many of our first stories and ideas came from nature. We saw birds flying and wondered ‘could we do that?’. Years later, we developed planes. We told stories about animals and how they came to possess their qualities. We watched the sun rise and told a story about our place in the cosmos and wondered about the forces that caused the ocean tide.

What matters about these stories is not whether or not they are real. What matters is their effect on us. This effect is very real.

These fictions or stories we tell ourselves about the world matter because they change who we are. By entertaining the impossible, we change what is possible.

You don’t have to believe in wizards to believe that J.K Rowling has created a character who speaks in the heads of millions worldwide. I mean that literally – he exists in our minds just as surely as the color blue. This effect changed not only what it meant to be a writer, but also a reader. Harry turned non-readers into bookworms.

Imaginary things don’t matter, indeed.

I want to tell you that imaginary things exist in ways that are just as important as facts.

Where I’m going with this…

One of my favorite books as a child was The NeverEnding Story. (It was also a movie, filmed a few years after the book). If you haven’t read it or seen the film, I highly recommend it. I loved it for its wildness, its message and of course, the luck dragon.

In the story, a magical world called Fantasia is being destroyed by an evil force called The Nothing. The Nothing, we learn, represents people’s lack of imagination in the real world. The two worlds are connected through our minds. What we imagine in reality is built in Fantasia.

As humans grow in the real world and dream less and less, the world of Fantasia is slowly devoured by The Nothing. The rich world of Fantasia, once built by childhood fantasies, doodles and stories becomes desolate and nearly empty.

Enter my point:

The brave protagonist is given a talisman, called Auryn. This talisman protects him as he fights The Nothing. Two snakes, intertwined and biting each others tails represent the two worlds – imaginary and real – are wrapped in an infinity knot. On the back, the phrase ‘do what you wish‘ was engraved.

I decided to make one.

Auryn reminds us to protect our imaginations from the ‘real world’. Most importantly, it’s a reminder that imaginary people, places and ideas do matter.

Just because something is imaginary doesn’t mean it isn’t real.

You don’t know how your imaginary ideas are going to affect the world. They could lead to a great invention, inspire people in crisis or pain or change the way we see each other.

So, the next time you hear a child get reminded to ‘get their head out of the clouds’ – look him in the eye and tell him to keep his head firmly in the clouds, where it belongs.

As for you, do what you wish.

New Scatterbox for the holiday season!

Somewhere in here there is a ‘black forest ham-black forest cake’ joke…

Don’t forget to check out more in the galleries or join up with fellow animal/clay lovers at our Facebook page!

Keep it wild!

It’s high time I introduced you to someone. Or rather, many someones.

Water bears, aka ‘Tardigrades’ or moss piglets, look like unfortunate gummi bears that have sprouted another two sets of legs. Before you worry about encountering one in the wild, fear not – they’re tiny.

Very tiny.

They are also adorable as hell.

Don’t let their cuteness trick you though. Water bears are built to last. When they were first discovered in 1773, I’m pretty sure scientists thought they were a microscopic practical joke. Think you can take the heat? Water bears can withstand 151 degrees celsius. That’s hotter than boiling water. They just sit there and lounge in it, practically egging you on in their little Speedos.*

They also put Superman to shame, with an ability to take 1000 times the lethal dose of radiation for a human. Oh, and did I mention they can handle 6000 atmospheres of pressure?

They’ve even been to space, joyriding outside of space station windows. Might as well have sent them to Aruba for all they cared.

As if this wasn’t enough to make you feel like a total un-invincible failure – they can even go ten years without a drink.

How, you ask, can these little goobers no bigger than 0.5mm survive such incredibly daring feats?

They can resurrect themselves.

Yes, you read that right. Sure, things get rough for them. But when they do, instead of whining about it, they shut down their bodies and hunker down. By ‘shut down’ I mean they stop every single process that their body normally does – including reproduction, growth and metabolism. During this period, which can last for years, the moss piggies are essentially dead.

Then, when things start looking up, they wake up, dust themselves off and carry on their merry way. Not bad for nearly invisible.

Because they can withstand such incredible (often sadistic!) scientific torture with a grin on their little faces, they have earned the classification ‘polyextremophiles’.

Something to think about the next time you’re having a rough day.

*Tardigrades don’t wear Speedos.

Happy weekending!

I came across a talented artist ages ago, who carved 12 crayons into signs of the zodiac. Being a sculpture fiend, (and a sucker for a challenge?) I couldn’t help but try one out.

I can see how these could become addictive, and seeing how I have 63 crayons left in the pack, I have a feeling you might be seeing more of these in the future!

Next up, I’ve got the low down on an immortal animal. See you soon!

Happy Sugar High everybody!

In a time when Americans eat roughly 20 million pounds of candy corn a year, Halloween is become something of a phenomenon. As a kid, I remember Halloween being an amazing time. My brother and I would dress up in our costumes, my mother would make us wear turtle-necks underneath because it was always cold (I. Am. Canadian.) and we would hit the streets with our giant-sized pillowcases to collect the goods.

My brother had a great system worked out, figuring out the perfect route that allowed us the maximum amount of candy with the least amount of walking time. Of course, this plan was subject to change by the number of pop cans that people gave out. My poor young arms could only hold so much, after all.

But I’m digressing.

At the end of the night, we would empty out our loot on the kitchen table. After a scrutiny from mom inevitably checking for razor blades and any other questionable material (thanks mom!), we were each given a “Halloween Drawer” in the kitchen. That’s right. A whole drawer devoted to candy. My poor teeth.

These days, judging by the number of goodies we give out at our house to the neighbourhood kids, things haven’t changed too much.

But, thankfully there is now something we can do with the wrappers.

The Candy Wrapper Brigade offered by Terracycle has a solution to those little bits of garbage that will be littering your house for the next month. They’re offering to turn your Halloween candy wrappers a second life.

Here’s how it works:

1. Sign up online here. It’s fast, free and easy peasy. They’ll send you prepaid postage and all the materials you need to send in your used wrappers.

2. Collect wrappers. Which means you have to eat the candy… I know, I’m sorry, you’ll just have to power through.

3. Send off the wrappers to Terracycle with their prepaid postage labels.

The wrappers will be used to make backpacks, coolers, purses and other goodies you can find on Terracycle.

The BONUS is, for every usable wrapper they receive, they’ll donate $.02 to a charity of your choice. So far, they’ve raised over $11,000 for charities across America.

Happy Halloween everybody!

Thanks to www.care2.com for the heads-up about this great idea!

Hello my cheeky monkeys and Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers!

To celebrate fall, I wanted to start a line of products that will give you a place to keep the treasures you’ve accumulated over the year.

So I introduce to you *drumroll please* — Scatterboxes!

These are unique and hand-crafted boxes that come in all shapes and sizes which are adorned with polymer clay accents. These can be made to your specifications, based on whatever theme you would like. To start, I decided to make some using previous clay suggestions from you, the cheeky monkeys.

Below you will find: (click through twice to see larger image)

-Koi Box: This baby has an iridescent shimmer and a starfish buddy on the side. Perfect for the smallest of treasures, at 3.5 x 3 x 2 (18.99)

-Poison Arrow Scatterbox: This frog is 100% polymer, along with his rainforest accents. So no need to worry about touching him. But intruders will know to stay away from your treasures, lest they get burned! He’s perched on the smaller triangular box, roughly 3.5 x 3.5 x 2. (24.99)

-Here Be Dragons: Before you say dragons aren’t real, let me just say: “If you don’t believe in dragons, it is curiously true, that the dragons you disparage choose to not believe in you”. This baby dragon is resting quietly on top, guarding his shell and 4 amethyst stones surrounding him. He doesn’t breathe fire yet, but will probably dissuade thieves with his cuteness. (28.99)

-Octopus’ Garden: This scatterbox is the largest of the triangular boxes, measuring roughly 6 x 6 x 3. Eight swarming tentacles are sure to give you the heeby-jeebies. (38.99)

To order a Scatterbox for yourself or a friend (Christmas is coming!), you can email me at: wildearthintegration (at) gmail (dot) com. Please include the general size  and shape (rectangular, triangular, circle) of the box you would like as well as any theme in the world. Seriously, I’m amazed at how many great ideas people are having for these – I’ve even had an order to replicate a police badge!

Need some inspiration? Here are some themes to get you going…

• On the Farm (good for animal lovers)
• Pets, Dogs & Cats (ditto)
• Rock Climbing (for the adrenaline junkies)
• Adventure Travel
• Lizards
• Autumn Leaves
• Flowers/Garden
• Mythology (unicorns, dragons, griffins)
• School
• Music/Bands/Dance
• Steampunk (very cool, good for teens)
• Painting/Art (I will replicate a favorite painting)
• Creepy Crawlies (scorpions, spiders, snakes, oh my)
• Bookworms & Literature (favorite book passages)
• Under the Sea (fish, whales, sea turtles, etc)
• Astronomy (sun, stars, celestial goodies)
• Planes, Trains & Automobiles
• Faeries, Angels & Woodland Sprites
• Occupations (doctor, fireman, teacher)
• Hobbies (fishing, knitting, tap dancing)
• Foodies (for gourmets and gourmands)
• Places (commemorate a trip with landmarks, etc)
• Animals! (too many to list, you know your favorites!)

Because all scatterboxes are hand sculpted, please leave plenty of time if you’re ordering for the holidays!

Got clay? You can also find the Artifacts crew on Facebook here.

Felt like a great day for some Whitman. Or, Whitman Wednesday, if you will. I read this last night, and was inspired. I think you will be too.

“I believe that a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,

And the ant is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of a wren,

And the tree-toad of a chef-d’oeuvre for the highest,

And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven…

And the cow crunching with depress’d head surpasses any statue,

And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.

Do you think a mouse is miracle enough? I sure do.

Keep it wild!

Happy Friday!

I’ve had a few people ask me if I’m planning on doing some hanging sculptures. I’m really excited to do more of these – I love taking pieces from nature (in this case, dried bark) and adding polymer details. This iridescent Blue Morpho piece is roughly 7 inches long and hangs flush from the wall. A flower made of amethyst sits below, along with some ‘viney’ detailing. For up close shots, feel free to click the pics!

Feel free to contact me if you’d like a personalized piece – I’m working on a few more in the next week or so, so stay tuned! Next up — lizards! To purchase this one, you can catch me at wildearthintegration (at) gmail (dot) com.

Have a great weekend!

PS – If Facebook is your thing, why not join up with Wild Earth Artifacts here – for the latest news and updates!

Just a quickie post to let you know that the WWF Holiday Gift Catalog is now available, but to get one you need to request it!

WWF gifts are one of my holiday favorites to give – you can choose from symbolic adoptions (where your purchase helps with the conservation of a species), or many other goodies for the Earth lovers in your life. The catalog also outlines their latest conservation efforts and provides ideas for the rest of the year.

Plus, kids seem to love the idea that they, in fact, own a tiger and get a stuffed animal to fawn upon!

If this is your thing, you can drop by here to request your catalog!

Today I have two pieces for you, based on the good ‘ol Giant Panda. The first is a pendant, suitable for any bear lover. The second is a ‘bamboo’ bangle, which I have named a bambangle. (Because I *can*). For more info and prices, click on the pics!

Bambamgles are available in child and adult sizes, based on your preference. Email me with your specifications, as well as your choice in darker or lighter ‘bamboo’!

Of course, no post about pandas is complete with some facts. Here’s your Wild 5: Panda Edition!

• Despite being one of the most recognizable bears (except perhaps Winnie?), pandas are the world’s rarest bear. There are only about 1000 wild pandas left and they are listed as endangered.

• Pandas have a ‘pseudo-thumb’, which is an elongated wrist bone. This helps them grip onto bamboo like nobody’s business. It also helps them give a thumbs up to panda conservation… HEY-O!

• Instead of noshing on meat, fish and berries like their cousins, pandas eat 99% bamboo. That is, except the ones that are on Atkins. But, a panda’s stomach is still built like a carnivore, so they have to eat 20-40 pounds of bamboo a day to get all the nutrients they need.

• Pandas don’t hibernate. Which gives them much more time to be adorable.

• Pandas are vocal, but sound nothing like their bear cousins. Instead of grunting and roaring, pandas are more apt to chirp, bleat and squeal. Here, have a listen.

Keep it wild!

Note: A portion of proceeds from this post will go towards Giant Panda conservation.

Welcome to the first line of products from Wild Earth Artifacts!

Each of these pieces are hand crafted, roughly 3/4” – 1” in length. Perfect for stringing onto a necklace as a focal bead, using along with ribbon as a gift tag, or hanging as an ornament.

For a closer look at each piece and more information – just click the image you like! There you will find details about the piece, along with price. (Each is between $8-$13)

To order, just contact me at wildearthintegration (at) gmail (dot) com! I will be happy to personalize for you – so let me know if you’d like ribbon or an Artifact gift tag along with your order!

There will be many other pieces in the ‘Love the Earth’ theme, so to see your favorites added, feel free to leave suggestions in the comments! What would *you* like to see?

Some of you might remember my last post, wherein I teased you about something big and bad coming to this site. I know, shame on me for being a tease.

BUT, the day is finally here and I’m so excited to finally get the news to you!

Not only have I given the place a bit of a face lift (you like?), I’ve decided to branch out. Branch out big time.

Those of you who follow my ramblings here know I’m a bit of a clay fiend. I’ve sculpted for years, but stuck mainly with plasticine because it was what I started with. But, after a lot of soul searching (which mainly involved mucking about with tools and getting clay under my fingernails), I’ve made the leap to polymer clay.

Which, dear friends, means I can now offer some clay goodies out to the world.

The beauty of this sort of clay (unlike plasticine), is that once it is baked, it’s strong and flexible. It can be made into anything your heart desires, including jewelery, wall sculptures, clocks, napkin rings, lamps, vases – the list is endless!

I’m really excited to offer some of these pieces to you – I’m already amazed at the eager response I’ve had, and can’t wait to bring this whole new avenue to the table here at Wild Earth.

So, what can you expect with this new change?

• My main goal on Wild Earth has always been to bring people closer to nature. For that reason, all of my Artifacts will relate to nature, science & animals – just like always. As often as I can, I’ll be integrating clay with natural pieces, including rocks, bark, feathers, etc.

• I’ll be posting a bit more frequently, but it will be similar material. I’ll still be telling you all about the Earth and how awesome it is, only now there will be art associated with it as well. It’s a two-fer! For instance, as I tell you about sharks, you’ll be able to check out any shark-related goodies I’m working on. (Stay tuned for that!)

• Each piece will be handcrafted, unique and available to my readers. I have many ideas sketched out for upcoming themes – but am always open to your suggestions about what you would like to see. If you would like to see your favorite part of nature immortalized for you, shoot me an email or find me on Twitter and I’ll make it happen. This will get easier as we go and you can see just what is possible!

• A portion of sales will always go to a worthy cause. And typically, it will be a cause related to the item purchased. Because that’s only right.

• I want to keep it personal. For now as we get rolling, anybody interested in anything on the site need only email me with their favorites and I’ll get back to them immediately. This will help me tailor shipping costs for each item (which will vary immensely based on the size of the piece obviously) and also give you the opportunity to personalize it for a gift. Payment can be made through Paypal, which is nice and simple these days.

• Last but not least, I wanted you to know that despite the leap towards handcrafted sales, you will not see this place turn into an ad-infested, money-hungry site. It’s still me – there will never be any ads on here, and I want any business I do with my readers to have integrity. If I don’t feel my piece offers value to the world, it won’t be up here!

As I said, I can’t wait to show you more, so stay tuned in the upcoming days for some Wild Earth Artifacts!

Want a(nother) teaser? Here’s a piece from the upcoming ‘Love the Earth’ theme!

Keep it wild!

Have you ever had a big secret that you’re just dying to share with everybody?

Something exciting and scary and enticing – just waiting for the right time to find its way into the world?

You know I’ll jump at every opportunity to post a showtune, so enjoy the song and stay tuned because…

Something’s coming! Something good!

It’s Friday the 13th!

There are a lot of superstitious people out there. Although I do prescribe to the ‘don’t walk under ladders’ and smash mirrors rule (because that’s just a bad idea on a good day), that’s more out of self preservation than a sense of dreaded superstition.

Most superstitions arose centuries ago, when people lived closer to the land and observed nature’s cycles a little more carefully. Because of this, a lot of them revolve around nature and animals. (Giving some unwilling participants a bad reputation to boot!)

So, in honor of Friday the 13th, I give you the  top 5 nature superstitions:

5 – Knock on wood. Even I do this without thinking of it. If you’re worried about something awful happening, you can ‘touch wood’ to ward off bad luck or evil consequences. Although this one’s debated, most scholars belief that ‘touch wood’ arose back when people believed trees contained spirits and magical powers which could help you if asked. For the record, I definitely think trees have magical powers.

4 – Avoid peacock feathers. I hadn’t heard of this one until recently. The legend says that the eye of the feather was seen as ‘the evil eye’. The evil eye is capable of making people sick and many went to great lengths to avoid it. Some talismans still exist to ward it off, but let’s just say if you go chasing a peacock for its tail feather you just might get more than you bargain for.

3 – Rabbit’s feet. When I was younger, I remember rabbit’s feet being a really big thing. People had them on key chains, dyed in tacky colors. These are said to bring good luck, as long as they came from the left hind foot. Because some cultures believed witches were able to shapeshift into rabbits, the rabbit’s foot idea might have originated as ‘cut from a shapeshifted witch’. Lovely…

2 – Black cats. This one’s a toss up. Some cultures believe if you see a black cat crossing your path, you might as well call it a day, because it’s bound to get a lot worse. Other cultures see black cats as good omens or signs of great things to come. In some areas, we can look again to witches for giving the black cat a bad rap. But in Egypt, these guys were seen as ‘kingly creatures’, who were given their own burial and coffin after they died. I personally think all cats are bad luck, but only for my sinuses.

1 – Eclipses. No, I’m not talking about the latest vamp movie. Eclipses have been known as terrible omens for centuries, associated with the death of kings or problems for the commoners. It’s easy to understand why it was terrifying – watching the sun or moon get engulfed in darkness in a time when we didn’t have the benefit of NASA would be quite an experience Today, with eclipses known ahead of time, we’ve grown a lot less fearful of bad luck. Not that I want to go messing with the Sun Gods or anything…

So, are you superstitious?

Or maybe just, a little stitious?

Here’s a song that’s guaranteed to give you good luck all day! Keep it wild!

Nobody does epic like Al Pacino.

I came across this video during my ‘net travels, but after watching it, something about the message stuck with me.

Maybe it will stick with you too.

The following  is a speech by Pacino, from the movie Any Given Sunday. (Perhaps my sports fan readers will perk up at that title?)

It’s a movie about football, but bear with me. He’s motivating his team for their last game, but when I first heard it, I couldn’t help but notice something. I was struck by how powerful the words were when not related to football.

Put your feet up, grab a drink and check out the video first – I’ll see you below. (Note for parents with kiddos nearby: he drops the f-bomb, once.) I’ve copied the transcript below for those without a steady connection.

“I don’t know what to say really. Three minutes till the biggest battle of our professional lives. It all comes down to today. Now either we heal as a team, or we’re gonna crumble. Inch by inch, play by play, till we’re finished. We’re in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell. One inch at a time.

Now I can’t do it for you. I’m too old. I look around, I see these young faces, and I think… I mean I’ve made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make. I pissed away all my money, believe it or not. I chased off anyone who’s ever loved me, and lately, I can’t even stand the face I see in the mirror. You know when you get old in life, things get taken from you. That’s part of life. But you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out life’s this game of inches. And so is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small. I mean… one half a step too late or too early and you don’t quite make it. One half second too slow too fast, you don’t quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when we add up all those inches, that’s gonna make the f***ing difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying! I’ll tell you this — in any fight, its the guy whose willing to die who’s gonna win that inch. And I know if I’m going to have any life anymore, it’s because I’m still willing to fight and die for that inch. Because that’s what living is! The 6 inches in front of your face…

Now I can’t make you do it. You’ve got to look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes. Now I think you’re gonna see a guy who will go that inch with you. You’re gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team, because he knows when it comes down to it, you’re gonna do the same for him.

That’s a team, gentlemen. And either we heal, now, as a team, or we will die, as individuals. That’s football, guys. That’s all it is. Now, what are you going to do?”

——

Pretty good, eh? Think about it.

Of course, this post isn’t about football. It’s about doing something right, doing something together to change the course our planet is on. There are a lot of causes out there. People, places and animals that need some help. We’re losing things that matter to our health and to our spirit. It’s not all bad – but the fact remains that without a lot of positive changes, we’re going to lose out.

Al’s message is about picking one thing – or one hundred things – one inch or one hundred – that you will do to add your part for the team.

Then it’s about acting on it.

Some people take their inch by bringing kids closer to nature. Some write books, create art or even commandeer a bus to deliver local, healthy food to people who can’t get it. Sometimes they become famous for it, but normally it’s an unglamorous yet steady, consistent effort to do their part.

So say it again: Either we heal as a team, or we die as individuals.

We are all surrounded by other people – willing to go the extra mile, right along with you. We have the tools in front of us to make real things happen for the earth.

We can do this thing, inch by inch.

So to quote my man Al, “Now, what are you going to do?“

(Courtesy: Bill Watterson. Who is The Man.)

This is a video that everyone should see.

Eye-opening, incredible, provoking  – guaranteed to empower you and make you think about what’s truly important.

You know how we roll here.

Keep it wild!

So unless you’ve been living under a rock these days, you know about global warming.

The big culprits in global warming are greenhouses gases – stuff like carbon dioxide, methane, ozone and water vapor. These gases bog up in the atmosphere, essentially making a shell around the world that re-reflects light back onto us. You know, sort of like a greenhouse.

As you also know, a big part of fixing the planet up revolves around dealing with all these greenhouses gases. Little did we know that other critters are playing their part too. Some are even pooping their help.

Check this out – a group of scientists have been studying sperm whale poo. Don’t blame them, we all have our vices.

Sperm whales eat deep in the ocean, but return to the surface to … do their business. When they poop, they shower their diarrhea-like poo all over the floating phytoplankton. These are aquatic plants that take up carbon as they grow. The good guys.

Because the whale poo is so nutrient and iron-rich, the phytoplankton get a natural fertilizer. They flourish and grow, reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. By a lot.

It’s been estimated that sperm whales contribute 40 tons of iron to the light receiving zone of the ocean. Because this is where the plants are, they help draw down nearly half a million tons of carbon. This means that whales and other large marine animals are some of the most environmentally beneficial creatures on the planet.

Now the bad news. Whale populations are down – way down – from their historical numbers, somewhere between 1-10 percent of their original population. The fewer whales we have, the more global warming is going to be a problem.

Just another shining reminder that the Earth has mechanisms we’re only beginning to understand. If we thought less about our sushi plates and more about the big picture, maybe we’d start getting the hint?

Also, this makes me wonder — if poo is useful, can we really call it waste?

I’m not prone to posting cutesy videos for the sake of cutesy videos, but today I’m making an exception.

Why? Because I can.

Sloths are a fantastic reminder of just how cool and varied life on this planet can get. But apart from being absolutely adorable, there’s something else you should know about sloths.

They’re a whole ecosystem unto themselves.

See, sloths hang around in trees and move at a snail’s pace. Well, a sloth’s pace. You get it. They leave their tree only to go to the bathroom, which they do only about once a week. Inside a sloth’s fur are sloth moths. There are only 3 species of sloth moths and they only live on sloths.

So, when a sloth makes its weekly trip down the tree to the loo, the sloth moth flies out of the sloth’s fur and hops onto the fresh dung. It lays its eggs onto the new food source (mmm?) and eventually the sloth returns back up the tree.

When the eggs hatch, the sloth moth larvae eat the sloth pellets. When they’re fully grown, they fly up to the same sloth and start living in its fur, just like it’s mom.

Sloth moths aren’t the only thing living on sloths either. Because they move so slowly and don’t really go for personal hygiene, algae is able to grow on their backs. Sloths are literally living gardens. This algae is food to none other than, you guessed it – the sloth moths.

Ok, bring on the cute! Have a wild Friday!

[aniboom

Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

]

Hey all!

I’ve got some good news and some great news today, annnnd it just might happen to involve some free stuff for you, too!

Some of you might recall my post about New Zealand travel secrets. (If not, that’s okay I won’t track you down or anything). Well, the nice folks at Tripbase have recruited me, and along with a group of other authors and bloggers they’ve put together a series of travel ebooks. Hurrah ebooks!

That’s the good news. The great news #1 is that these books are available free to you. Great news #2 is that for every person that nabs one, they’re going to donate $1 to Charity:Water. That’s something worth celebrating.

I know my readers are a well informed crew, so I don’t have to tell you that fresh water is a privilege that many people on this planet don’t have.

In fact, almost one billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water.

One billion.

To top if off, this lack of clean water kills more people than all forms of violence, including war, and causes 80% of all disease.

But you can help.

What you need to know:

• For every downloaded ebook, a $1 donation is made to Charity:Water – these fine people work to build freshwater wells and provide clean drinking water to those in developing nations
• Charity:Water ensures that 100% of donations directly fund water projects.
• Our target is to build 4 freshwater wells, to provide clean water for an entire school for the next 20 years.

All aboard?

Click here to grab your free ebooks (there are 7 for you!) and join the growing group of people helping provide life saving fresh water to those who need it.

Oh, and feel free to pass this page along to friends to get the ball rolling, hmm? Let’s get this party started!

When I say the words “industrious real estate tycoon”, you’ll probably conjure up images of that oddly haired fellow who’s always saying “You’re fired” on national television.

Yes, Donald Trump might be awesome, but is he awesome as seen from space?

I didn’t think so.

Check this out. Scientists have discovered the world’s largest beaver dam – which sounds relatively unimpressive, until you realize the dam thing (har har) can be seen from space.

You already why beavers rock, but this dam takes architecture to the extreme. Located in Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta, it measures 2,800 feet. To put that in perspective, that’s 8 football fields. Or, 2,800 rulers.

This slams the previous world record holder by close to 200 metres!

So, the next time you’re poring over NASA images, you can show off and pinpoint one of nature’s great marvels.

No word yet on whether the beavers are looking to expand on their franchise, but I hear Trump is in talks with them to head up his Alberta division.

Keep it wild!

Roz Savage rocks.

If you haven’t been following Ted talks (what’s wrong with you?!), you should definitely check out this little gem. Roz is a British lady, who woke up one morning and felt like her life wasn’t quite right.

To figure out what to do about it, she decided to write two versions of her obituary.

The first obituary was for the life path she was currently on, a good life, but not quite the life she had envisioned for herself.

The second obituary told another story – of a her life full of adventure, excitement and most importantly, meaning.

Looking at the two versions, she realized that was a large discrepancy between them: if she wanted the life she really wanted, she would have to make some changes.

In true hero form, she quit her job (I love it when people do that) and decided to row across the oceans. Alone.

I hate to be a Stevie Spoiler here, so I won’t go into the details of the rest of her story. But I will draw your attention to one part: before going on her adventure, Roz had a very specific idea about what ‘adventurers’ were supposed to look like.

Might be worth thinking about whether you see yourself as an adventurer too?

Of course, we’re all about saving the planet here. Yes, she talks about that too.

Click here to see this awesome video.

You don’t need a blog post to tell you that the Earth could use our help right now.

So instead, this Earth Day, I challenge you to do something.

People protect what they love – so take a moment and think about what you love.

Now the important part:

How you feel only matters to you. What you do and how you act are the real game changers.

If you love dolphins, take a stand and head on over here to visit the website from the video. If you love your pet, support your local SPCA. If having wild spaces on the planet is important to you, check out WWF. If your heart is tugged by the plight of animal cruelty, WSPA might be more for you.

Of course, supporting organizations such as these isn’t the only way to protect the Earth. You could also:

Plant a tree, pick up litter, participate in a shoreline cleanup, educate children, educate seniors, walk not drive, turn the lights out, recycle, unplug everything, reverse your fans, create a wildlife habitat, compost, use both sides of the paper, buy less, hike more, turn the water off, ban disposable cups, check your car for leaks, read earth saving books, buy used, clean with vinegar, switch to energy efficient bulbs, make sure your fridge is at 40 degrees, use cloth bags, respect what you eat, support local farmers, stop junk mail, snip 6-pack rings, buy dolphin safe tuna, avoid tropical hardwoods, carpool, aerate your faucet, take a little less, give a little more…

and last but not least: spread the word.

This world has been mighty good to us, so this Earth Day, I challenge you!

Keep it wild!

I love it when humans are confronted with something that forces us to step back and evaluate just what we think we know.

I particularly love it when we realize “Oh…… how about that?” and marvel at how we missed something.

Allow me to explain.

About a week ago, an article was published in Biology Letters, outlining a new species of monitor lizard living in the forests of the northern Philippines. Well, it’s new to us at least.

Now get this – we’re not talking about a tree frog the size of your thumbnail, or a deep sea fish that can make himself invisible – this lizard is two metres long and is a relative of the infamous Komodo dragon. In other words, it’s a big oops and scientists are kind of scratching their heads wondering “This is insane – how did we miss this?”

To top it off, instead of eating meat like we would expect this komodo-esque beast to do, it turns out that he much prefers a nice fruit salad. This monitor lizard is a frugivore.

A third point is also worth mentioning. Although biologists haven’t encountered this species before, it’s well known to the indigenous Agta and Ilongot people of the region.

I can’t help but enjoy watching this unfold, because like I mentioned above, it forces us to realize we don’t have it all figured out. This lizard throws a bit of a curve ball at us, and I think it’s good for us to be thrown curve balls. It teaches humility, no?

So, what can we learn from this lizard? Apart from its eating habits and genetic composition, this lizard serves as a nice reminder of a few things:

1/ Maybe this planet has secrets (biological or otherwise) that we aren’t aware of yet. Admitting that we don’t know what we don’t know will open us to those possibilities faster than assuming we do.

2/Even big things (animals, effects, concepts) can go unseen if we’re not really opening our eyes.

3/ When in doubt, ask the locals. They probably know a lot more than you think.

Keep it wild!

When it’s all said and done, water has been quite good to us.

Download ‘In Praise of Water’ at the link below:

In Praise of Water - Classroom Poster (134)

It’s that time of year! Spring is coming, cartoon lambs are showing up everywhere and chocolate is taking over the stores. Must be Easter!

To celebrate this year, I thought I’d take a look at the big man himself. What exactly do we know about the Easter Bunny? Or, as I like to call him, Commander BunBun.

Here’s your Wild 5: Easter Bunny Edition!

1 – The Easter Bunny wasn’t a rabbit at all. What?! I hear you saying? We’ve been bamboozled! Nope, the Easter Bunny was originally a European hare. His legend dates back to the early 1500s too, so this hare is probably getting up in his years. Nowadays, we have the newfangled Easter Bunny who is all white with big, doting eyes. The original BunBun was probably something of a badass.

2- Although his legend started in Germany, in the US and Canada, we’ve come to know the Easter Bunny as a cottontail rabbit. He has his own song “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” (you know the one). Whether he is related to the Beatrix Potter ‘Peter’, I have no clue!

3- The Easter Bunny is nocturnal, just like other European hares and cottontail rabbits. Of course, this is what allows him to get the job done and deliver millions of chocolates and colored eggs to kids all over the place. He’d be rather conspicuous hopping around in the middle of the day, no? To help him get around at night, hares and rabbits both have large eyes. All the better to see you with, my dear…

4- The Easter Bunny and his cousins of the family Leporidae are all prolific breeders. But despite what all those commercials tell you, they don’t lay eggs. But they do reproduce at an alarming rate, with bunny moms able to get pregnant again before giving birth to the first litter. I know, wrap your head around that one.

5- The European hare Easter Bunny would probably win in a competition against the Cottontail Rabbit Easter Bunny. Despite being extraordinarily cute, the hare has two advantages. Firstly, hares can run around and take care of themselves within minutes of being born. Rabbits on the other hand are defenseless, hairless and blind. The hare also has a longer set of hind legs, that are capable of taking him 50 miles/hr. So, the cottontail might be cuter, but when it comes to maneuvering around with thousands of eggs, I’d give the hare an edge on the competition.

Have a wild Easter!

It’s official, mother nature has kicked winter’s arse and spring is in full swing. And I’m loving every minute of it.

Open windows, jackets that don’t weigh 40 pounds, things that are green – everything ‘spring’ pretty much rocks socks.

To celebrate, I’ve compiled my five favorite spring activities. (I’ll take any reason to celebrate, really).

The weather’s nice, so let’s get crackin’.

1. Two words: Rubber boots. For my friends in the UK, I believe you call these ‘wellies’. Learned this the hard way when asking a brit for ‘rubbers’. Rubbers to a brit are just not the same thing. But I digress – grab some foot wear and go splash in the inevitable puddles that are spring.

2. Bird. I mean both the noun and the verb on this one. Get your bird on and go birding. The problem with birds is they can fly and you can’t, so I suggest a good pair of binoculars, or in the very least one of those piratey-type telescopes. Arr…

3. Walkin’, yes indeed. Grab your dog and get your legs moving. Winter walking isn’t as fun (at least where I come from), because you’re too worried about frostbite and/or succumbing to to the evil elements. Spring is a whole other ballgame, so no more excuses. If you don’t have a dog, grab your friend/kid/significant other. Leash optional.

4. Sun. Wait for one of those eerily hot spring days (you know, the kind that make you think you’ve completely bypassed into summer?) and put on your shorts. I *know*, nobody wants to see those pasty winter legs – but that’s the point! Knowing the state of society right now, we could all probably use with a little extra Vitamin D. A great philosopher once said “bare your legs and you shall bare your soul.” Ok, that isn’t really true but it sounded good, didn’t it?

5. For the love of God, think of the children. I don’t just mean human kids – although they’re quite nice to think about too. Spring is the time when a lot of animals arrive into the world. In other words, there are a lot of orphan babies in about mid-April. Stop by an animal shelter or wildlife rehab centre in your area and see what they need. Places that care for spring wildlife/soaring pet populations can always use volunteers, newspaper, garbage bags, blankets and various animal food. Be kind this spring and you’ll probably find that summer treats you extra special.

There you go – plenty of spring things to keep you occupied.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find a pirate.

Keep it wild, world!

Sometimes, you can see patterns in nature when you look at the bigger picture. Stepping back, widening your view and taking stock from afar can elucidate a lot of nature’s secrets.

Then, there are times when looking very, very closely can help open your eyes.

This is one of those times.

I hope you enjoy this video, all about the nature, numbers and grace.

Keep it wild!

Have a wild St. Patrick’s Day everybody!

Where oh where have I been? Writing!

I’m currently working on two books right now and the whole literary gauntlet has gotten me thinking about the nature of writing.

While staring aimlessly out the window slaving away at the computer, I realized that nature has a lot of lessons to offer, even to the big, bad world of publishing. So for my fellow writers out there (or readers, we’re all friends here), here are a few thoughts on writing, and nature.

• Great things take time. Even the best books out there started with a first line. If you really want to see how important they are, grab some classics and read only the first sentence. Call me Ishmael, indeed. But the point here is that everything starts small. A great example of this is the butterfly. Everybody’s favorite flying tapestry started out first as a little grub, then a caterpillar, then a chrysalis and then and only then the beautiful butterfly we all recognize. Go easy on yourself during your grub stage.

• Go with it, but don’t go crazy. You wouldn’t expect a cheetah to run 70 clicks an hour without stopping. The writing process has its ups and downs – sometimes you’re off with a vengeance, clicking away on the keys like a hummingbird on speed. These moments normally arrive after percolating for minutes, hours or even days. But inevitably, they end and you’re left with either a piece worth keeping or a rant. The cheetah doesn’t know if it’s going to catch the gazelle, but it runs like mad when it can anyways. If it doesn’t, it saves its energy for the next run. It’s all about taking the chance when it’s there without overdoing it.

• Rest. This is one of the most important yet overlooked parts of the writing process. Everything needs time to recoup after working hard. What the hell do you think winter is? You may not realize it, but when you’re ‘resting’ you’re also taking in ideas, forming new ideas and practicing phrasings in your head. In the same way winter incubates new life for the spring, your mind incubates new ideas when you’re chilling!

I hope you’ve all been doing well out there – keep it wild!

It’s getting sunnier. And staying sunnier. Even as I write this, my normal winter backdrop of frosty dark morning is now replaced with a beam of sunlight in a bright blue sky.

Spring is sooo coming.

I’ve had a lot of people ask how Gerry, my resident squirrel neighbor, is doing. As you can see, Gerry has taken to napping on our back porch. This is, of course, after gorging himself on birdseed which he faithfully receives everyday.

What better way to enjoy the last of winter than with one last seasonal catnap? Sorry, squirrel nap.

I highly recommend them.

Keep it wild!

“Simplify, Simplify” – Henry David Thoreau

THEN: sandbox

NOW: sanitizers

—————————–

THEN: conversation

NOW: American Idol

————————-

THEN: Tag

NOW: Teletubbies

————————-

THEN: Sunshine

NOW: Vitamin D tablets

————————-

THEN: Homework

NOW: www.allfreeessays.com

————————-

THEN: reality

NOW: virtual reality

————————–

THEN: farms

NOW: factories

————————–

THEN: grass-fed

NOW: hormone-fed

————————-

THEN: Books

NOW: e-books

————————-

THEN: soil

NOW: landfill

————————

THEN: tree-climbing

NOW: corporate climbing

—————————

THEN: Salad

NOW: Snack Size Fruit & Walnut Salad – Apple slices and red grapes [apples, red grapes, calcium ascorbate (a blend of calcium and vitamin C added to maintain natural freshness and color)] Vanilla Lowfat Yogurt [cultured pasteurized Grade A reduced milk fat, sugar, food starch-modified, fructose, whey protein concentrate, corn starch, kosher gelatin, natural (plant source) and artificial flavor, potassium sorbate (added to maintain freshness), artificial color], candied walnuts [walnuts, TBHQ and BHT added as preservatives) sugar, peanut oil, dry honey, salt, wheat starch, maltodextrin, xanthan gum, soy lecithin, natural (plant source) and artificial flavor.]

————————

THEN: leg warmers

NOW: global warmers

————————

THEN: Pad of paper

NOW: iPad

———————–

THEN: filling minds

NOW: filling houses

————————–

THEN: off-the-clock

NOW: ’round-the-clock

————————–

THEN: coffee

NOW: double decaf latte with mocha sprinkles

————————–

THEN: green space

NOW: no space

“I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived” – Henry David Thoreau

Did you know that spending time in nature actually alters your body chemistry? Being outside – in the sun, or under a tree, or by the ocean changes who you are physically.

No, you won’t sprout another arm or anything – nature changes you for the better.

I know my lovely readers like examples, so here’s a nice one:

The ocean (take your pick on which one). When you stand and listen to the ocean, you’re hearing the waves lap in at approximately 12-16 waves a minute. This corresponds exactly to our optimal heart rates. Listening to the ocean not only lowers your blood pressure naturally and effectively, it increases those ‘feel good’ chemicals in your brain. Ocean waves also force you to slow down your breathing, getting rid of those shallow, awful breaths we so often take.

All of these changes lead to a healthier you – without even having to cash in on your drug plan. Booya.

There’s a reason people turn to nature when their lives are stressful. We’re meant to be out there.

As science catches up with the simple truths of life, I think we’ll find that many of the aspects of nature are specifically tailored to our bodies in some harmonious and amazing ways.

If the closest thing you have to the Ocean is your copy of The Little Mermaid, fear not. Another great thing our about our brains is that they’re easily fooled.

Through the magic of the internet, you can reach the ocean with a click of the mouse.

Keep it wild! And remember…

I can’t take credit for this photo – my better half was out there braving the flurry to get it.

This bad boy was originally chasing down a sparrow, but gave up and decided instead to just look regal. (I wish I could look that regal just by sitting and turning my head.)

Another good reason to keep lookin’ up, no?

Keep it wild, world!

You can’t feel it right now, but there are bugs all over you.

Before you freak out and jump in the shower, rest assured that if it weren’t for some of these microscopic critters, you probably wouldn’t be here. Many of these bugs keep us healthy and on any given day, you’re sharing your body with about 90 trillion or so.

In other words, resistance is futile!

So, who’s setting up shop on your body? Here are 3 animals that call you home.

DEMODEX

Do you recognize this one? Eight-legged demodex is a worm-like mite that likes to hang out near hair follicles. Specifically, this guy is particularly partial to your eyelashes. Adults are only 0.03 mm long, so you won’t actually see them crawling around up there. The cool thing about these guys? Their bodies are so efficient, they only have a mouth. That is to say, ahem, that there is no exit. They use everything they eat without any waste!

LACTOBACILLUS ACIDOPHILUS

Don’t let the big name on this fella freak you out – lactobacillus is one of the good guys. In fact, I bet most of you have even walked into a grocery store and purposely bought food with Mr. Lactobac in it. You know all those commercials for yogurt that are pimping out the good bacteria? They’re talking about this one. Lactobacillus lives throughout your body, especially in your mouth and stomach. With this guy on the job, most people have improved immune function and a healthier GI tract. Eat up!

YOUR DNA

Yup, you read that right. Research has shown that 8% of our DNA comes from a virus and not one of our ancestors. This happens through a process called endogenization. These viruses (called bornaviruses) can cause disease in horses and sheep. Thankfully, we are not horses nor sheep. For the most part, we seem to be doing okay with this virus within us. It’s possible that this viruses causes mutation that leads to schizophrenia, but the labcoats haven’t ironed out all the details on that one.

So there you have it!  We are walking, talking ecosystems. Just another way we are all connected…

Have a wild Friday!

P.S Sorry if I made you itchy…

If you know me even a little bit, you know I’m a fan of Die Hard. What’s not to love? There’s explosions, gratuitous sarcasm and of course, Ka-Bruce Willis.

But, we’re here to talk nature. In the spirit of Die Hard, here are five extinct creatures that could show Bruce Willis a thing or two. And for the record, I’m not even talking about Bruce in the first Die Hard – where he’s wandering barefoot the whole film – I’m talking about Bruce in Die Hard 4. That’s the one where he drives a car off a ramp into a flying helicopter.

So yeah, these animals are pretty awesome.

THE SMILODON

The smilodon is probably one of the first guys you think of when you think of extinct animals. These pack animals were around in the late Pleistocene and were the one of the last bigtime predators before our own human ancestors came along. Their claim to fame? Eight inch canine teeth. These would deliver a devastating puncture wound through prey windpipes. Incidentally, they would also deliver nightmares to humans who came later.

ANDREWSARCHUS

This fifteen foot long monstrosity was the largest mammalian carnivore in the history of this planet. Basically, picture a massive 6 foot tall wolf with hooves. Who did Andrewsarchus become? Turns out his modern cousin is the sheep. Bahh indeed.

TYRANNOSAURUS REX

Probably the most famous of all things extinct, thanks to a certain blockbuster movie that shall remain nameless. These babies weighed about 7 tons and was over 40 feet long from teeth to tail. Although only one is famous, we’ve found 30 species of T-Rex with complete skeletons and even some soft tissue. Don’t worry, they won’t add in frog DNA and bring them back to life. Humans aren’t that silly, right?

THE IRISH DEER

Move over, Bambi – this deer meant business. Another specimen from the late Pleistocene, this deer stood about as high as a moose, but had a rack of antlers that spanned over ten-twelve feet. It lived in Eurasia and Ireland (surprise) and up until about 7,700 years ago was pretty much the King. There’s no way Bruce could escape this one, unless, say, he walked through a door frame.

MOSASAUR

Mosasaur was the most terrifying reptile to ever exist. Picture a crocodile, mixed with a Great White Shark – then add some mad growth hormones. Mosasaur was 50 feet long, with a sensitive inner ear that allowed it to perform aquatic acrobatics like no other creature. It was fast. Of course, I have to mention the teeth. These graced not only the top and bottom jaw, but also the roof of its mouth. Even Bruce Willis wouldn’t have a prayer next to the Mosasaur. In fact, if it weren’t for that asteroid that hit us, they’d still be around today. Thanks, asteroid.

Have a wild Wednesday!

Food is much more than what we eat.

Food becomes us. It’s no surprise that as we step away from what is natural – entering into a sphere of processed ‘food-like’ substances – we find ourselves stricken with heart disease, cancers and general bodily dis-ease.

This is a video that I think everyone should watch. I know, you’re probably thinking ‘what does this have to do with nature, Jess?’

Food comes from the Earth. Edible food-like substances don’t. As we continue to step away from our roots, our Earth, there are big consequences. Jamie Oliver’s TED talk speaks volumes about food’s role in our lives and the choices we have to make for our children.

Click here for the video and have a wild Monday!

Ahh, l’amour! Love is a many splendor’d thing, love lifts us up where we belong – all you need is love! But of course, we humans aren’t the only ones searching for love. This Valentine’s Day – creatures everywhere are looking for their special someone. Who am I to stand in the way of true love?

To lend my fellow creatures a hand in their quest for their other half, I give you some of their Wild Classifieds.

Quiet, shy, traditional fellow looking for down-to-earth companion to share cabbage, long, long walks in the forest and Clark Gable movies. Won’t you be the carapace to my plastron? Apply in-shell: Stuart.

Tall, dark-eyed female looking for nice guy who smells good and doesn’t chase cars. Must love off-roading, chewing Kleenex and must NEVER hog the frisbee. Please, no bitches.

Seriously, I’m like just looking for a guy, who won’t like, try and spray me on the first date. I mean, really, that’s like totally disgusting and who wants to come home smelling like that? Are you kidding? My mother would freeeeak. Puh-leeze. Contact: Rose

Yes, hello. Is this thing on? Get a hold of yourself, minion. Hello. I am placing this ad to request aid in teaching my human a lesson. He does not prepare spaghetti to my liking and has taken to calling me ‘Trixie’ despite my obvious proclivity towards male dominant behavior. I fear, without the help of a suitable feline – his days are numbered. Respond today and together, we shall rise to the occasion and conquer the enemy. Fare thee well, biped.

Trixie, indeed. Contact: Spartacus

Holla! Lookin 4 a luvly lady to share nibbles of korn, gr8 cuddles and rollz in my plastic ball. Must B fun, Xciting and hate cats. Life is short, baby – so let’s B 4 Realz! No smokerz. Contact: JIMI4EVA

Have a wild Valentine’s Day everybody!

I’m rebelling. We got another lashing of snow last night and I’m currently dreaming of green grass, T-shirt weather and ice cream.

Ok, so I’m pretty much always dreaming of ice cream, but that’s another matter.

In one of my last posts How to Teach Snow a Lesson, we learned that you can show snow who’s boss by pretending it isn’t there. In the spirit of ignoring snow, I thought I’d tell you a spring and summer secret. My lovely readers residing in the southern hemisphere can use this one right now.

Crickets are handy little fellas. They serenade us for hours in search of a mate. Summer nighttimes become busier than Lava Life on Valentine’s Day. But you can use their love songs to do something pretty cool – cricket songs tell you how hot it is. That’s more than you can say for, oh… Justin Timberlake’s songs.

To get the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit, count the number of chirps in 14 seconds. Add 40 to this number and voila, you’re done. So for 35 chirps, we end up with 75 degrees.

For us Celsius lovers, count the number of chirps in 25 seconds. Divide this number by three, then add 4. For 45 chirps, this gives you 19C.

Make sense?

Try it out on your next outdoor adventure and you’ll impress people so much, you’ll have no need for Lava Life.

Keep it wild!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (and again).

It’s all connected.

Now I know that that phrase is laden with Circle of Life cheesiness and most of the time people respond with eyerolls, but there’s no getting around it.

Why repeat myself so much? The sooner we accept it, the sooner we can move on and do something about this whole Save-the-Earth thing.

Here’s a little Monday thought for the day that ought to get you started.

I’m going to tell you about Argon.

If you’ve taken (and remember) a chemistry class, you probably know about Argon. Because it’s a Monday, I”ll save you the suspense – it’s an element. Likes to hover around the right side of the ol’ periodic table.

Every time you exhale, you breathe out approximately 30,000,000,000,000,000,000 Argon atoms.

Argon is everywhere. It’s in plants, animals, pastry, you name it. But Argon is also special. It’s one of those elements that doesn’t want to change. Argon is stubborn. Because of this, they stick around forever and stay exactly the same.

So, the Argon atoms that you’re breathing now are the same atoms that Leonardo da Vinci exhaled. They’re the same atoms Elvis breathed and they’re the ones that could be in China, the Antarctic or Italy about a year from now.

They’re also the same atoms that dinosaurs exhaled.

Think about it – atoms that entered a T-Rex’s system 68 million years ago are the same ones you’re breathing right now.

Incidentally, they’re also the same atoms your great-great-great (I could go on) grandchildren will one day breathe in.

What’s true for Argon is true for air and our whole planet. Everything on this Earth is connected by air in a very literal sense. It’s all the same.

Of course, we are also connected by water, soil and a whole bunch of other stuff, but that’s a story for another day.

Happy Monday, friends – Keep it wild!

I’ve been tagged by the lovely Debi of Go Explore Nature for the Honest Scrap Award!

My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to give you ten facts about myself that you might not know from reading my blog. Then, I tag 7 others and they tag 7 others… you get the point.

So, if you’re not new here, you know I can be prone to bouts of digression. So this is my kind of post.

Here we go, honest scrapping away!

• I could live off iced tea. Not the ‘real’ kind – the sugary kind that comes from a mix. I know this is wrong, so I try to save my waistline by watering it down hardcore.

• I met the guy of my dreams at a wedding (cheesy). He took me to a museum on our first date. Everybody thinks I’m short because of him, but really, he’s just oddly tall. (6’7”)

• I have seen Die Hard more times than I care to count. All of them. I will also watch any movie with Robert Downey Jr.

• I have a fear of heights, but love flying. I particularly love turbulence.

• I listen to music to help me get things done. When I’m writing or sculpting, Metallica, the Blues and showtunes are key. When I’m revising or editing, classical music. When I’m relaxing, I play the ukulele and sing. I wish I could play like this guy. I like having a soundtrack to my life.

• If I hear something, I can remember it and mimic it. Because of this, I’m prone to spouting movie lines during conversation, even if it’s with an accent. Sometimes, people don’t realize it. I also have a pretty good Sean Connery impression.

• I have a scar on my pointer finger from where a deer kicked me, one on my pinkie from a piranha bite (in a petstore of all things), one on my shoulder from a porcupine and a small strip of hair missing on my scalp from an unknown source. Luckily, you can’t see it.

• Years ago, I accidentally hit one of my very best friends in the head with a baseball bat. It was during University and we were celebrating exams being over by playing baseball with stale muffins in the dark (as one does) and she just …well, walked into it. I have a pretty good follow through too, so I was surprised when she started laughing and told me to “finish up with the muffins so we could get some ice”. I still have the bat. And I still have the friend.

• I’ve been hit by lightning. I don’t recommend it, unless you want to taste your own tongue.

• When I was younger, I worked as a waitress for one day. Some guy ordered a club sandwich, called me ‘sweetheart’ and tried to grabbed me on the derriere. I quit on the spot, got a job at an animal rehab clinic and worked with animals ever since.

There you have it!

So which cheeky monkeys shall I pass the torch to? I’m thinking:

• Mel from Your Wild Child
• Marghanita from Little Humbugs
• Roy from Camping Blogger
• Crystal from Rangerous
• Sarah from Sarah Cookson
• Steve from Steve Creek Photography
• Christel from Stellar Eats
  

I look forward to your posts, folks! Happy Friday and keep it wild!

Free stuff for nature lovers! Click the links underneath to get yourself a copy in yellow, blue or fancy shmancy purple.

You know, whatever matches your decor.

Magic Air Cleaner Yellow (137)

Magic Air Cleaner Purple (148)

Magic Air Cleaner Blue (147)

I’m working on a series of these, which will be available in the Trading Post as I complete them!

Keep it wild!

Do you know what time it is?

Most people have internal clocks. Mine goes off everyday at about 10 am, telling me that it’s lunchtime. (I know, it’s weird.)

Other clocks let you know it’s time for bed, breakfast, or anything in between.

But you can also look to nature to find out what time it is. The next time you’re out, take a look at the flowers.

Blue chicory shuts tight at noon and white waterlilies close their blossoms at 4 pm. Marigolds open by 7 am and close at 7 pm. Pickerelweed is another that closes up at noon.

All of you botany friends out there can probably add to this list – what time do your flowers open and close?

Now, I realize that some of us are still in the middle of winter (no flowers for us!), but there are still natural clocks out there. Try feeding birds everyday at the same time. After a couple of days, you’ll probably be surprised at just how punctual your dinner guests can be. Soon, you’ll be able to set your watch by the birds!

Happy Wednesday, all – Keep it wild!

Happy Groundhog Day everybody!

Sorry for being MIA yesterday, I was having a bit of a long weekend (don’t be jealous, it was only because I had a Monday dentist appointment in my hometown). *thumbs down*

In other less toothy news, today’s the day! Will the groundhog see his shadow? Will spring ever come back? Today is the only day a year we place all of our seasonal hopes and ambitions into the paws of a rodent.

But he’s a classy rodent at least.

To celebrate this rodent’s return, I give you the Wild 5: Groundhog Edition.

• Groundhog Day wasn’t always Groundhog Day. Ancient Romans used to believe that early February was a good indicator of future weather patterns, but instead they turned to a hedgehog for their predictions. So it was more of a Hedgehog Day.

• Groundhogs are one of 14 species of marmots. They’re cousins to the squirrel (but don’t often show up to family reunions) and are also called woodchucks and whistle pigs. This name comes from the loud whistle they use as an alarm call when danger drops by.

• Groundhogs build themselves burrow mansions under the ground with many chambers, including a bathroom. They’ll remove 700 pounds of soil for a 20 foot burrow. In other words, if groundhogs did chuck wood, they would chuck about 700 pounds worth. Now you know.

• When he hibernates, Mr. Groundhog reduces his heart rate to 5 beats a minute. Normally, that’s up somewhere around 80. If you’re a fan of the Princess Bride, we call that ‘mostly dead’.

• Groundhogs can climb trees. Remember that the next time a groundhog is chasing you and you think a tree will save you! *groundhog victory*

For the record, I think there should be more animal related holidays. Like Blue Footed Booby Beach Day and Turtle Tax Day.

Can you think of any others?

Keep it wild!

GAH!

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m not much of a ‘winter person’. Sure I like winter as much as the next gal, but sometimes, after countless hours of staring at the gray sky and gray ground, while freezing my stuff off, one can go a little nutty. The shorter hours, curse-worthy temperatures and runny nose-sicles are just too much. Must. have. spring.

Now, I understand that some people love winter (and I am jealous of those people), and I also know that we must have winter to maintain any sort of balance in the natural world.

I’m cool with that.

But. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to show snow who’s boss every so often. Join me in the revolt and together, we can teach snow a lesson.

Here are 10 ways:

• Smush it. Yeah, go around in the biggest pair of boots you have and trample it all down. Pitch a fit and take out those winter frustrations on it. Borrow a big guy’s boots if you need to. What’s it going to do, melt?

• Paint it. If it’s going to exist, it’s going to stop being so darn cocky. Grab some water bottles, fill them with H20 and food coloring and away you go. Turn that snow into a canvas. It will wish it had just stayed up there in the clouds for sure.

• Give your dog lots of extra water, send him outside and let nature take its course. Take that! (This option also works for boyfriends/husbands, but do be careful of your neighbors.)

• Blow dry it. (It’s worth a shot.)

• Make a snowman (or entire snow family). Then, hold it hostage until Jack Frost decides to give in. Make demands, including warm weather and helicopter. Do not negotiate. Note: this might actually take awhile, so bring extra snacks and/or hot beverages.

• Pretend it isn’t there. Like a school yard bully, snow thrives on attention. It likes to know that it’s messing with your day. So one of the best ways to beat it is to just act like you can’t even see it. I recommend going outside in sandals and a Hawaiian shirt, while exclaiming ‘Lord, is this heat wave ever going to end?!’ Before you know it, snow will lose interest and wander off to some other hemisphere.

• Run around your yard lighting torches, Indiana-Jones style. If your neighbors inquire, tell them you’re teaching snow a lesson and that if they’re smart, they’ll join in too. Soon, you can have torches lit everywhere and the whole place will look like the Survivor set. Snow will have no choice but to melt already.

• Make fire from ice. This will reeeaally tick snow off, because snow’s main goal is to keep everything nice and chilly. Using your hands, you can form a lens from a chunk of ice, which you can use to direct the sun’s rays and start a fire. Snow will be so dismayed at your ingenuity and audacity, it will know you mean business. (Incidentally this can also work if you’re lost in the woods and need to start a fire sans matches.)

• Hire a guy in a suit, dark glasses and an ear piece to stare at it angrily. It will cost you a little bit of money, but it will surely make the snow uncomfortable. If you can’t afford a guy in a suit, maybe you can borrow one from  this guy.

• Teach it a lesson with music. Snow has a superiority complex – it hates to be reminded that it isn’t King. Show it your unwavering resolve by blasting this song everytime you feel like snow is winning. It will pick up on your confidence and disappear before you can say “Another dacquiri, please”.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some sandals to find…

Keep it wild!

Hey!

It’s Family Literacy Day.

Or as I like to call it, “put down the joystick and pick up a book’ Day. Rock on.

As you know, we go pretty nutso about nature and animals here. So I thought I’d inspire you with some nature and animal inspired reading for you and yours on this literary occasion.

I organized (or at least, attempted it) my bookshelves yesterday. We’ve recently had to install a handful of extra bookshelves because *someone* has too many books. Alas, I admit it – my name is Jess and I’m a book-a-holic.

The good news is, I found some gems in there you may love. Here are the tops gracing my shelves, for the nature adventurer in you:

• Walden and Other Writings by Henry David Thoreau – This guy basically said ‘Bah! Enough of society!’ and took off to live by himself in a cabin for 2 years. He grew his own food, talked with the animals and pulled the ultimate ‘unplugging’ known to man. His writing will make you want to go outside immediately and start preparing lists of vegetables.

• The Survival Handbook by Peter Darman – A book that everybody should have, in my opinion, because you just never know when you’re going to end up in the mountains without anything but some toothpicks and a shoelace. Learning the survival skills of “the world’s elite forces” will make you a better person, not to mention make for some great party tricks.

• The Sacred Balance by David Suzuki – Should be required reading for people who live on Earth. That is to say, everyone.

• The Emotional Lives of Animals by Marc Bekoff – Bekoff is easily one of my favorite writers and scientists. I was lucky enough to meet him at a lecture and his passion is contagious. This book outlines his work as a cognitive ethologist (someone who explores animal minds) and is a must read for animal lovers.

• The Tale of Peter Rabbit (the whole series) by Beatrix Potter – This woman is one of my heroes. She was not only a talented writer and artist, she had the observant eye of a scientist. Back in the day when women were expected to seek nothing in life other than a rich dude (gag me), Beatrix was writing nature journals in code and publishing what would later be the most successful children’s books of all time. Treat yourself to one of these classics.

• White Fang by Jack London – Nobody writes nature like Mr. London. To the best of my knowledge, this was one of the first books told from the perspective of an animal main character. You might want to move to the North after this one and buy some sled dogs.

• Supernature by Lyall Watson – I’ll bet a dollar to a donut that most people haven’t heard of this one. But don’t let its obscurity fool you. It’s a book about the ‘natural history of the supernatural’, but it’s not talking about ghosts and zombies. This book is about communication between living things, including plants. When science catches up with the natural world, I have a feeling this book will resurface and we’ll all say “Ohhh.. here it is written down already!” Definitely one for the ol’ noodle.

• Nim’s Island by Wendy Orr. Don’t lie – you’ve fantasized about living on a tropical island. Feed your imagination with this book and revel in a life where coconut is a staple. Also a great one to read to your kids during the grey of winter.

There you have it! I know there’s a lot I haven’t covered here, so I’d love to hear what books you pull out for a dose of nature – leave ‘em in the comments!

Happy Literacy Day, stay wild!

Well well well… if it isn’t Monday again.

Today, I thought it would be nice to show you an illustration I’ve been working on for awhile. Ta-dah! As many of you know, I’m a bit of a plasticine fiend, so it’s nice to get to show you these as I finish them.

But what’s Monday without a few facts that you could whip out at a cocktail party. I think it’s high time for a Wild 5 again.

And so I give you, the Wild 5: Bear Edition –

• Never ever try to outrun a bear. It just won’t happen. Although they look big and lumbery, they can run as fast as a horse. So picture them as large, furry, carnassial-toothed horses. *nods*

• Most people know about a few species of bears – the grizzly (like my clay friend), polar bear, black bear and of course, Yogi, are fairly famous. The spectacled bear, Asiatic black bear and sun bear are less famous. But just as awesome. Go Google them, I’ll wait.

• If you ever ate even a small part of a polar bear’s liver (not that you should, just sayin’) – you would most likely die. Like most arctic seals, a polar bear’s liver is insane-o high in retinol (also known as Vitamin A). To put it in perspective your liver should have about 575 IU of Vitamin A per gram. A polar bear has roughly 24,000-35,000 IU per gram. Moral? Please don’t eat polar bears.

• Some bears faced a pretty cruel past. Bear bile farming is one example. Kept in small cages known as ‘crush-cages’, many Asiatic black bears are unable to move or stand for their entire lives, while an IV removes their bile. Needless to say, this is an awful fate for any animal, so efforts are constant to stop bear bile farming in Vietnam and China. If this bothers you as much as it does me, you can pop by here to learn more, or make a donation directly to my site and I’ll send it to the right people.

• A male bear is called a boar, while a female is called a sow. This is not because they are related to pigs. In fact, I actually think if you encounter a male bear, you ought to be calling him ‘Sir’. But that’ just me.

Have a beary good week, all!

(Can you blame me? Really?)

Oh, hiking boots.

We’ve been through a lot, you and I.

You’ve kept me company on a plane across the Pacific Ocean.You’ve kept me dry on the Atlantic sands and hoisted me up yet another tree branch.

For over 7 years now, you’ve been going strong.

Remember the days of wildlife rehab? You were clawed at, peed on, bitten and covered with mud.

At least I’m pretending it was mud.

What about New Zealand? Don’t pretend you weren’t afraid while clamoring over rocks with 80 degree inclines while planting trees. Speaking of trees, I wonder how many shovels you’ve helped propel into the dirt?

You took me to 5 years of University labs and classes. You even showed up the day I defended my thesis, even though you tracked a bit of dirt into the fancy room. That carpet needed a good cleaning anyways.

You’ve been in whitewater rafts (and got soaked), canoes (ditto), horse stirrups (smelly) and snowshoes (frigid). You’ve taken me through snow, sand, mud, water, grass and even a little bit of magma. As a result of all those adventures, you’ve also been in the wash. At one point, you were even told by family to ‘stay outside on the deck’ because you looked ‘questionable.’

Hmph.

You’ve steadied me across makeshift bridges of rotting wood – your tread gripping while I wondered aloud ‘how in the hell did I get in this situation again?!’ You don’t seem to mind that I attract heights that would give a mountain goat a run for his money.

It hasn’t all been carefree meadows with daisies and immaculate landscapes. In fact, I remember your first wound. A dog got a hold of you and used you as a chew toy. For shame. You never complained once while I stitched you back up, without drugs no less.

After all this time, you’re still relatively in one piece. Indiana Jones says, ‘It’s not the age, it’s the mileage’.

If that’s the case, I’d say you’ve earned your stripes.

So, boots – where should we go today?

Happy Friday everybody! I hope you (and your footwear) are ready for weekend adventures. Keep it wild!

**Winner Update! Congrats to Mel and Adrienne for winning The Great Goodall Giveaway! I’ll be in touch for addresses to mail out your prize!**

Winners were chosen by random number generator, because all of your answers were so awesome. Thanks to everybody for entering!

Just a reminder:

I have some happy news this week – as of 12:26 on Sunday morning, I officially have a new baby nephew!

My brother and his wife had their first child – a happy, healthy 7 pound 7 ounce wonder – born exactly on his due date. He clearly understands the importance of being punctual.

We are all ecstatic of course, and all of this baby business got me thinking about how much the world has changed since I was a wee one. Being a child of the 80′s (yes, I’m still rather young, but I *have* seen four decades), my generation has seen the rise of the Internet, globalization, climate change and yes, the Wii.

In the digital age, it’s easy to get seduced by the details. The high-res-high-def-high-speed-surround-sound-microwaveable-would-you-like-fries-with-that mentality is everywhere. I wondered what things my little nephew would see in his lifetime. How would the landscapes of the world change?

Then it hit me – the best things in life, those things that truly affect us, are timeless. The things I enjoy most about the world are the things my parents enjoyed, and theirs before them. They are also the things I hope any children I have would get to see. Incidentally, they’re also free.

Bonus.

So here, little nephew, is a list for you and other children (and kids-at-heart like my lovely blog readers), to remind you of the timeless things in life.

In your life, I wish you:

• Birds outside your window, singing away the night every morning.
• Mud to squish between your toes. Don’t worry what your parents say, just tell them that feet wash.
• Snow-fort building snow, and lots of it.
• Hot summer days, shared with lemonade, cool breezes and true friends.
• Open fields with itchy grasses that tickle your legs while you run.
• Flat rocks to skip, and big ones that just make huge splashes.
• Stars to count while you’re camping, or just to gaze at when you’re feeling small.
• Bugs! Watch them, follow them, enjoy them and set them free again.
• Trees to climb, with perfectly placed ‘helper’ branches.
• Polar bears, tigers and gray wolves. Remember every life has its place.
• Waterfalls that take your breath away.
• Heights that do the same.
• Hot sand on a beach that makes you do the anti-burn dance.
• Strawberry baskets for catching crayfish in ponds.
• Bridges. Some will lead you to better versions of yourself.
• Crackly piles of raked-up leaves in the fall. Feel free to leaf-dive.
• Rain on your face and inside your rubber boots. *Squish*
• Winter coat zippers that never nip at your chin as you do them up.
• A warm towel after a cool swim in the blue ocean.
• Books. These will take you to rainforests, deserts and the depths of the ocean.
• Grass stains on your legs and the perfect walking stick.
• Feathery, furry and scaly friends to learn about.
• And last but not least, a trusty dog. He’ll be a friend for life that you’ll never forget.

Happy Monday everyone! I’d love to hear about your timeless nature thoughts, so leave ‘em in the comments if you’re up to it!

Keep it wild!

Happy Friday folks!

In the spirit of the end of the week, I”m going to keep it short ‘n snappy today. Consider it Fish Friday!

Animals can do some pretty incredible things. Recently the stingray has been in the news for its ability to use water as a tool to flush out its prey. Back in the day (now I sound like an old woman), tool use was a trait that only humans were thought to have. We couldn’t have been more wrong, and I’m loving that we’re starting to open our eyes to the amazing feats of animals.

But stingrays aren’t the only fish out there to use water as a tool. There’s another species out there that uses water in a way that just might blow your mind. You have to see it to believe it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the Archer Fish.  Words don’t do it justice, so grab a cuppa and enjoy watching the sniper of the fish world.

For those of you who haven’t yet entered my Great Goodall Giveaway, swing by here to check it out – only one week left! Who doesn’t like free stuff?

Stay wild and I’ll see you Monday!

I’ve been tagged! For an adventurous game of blog tag, that is. That’s right, Tripbase is putting together a series of posts on travel secrets. I’m a big fan of tag, so I’ll gladly accept this challenge!

Being a proponent of the motto ‘Go big or go home’, my first trip away was to New Zealand. After 23 hours on a plane (3/4 of which was spent listening to James Blunt concerts on loop – Lord save me), I found myself in what I can only describe as ‘a postcard on Earth’.

Put it this way – you could give a monkey a camera and set him free in New Zealand, and within a week he would return with the most gorgeous pictures you’ve ever seen. The landscape writes itself. As a zoologist, naturalist and writer, I was in heaven.

My 3 Wild Secrets to exploring this stunning destination? Read on, Frodo.

#1. Risk your life (in the presence of a trained professional).

A good place to do this is at the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. Glowworm cave exploring sounds like a nice, safe adventure doesn’t it? That’s exactly what I thought when a feisty little tour guide named Snappy was describing our task. (Looking back, her name should have tipped me off).

I’ll let you in on a secret – when black water rafting to see glowworms, there is no raft. Instead, you are given an inner tube and propelled into the deep, black abyss of glow worm caves. You are told to hang onto your partners hand (if you don’t, you could actually float away) and that the water is quite cold, so don’t be surprised if you lose feeling in your hands. Yes, the very hands that are meant to keep you attached to your peers. Excellent.

The most harrowing part of the adventure is reaching an underground waterfall. Here, you are told to “turn around, face your butt (contained in said inner tube) away from the falls, and jump off backwards”. Of course, you can’t actually see the falls because of the inky blackness, nor can you judge exactly how high you are jumping from. At this point I was considering how quickly one must get medical attention after a concussion. What do you do? You take a deep breath, listen to Snappy and jump! I promise, this adventure is one for the books!

Why it’s worth it: Glowworms are nature’s reply to the constellations in the sky.

#2 Go glacier hopping.

Franz Josef Glacier is one of a handful of temperate glaciers in the world. This means it’s situated in a rainforest, but is somehow still a frozen block of ice that can be seen all year round. This is one not to miss on your trip to NZ, because of its sheer awesomeness. I mean that in terms of its actual size, and also its badass-ness.

Whenever you glacier hop, you’re given a pair of metal spike attachments for your boots. These will not only make you feel like a superhero, but will help you out immensely in those moments of sheer terror. (Did I mention I have a bit of a fear of heights?)

While climbing Franz Josef, you will learn you have muscles in places you only dreamed of. This glacier is a bit of an optical illusion – while climbing (and looking only at the white in front of you), you don’t realize how high you are. It is only when you arrive at the top and look out over the landscape that it hits you. For me, this realization was a mix of awe and ‘oh $#!t how am I going to get down?!’. Luckily, you have your superhero boots on and are free to enjoy the view.

Why it’s worth it: The paradox of being surrounded by snow while feeling hot is out of this world.

#3. Get up close and personal.

During my entire month-long stay in New Zealand, few places rivaled the natural beauty of Abel Tasman National Park. Here you are free to canoe, sea kayak, hike and generally traipse about feeling fantastic to have survived your previous adventures. As New Zealand’s smallest National Park, Abel Tasman is like the Mona Lisa of parks – it captivates everybody with its beauty, but is actually smaller than you’d expect.

It is also a great place to take some time and explore the local flora and fauna. New Zealand is home to many endemic species – those that live there and only there – so grab your camera (bring extra batteries and memory cards) and shoot to your heart’s content. Close by and not-to-miss is also a Sculpture Park and natural garden center, with mind-blowingly beautiful natural artwork like this:

Why it’s worth it: Two words: Photo Ops.

There you have it! I’d love to hear about your travel adventures, so leave your secrets in the comments! Kia Ora and stay wild!

It was the summer of 1960 when a young secretary named Jane first stepped foot onto African soil to study chimpanzees.

She didn’t know it at the time, but she was making history.

In those early years, it was unheard for animals in scientific arenas to be given names. Instead, they were assigned numbers because ‘they were just animals, after all’. Jane would hear none of it. The first chimpanzees she observed were then dubbed David Greybeard and Goliath. None of this number nonsense for Jane, she was on a path of discovery.

During her many years of observation, Jane witnessed what can only be described as world changing. Shortly after arriving in Gombe, Jane observed chimps eating meat. This shattered the myth that chimpanzees were vegetarian and opened the door to the real lives of these creatures that are not so unlike ourselves. She also observed acts of compassion and tool-making, traits which were previously seen as solely ‘human’. Chimps also routinely self-medicated with plants, passed on knowledge within a group and demonstrated planning for future events. One by one, Jane witnessed chimps doing the things we said only humans could do. In 1970, Jane also noted chimps performing a spontaneous dance-like display by waterfalls. Many believe that this exhibited expression of awe runs parallel to early forms of religion in humans.

What I mean to say is, by observing chimpanzees for what they really were, Jane challenged what it meant to be human.

Of course, the scientific community was not always happy about Jane’s findings. Einstein said that ‘great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds’. This was never truer than for Jane’s work. When it comes to declaring the great capacities of humans, we are easy to dole out the compliments. But when it comes to other species, we’re sometimes not so generous. Jane was ahead of her time, but she forged ahead, stated her case and continued her work.

For half a century, Jane has worked tirelessly for animals, conservation and people. She understands that to help the environment, we must also help people and vice versa. Thirty years after her adventures in Gombe, Dr. Goodall created Roots & Shoots, a humanitarian and environmental educational program for youth around the world. To date, the Roots & Shoots program is active in over 100 countries.

Dr. Jane Goodall is a testament to how influential one person can be in the course of history. She opened the door for others like myself to study animals, but have a heart while doing it. She exemplifies integrity, intelligence and compassion for all life. I had the pleasure of meeting Jane once – she oozes serenity and understanding. Her spirit is contagious and she holds nothing but hope for the future of our planet, despite the events we may see unfolding before us. In her eyes, you can see that she is an adventurer at heart.

Today, I’d like to honor Dr. Jane Goodall by having a little giveaway. Recently, I dropped by the Jane Goodall Institute in Toronto and bought some goodies. Along with many other organizations, the Jane Goodall Institute partners with African women through micro-enterprise loans. By supporting Ugandan Paper Bead Jewellery makers, we are giving them economic alternatives to selling bushmeat (chimpanzee meat) in the local markets.

I have one necklace (gorgeous, 3-strand purple beaded) and one bracelet (also 3-strand with black and irridescent beads). To spread the word of conservation and compassion I’d like to give them away! Because I love alliteration, I’m calling it the Great Goodall Giveaway (catchy, no?)

To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment here and answer the following question -

Which animal do you most relate to, and why?

Winners will be chosen next Friday, but of course you can support Dr. Goodall’s organizations by going here or here.

I can’t wait to read your answers!

Well, winter is full swing around here and the temperatures have quite literally been dipping to what I call ’20 degrees below cold’. Brrrrr! But cold or not, there’s always something to be learned out there.

As I don my ever-so-classy fingerless gloves, I thought I’d let you in on some of the things that wintry nature has taught me. Relax, grab a cocoa and read on, winter traveler.

• Walking the dog: Make plans, but be flexible if something unexpected pops up. Follow your nose in all circumstances – all roads lead to new smells.

• Climbing Trees: You’d be surprised of what you can accomplish when you’ve got good footing. Start with the basics and go from there.

• Snowstorms: Sometimes the landscape of life is never more beautiful than after a storm. Stay hopeful, no matter what the forecast says.

• Icicles: Over night success is overrated. Slow and steady acts can bring dramatic change.

• Longjohns: It’s what you have closest to you that matters most. Don’t waste your time on things that don’t warm your heart.

• Watching the Birds: Life is too short to eat shoddy food. Go for the prize, even if others think it’s out of your league.

I know we’ve got a lot of winter explorers out there, so on this fine and chilly Monday, I’d love to hear what winter has taught you. Bundle up out there!

P.S Stay tuned for the next post – I’ve got a giveaway up my sleeve!

Happy Friday everybody! I’m ready for the weekend, how about you?

I was recently minding my own business, researching caves on the internet (as one does), when I came across this awesome experiment. Not only will it make you smarter, but it will impress the you-know-what out of your kids/friends/dog.

Have you ever seen the deep, dark caves of the world? Have you noticed the drippy rock structures that hang from the top and pierce up from the bottom. You may know that those are called stalactites and stalagmites. (Stalactites hang tight to the ceiling, while stalagmites are mighty, because… um.. they’re on the floor. You get it.)

Here’s the rundown.

• water
• string
• epsom salts
• 2 jars
• pilfered rocks from neighbor’s garden outside
• small saucer

Fill the jars with water and add salt until no more will dissolve. Dip the string in the water to wet it completely, and tie a rock to each end. Drop your rocks into each jar, leaving a bit of string hanging in between over the saucer.

Presto – you’ve got yourself the beginnings of a cave! Put your contraption somewhere the cat won’t find it (it’s her saucer, I presume) and check back each day to see if stalactites and stalagmites have formed.

Listening to this will definitely speed up the process. (Come on, today would have been Elvis’ 75th, and the song has ‘rock’ in the title. It’s like it was meant to be.)

I hope someone got my title pun…

On my recent trek (which you know as Planet of the Ducks), we also came across some 60 pound rodents. Don’t worry, we weren’t being taken over by giant rats. Nope, we were in beaver territory.

I was floored by how many trees they had taken down. Judging by the forest, beavers must have a pretty spectacular work ethic, if I do say so myself. In fact, if there’s one animal that makes everyone feel guilty about how little they accomplish, it’s the beaver.

Think about it – these guys waltz onto the scene, looking relatively unassuming, bat their big, brown eyes at you and then quietly carry on with their task of taking over the world.

What’s the secret behind nature’s architect? Read on, brave adventurer.

• Beavers have a flap of skin behind their teeth. That doesn’t seem to impressive until you realize that this means they can chew underwater. And here we are wasting time breathing air like suckers.

• Beavers have a built-in kickstand. Also a built-in rudder to help them steer while swimming. One tail, many uses. Score 2 for beavers.

• Four words: Free-running circadian rhythm. You’ve heard people complain about wanting more hours in the day. Well, beavers are too cool to complain. Instead, they do something about it. In the winter, they stop leaving their lodges at sunset and returning at sunrise. By staying in more, they don’t see the sun. This allows them to set their own biological clocks. For beavers, the day actually has 29- hours. Booya.

So, now that you feel completely inferior to a rodent, how’s work going?

Another week already! I hope you folks aren’t suffering from a case of the Moandays. Just in case, this might cheer you up!

To celebrate the New Year, my man and I decided to check out some new nature spots on the weekend. After traveling for about an hour, we found this little gem of a waterfront spot, right along some bluffs.

For some reason, it felt like finding a teeny piece of Ireland in Canada (minus the green, the sheep and the leprechauns of course.)

The first thing we came across was some wicked sticky mud that is now permanently adhered to our boots. The next thing was some animal evidence. Check out the size of this print compared to my little paw. Awesome. Little did we know what lay around the corner.

After exploring and doing our best to ward off the pesky frostbite (who needs fingertips, really?), we were just about to head home. Then we heard a commotion. Honks, squawks and water splashes. It sounded like a water park gone mad.

Ever the zoologist, investigate I did.

Suddenly, there were ducks. And I’m not talking about a ‘quack-quack’ here and a ‘quack-quack’ there. I’m talking ‘Lookout Old MacDonald, these ducks are going to take over the farm’. More ducks than I’ve ever seen in my life. It was like Planet of the Ducks. I heard the Hitchcock theme to ‘Birds’ in my head.

Apparently this spot was a communal feeding ground for ducks, swans and Canada geese. We watched as they battled it out for food and generally caused a rumpus.

Eventually, we noticed something in all the madness. Can you see anything weird in the picture above? How about this one?

I’ve never seen a duck with this coloring before and I think it might be an albino. Any duck experts out there care to weigh in here?

Of course, no post about a great duck caper would be complete without a Wild 5. So without further adieu, here are your wild 5 duck facts. Bring ‘em up at your next cocktail party. Really, be that guy.

• It takes about 2 months for a young duckling to learn to fly. During that time they’re dabbling in the water, learning from their parents and generally being adorable.

• Ducks (and other birds) have 3 eyelids. The top and bottom lids have little bristles on them that look like eyelashes. The third eyelid is called a nictitating membrane. This eyelid is blinked about 35 times a minute. If you threw something at a duck (please don’t, this is just a hypothetical), then it would blink its nictitating membranes to protect its eyes.

• Mallard ducks (like the ones above) have less than 500 tastebuds. To compare, you’ve got about 10,000. Compared to a duck, you’re a super taster.

• A group of ducks is called a sord. Not to be confused with a sword. Ducks will not help you defeat dragons.

• Mallards are by far the most abundant species of duck on the planet. They’re even more popular than Donald.

Thanks for stopping by!

*No ducks were harmed in the making of this post*

Happy New Year!

Are you ready for another year? I have big plans for 2010, so let’s hit the ground running, shall we?

If there’s one thing I wish for everybody for the coming year, it’s to spend more time in nature. It will make you happier, healthier, smarter and quite possibly better looking. (Hey, it can’t hurt.) But according to the National Wildlife Federation, many kids are only spending four to seven minutes outside a day. Kid or adult – you need to get outside.

Here are 15 ways to get out there and rock the natural world.

1. Everyday when you wake up, take a deep breath. Air connects you to the rest of the world. Think about it – it’s quite possible that you’re breathing the same atoms that Da Vinci breathed in, hundreds of years ago. Thanks to Zen Habits for reminding me to breathe.

2. Go outside and look up. A change in perspective opens you up to new things. I promise you’ll see something new.

3. Go outside and look down. Ditto.

4. Touch trees. It sounds cheesy, but when you touch trees you’re reminded of what it feels like to be truly grounded.

5. Forget about the sanitizer for now and play in the dirt. Make moats, dirt castles and claim your land with a little flag.

5. Take off your shoes. Feel grass, puddles, soil and even snow on your feet. You’ll definitely make people wonder with barefoot prints in the snow.

6. Take a count of all the living things in your house. Try to double, or triple that number. Plants count.

7. If you have the resources, adopt a pet from your local shelter. A dog’s joy is one of the most authentic things in life.

8. Collect rocks. Stack them somewhere. Reflect on how much older than you they really are.

9. Get down close to the ground and see the world from an ant’s perspective. Stay there long enough to get used to it. Stand up and feel like a giant.

10. Climb trees. Pretend you’re Tarzan (or Jane). Loincloth optional.

11. Check out a zoo (a responsible one) and look a wild animal in the eyes. Feel that awe you get when encountering something that powerful.

12. Make a deliberate choice to learn more about nature. Read books, watch documentaries and take a new path. Thanks to Henry David Thoreau for reminding me to live deliberately, and to Melissa for writing about him.

13. Look for incredible natural patterns around you. Need a start? Look at a shelled walnut. Now look at a picture of a brain. Cool huh? Also check out trees, snails and leaves.

14. Start a nature journal. There is an astounding amount of beauty in this world, but training yourself to notice it is a skill. Take time, get your family involved and create a nature journal to document the world around you. Sketch, sculpt or take pictures of what you see. Bring the outside in.

15. Learn about a new organism everyday. Spread the word about the awesome species living in the world – the more they know, the more they’ll care. Of course, this blog is a great place to start!

All the best in 2010! As always, feel free to drop me a line in the comments – how will you discover nature this year?

Hello everybody! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones and didn’t succumb to the turkey coma. I sure did. Turkey coma included.

With the New Year approaching faster than a falcon dive, now is a great time to reflect on the past year, as well as the things you’re thankful for.

This Wednesday, I thought I’d give you a little rundown of some of the things that many people take for granted in nature, but without which, we’d be toast.

• Water. It can get pretty easy to take water for granted. Not only is it available from your tap on a whim, but nearly every store in the developed world has a few choices for bottled water as well. But I’m not just talking about the availability of water – I’m talking about the properties of water itself. For example, the molecules of water (H20) expand when they freeze. This means that during winter, ice floats on the top of our lakes, rivers and streams. Think about that – if ice didn’t float, whole lakes would freeze through and we’d lose all of the animals within them. The unique properties of water are also what allow for snowflakes to form and your bodies to function properly. Water is the only substance on Earth that behaves like this. How cool is that? Go ahead, drink up.

• Trees. You can often be written off as a tree hugging hippie if you mention that you love trees, but really – you owe your life to trees. Forget about how beautiful they are or how they provide shade and wind barriers when you need them. Trees exhale the very basic element you need to live: oxygen. Deep inside a tree’s leaves are little green bundles that undergo photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a fancy way of saying ‘makes food from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide’. When you breathe out, you exhale the carbon dioxide that trees need to make their food. As a way of saying thank-you, trees release oxygen during the process. This is the oxygen you breathe in everyday. It’s a win-win, but most people wander around oblivious to where their clean air comes from. Don’t be one of those people.

• Your body. Yes, although you are probably quite festive from a week of splurging on holiday treats, egg nog and mashed potatoes, your body is really something you should marvel at. When you bump into the corner of the coffee table, you get a lovely bruise. That’s self healing. When you carry on with your day-to-day life, a small section of your brain is running the show, making sure you breathe, blink, sweat and have a pulse. You don’t have to even think about it, it just happens. Awesome. And the most badass fact of all? You began as a single cell. Today, you are a mass of trillions of cells, all specially designed to do their jobs. You have eye cells and bone cells and stomach cells and brain cells. But they all started out as one cell, that divided into two, that divided into four. The rest is history.

Of course, there are thousands of aspects of the natural world to be thankful for. But to me, these three are the kickers. Maybe a good New Year’s resolution for 2010 would be to sit back and reflect on how awesomely intricate this world really is. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher and also one of the world’s first scientists once said “In all things in nature there is something of the marvelous.”

He was right.

A Special Message for all of You!

To all of my nature and animal loving friends, I wish you a very happy and healthy holiday – full of all the things you love and enjoy! I’ll be out of town enjoying the festivities until next Tuesday, so I will see you all bright and early on Wednesday morning! Whatever you celebrate, I hope this year finds you joyful and well!

Morning all! I hope your Tuesday is going swimmingly and the festivities are swinging into full gear. I just wanted to let you know that I wrote a guest post over at Save The Reptiles (run by the totally awesome and brilliant Candace, many of whom you all know as @CandyWWGM).

Once you’re done cruising around here, swing by to her website and learn 6 Croc Secrets You Should Know Before Setting Foot in the Water – I promise you’ll learn something new!

Have a great day everybody! See you tomorrow!

Twas the days before Christmas,

and all ’round the world

lots of creatures were stirring, without saying a word

With Christmas being right around the corner, it’s easy to get overcome by all the festivities. Shopping, baking, shoveling snow and general holiday-osity are important, but it’s also a good time to remember that there are those out there that need your help. Right now (and all throughout the year) there are homeless, hungry and unhappy animals, all without a voice. Let’s fix that, shall we?

Without further adieu, here’s how you can help. You might think it’s small potatoes, but with enough small potatoes, we can make a big difference.

• Feed the Birds

Sure it’s simple, but it can also bring some great rewards. Here’s a great ornament feeder for your yard that’s fun to make and sure to please your feathered neighbors. All you need is some yarn, rice cakes, peanut butter and bird seed. Using the tip of a knife, poke a small slit through each rice cake. String in your yarn, tying off a knot before and after each rice cake. Roll the sides of the rice cake in PB and dip them into the bird seed. Finito! Leave a bit of yarn at the top (or if you’re like me, mess it up and then have to tie on extra) and then string it up to a tree. Promise, the birds will go crazy over this one.

• Check out your local shelter. Lend a hand.

One of my first jobs was at the Humane Society. I can tell you first hand – there is no downtime for animal care workers. Why not drop by a shelter in your area? Even if you can’t give money, they are always in need of newspapers, blankets (to keep young animals warm), pet food, treats and cleaning products. If you want to make them really happy, bring some leashes, collars or pet toys. If you have awhile, you can always offer to walk shelter dogs (one of my favorite holiday activities), or spend some time with the cats and other small animals. Socializing the animals increases their chances of being adopted (because they get used to handling and people), so your gift could very well result in an animal finding a home!

• Donate money to an animal-related charity of your choice.

I know, money doesn’t grow on trees. But there are many organizations that are doing really fantastic things with even small sums. If conservation is your thing, you can donate to the World Wildlife Fund. These people work around the clock throughout the year to inform and educate people and improve ecological policies. If you can’t look at a malnourished puppy without crying, you would probably get a lot from donating to the World Society for the Protection of Animals. WSPA spends countless hours trying to eradicate animal cruelty of all kinds around the globe. Everything from bear-baiting to bull fighting – WSPA covers it. These organizations also have hundreds of gift ideas, so your giving can also get you a beautiful present for someone. Win-win.

There are many more ideas, but these are a few that can get you started. If you want to learn more about shelter donations, you can check out your local Humane Society. If conservation or cruelty aid are more your thing, you can click the logos below to find each website. I hope you guys have a fantastic week, and I’d love to hear what you do to help out our animal friends. Of course, one of the easiest ways to help animals is to give your own pet a hug – so go to!

See you on Wednesday!

Birds. They’re cute. They’re spunky. They’re probably eating from your feeders right now. Whether you live in a snowy climate right now (guilty) or not, chances are you’ve doled out some cash to feed the birds in your backyard. But what do you really know about your avian neighbors? Today on ‘Science with a Side of Awesome’, I give you 5 things worth knowing about the birds. (No, not the birds and the bees, you’ll have to figure that out for yourself.)

• Okay, so you’re probably not actively feeding this guy, but I had to include him because he’s just so awesome. And really, he will eat birds and rodents from your backyard, so indirectly, you’re feeding him. Along with having talons like nobody’s business, hawks have eyesight that is 8 times stronger than a human’s. Seriously, a hawk could read a newspaper from seven stories high. (If you are a hawk and reading this, congratulations on learning to read.)

• Birds don’t have diaphragms. You know what that means? They can’t get hiccups. Which really, is too bad, because I think they’d be hilarious to watch if they did.

• Many birds have hollow bones. Inside them are criss-crossing tresses which help support them. This helps keep the weight down so they can fly, but not get crushed easily.

• Have you ever noticed how birds reach their heads around and preen from the base of their tail? This is because there is a special gland there called a uropygial gland. This gland secretes oils, which help waterproof its feathers. A bird will rustle feathers at the base of its tail to collect some of the oil, then spread it all over its body.

• There isn’t a single blue feather in the world. No, I’m not just messing with you. The reason some birds look blue is that there are 2 optical illusions going on in your brain. Feathers that look blue to us are really showing off a series of deformed prisms and iridescence. And to think, those blue birds are probably walking around thinking they’ve got us all fooled…

If you’re a bird fan (and who isn’t, really?), one of my twitter pals @KerriFar has a lovely shop set up with all sorts of bird-related goodies. Pop on by here to check it out!

She also has a great blog at www.thesunriseofmylife.blogspot.com. Need incentive? Check out this gorgeous shot of hers!

That’s all for today. Happy Friday!

…If you don’t slow down.

The holidays are fast approaching and many of us are knee-deep in the busy season already. Sure, it’s the most wonderful time of the year *here you go* – but it can also be one of the most rushed. The perfect antidote to all of this madness? A little time in nature.

During any season, it can be pretty easy to fly through the outdoors. But don’t fall prey to the urge to speed through. If you’re rushing, you’re probably zoning out. Bad explorer!  Nobody knows about the importance of slowing down like a good animal tracker. In fact, some of the best trackers out there say that in order to truly see the world around you, you must walk at a speed that’s 1/4 your normal walking speed.

Think about that.

I know that if we were all to wander around at 1/4th our pace everyday, things would get pretty hairy. Holiday shopping would be even worse, wouldn’t it? But nature, like many great things, is all in the details.

For our expedition today, I took the 1/4 pace challenge in my backyard. Within 50 feet of my house, I was amazed at what I found.

My friends, I give you 5 things you will surely miss if you don’t slow down out there:

• Unexpected Buddies
  

That’s right – what expedition around my house would be complete without a little evidence of Gerry. And introducing today – Gerry’s nemesis! One of the easiest ways to see animal tracks is to get down low – reeeaal low, with your head close to the ground. People typically don’t notice the ground in front of them when they’re rushing, so unexpected friends like this are often missed!

• Tiny Shots of Festive Color

Ironically enough, it’s in a gray, wintery world that most color tends to stand out. But our human brains don’t quite catch on. When we see a lot of something in front of us (like snow for example), our mind wants us to think that it’s all uniform. Sort of like a white noise on a television set, our brain decides ‘there’s nothing there’. But you can show your brain who’s boss by slowing down and focusing – you might be amazed at what is right in front of you.

• Things That Hang On

Have you ever really looked at climbing vines? Many of them have small suckers, a lot like a gecko’s foot. These suckers latch onto trees, fences and whatever else they can find. Even though they dry out in winter, these suckers are still hangin’ on.

• Things That Let Go

If there’s one lesson that trees can teach you, it’s that sometimes you just gotta let go. Every fall, trees (at least ones with leaves like these) draw in all their nutrients to their core. This is why leaves turn such gorgeous colors, they’re losing nutrients to the trunk. In winter, the tree is in 100% self preservation mode, so the leaves let go.

• Things That Don’t Follow the Crowd

If that’s not a poster for perseverance, I don’t know what is.

I wonder what you’d see if you took the 1/4 pace challenge? Let’s hear your tales!

What do you get when you mix fire and ice?

A whole lot of awesome, that’s what.

Seeing how we’re starting to enter into ‘Winter Temperatures: The Extreme Edition’ around here, I thought it would be a great time to put all of the cold to some creative use. Plus, all of this gray outside can make people squirrelly. Enter the Icy Candle Holder. I swear, it’s going to be the next Snuggie.

All you’ll need is an empty can – big, small, whatever you have – (although tuna sized cans would make for particularly cute holders), some water, food coloring and a chunk of plasticine. And if you know me at all, you know I’ve got plenty of plasticine lying about. *Grin*

Start off by cleaning out your can and giving it a quick dry with a tea towel. Next, use your hands (or feet, if you’re really talented) to form it into a tea light shape. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be Bernini to pull this off. Starting off with a bit of clay the size of a rum ball should do the trick. Stick your chunk of clay into the bottom of the can – this will serve as where the candle will be set when your masterpiece is done.

Next, fill ‘er up! Add water to the top and a dash of food coloring and head on outside to find a good spot for it to freeze. Letting the water freeze for awhile before adding color will give you some cool streaky designs, while adding it right away will give you a nice blended look. When the whole lot is frozen, a quick run under warm water will loosen the ice and voila! – a wintery candle holder to add a bit of color to your winter world!

I’d love to see some of your creations, so send some my way (pictures, please no ice in the mail) if you try it out!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go and shovel purple snow.

Field notes:

-Hat on wet hair does not a warm girl make.

-Adding bird seed to the water will gain you some feathered friends.

-If attempting while windy, be prepared for lovely food colored-splash on pristine white snow. (see above) This might result in neighbors thinking your dog is terribly ill. Oh my.

(Yes it’s a cheesy title, but who doesn’t like a little alliteration at the end of a long week?)

Here’s Gerry’s latest photo shoot. As you can see, he’s sporting his fashionable fur coat for the winter, and is thoroughly enjoying the snow. I thought it would be nice to devote a day to some science. No need to squirm – around here, the science comes with a side of awesome. The next time you’re sledding down a hill, making snow angels or doing donuts in a parking lot (come on, you love it) – here are some snow facts to get the neurons firing.

• The largest snowflake ever to be recorded was in Keogh, Montana. It was fifteen inches across. Seriously, that’s the size of a medium pizza. Mmm.. snow pizza.

• Snow could be a girl’s best friend. Like diamonds, snow is actually a mineral. Although you’d have to explain why your bling was melting.

• The colder it is, the more snow crunches underneath your feet. This is because ice grains rub together creating friction when you walk on them. Cold air makes for even more friction, which gives you more crunchies.

• Snow is about 95% trapped air. This is why snow forts are kind of warm – snow is a great insulator.

• There is a teeny particle of dust inside every snowflake. This can be volcanic ash or even a particle from outer space! Unless of course, you subscribe to the Seussian belief, in which there is a tiny Who-Ville inside every snowflake. I vote for that one.

And that’s a wrap! Enjoy your snowy Friday, my nature friends. Here’s a song to get you started. See you Monday!

We got snowed on last night, mighty snowed on. I woke up to a blanket of white this morning, but a check on the forecast shows that temperatures are going up quickly and my snow-town is soon to become a slush-town. Gross.

We nature lovers aren’t always lucky enough to have sunny with a light breeze. No, sometimes it’s downright awful out there. “Brace weather” I call it – where you can’t go outside for two minutes without screwing your face up inside your scarf and bracing against the world. Sometimes, you even get those little frozen dripsicles under your nose. Delightful.

How do you enjoy nature when brace weather hits? Here’s five ways to connect with the outside, without the frostbite.

• Suck it up – arm yourself with forty layers and go out anyways! Of course, this one only works when you’ve got the right gear for the chill. We don’t want anyone getting hypothermia here. Some of the best experiences outside happen when you’re caught trudging through knee deep snow. Why? It’s exhilarating. You realize again that you’ve got quad muscles. As soon as you stop trying to hide from the precipitation (why do we think that works?), the feeling of being out getting pummeled by snow is really kind of fantastic. So is the feeling of knocking down icicles (yes, I’m four), rolling down a hill and watching all of the other creatures (or kids) muck about. So the next time you think the weather is blech, maybe try heading outside anyways – you may just surprise yourself. And remember, snow=tracks=awesome animal watching!

• Listen. Sometimes, the worst weather can make the best sounds. Although most animals are quiet during storms, the rain, hail, snow, thunder and wind create some pretty neat symphonies. Turning the television, radios and other techy sounds off and listening to the world outside can help you feel connected, while you’re nice and dry inside (roaring fire optional). Try sitting in the middle of a dark room (ignore how creepy that sounds) and pinpointing all of the sounds you hear outside. This is also a great way to trick get the kids involved in some quiet time.

• Use the bad weather to create something new. The obvious one here is – build a snow fort! I don’t care if you’re 9 or 90, building a snow fort probably never gets old. Other alternatives- snow car, snow dog and snow mermaid. The key here is frequent cocoa breaks. But you can also stay in to use bad weather in this way. If you’re a writer, use the dark day to delve into your work. I find the dark winter mornings are like blinders for my mind, helping me to focus on a writing project at hand. Artists, photographers and other creative types can all learn something from the bad weather because the light and sounds are so different and dynamic.

• When the weather outside is frightful, it might just be the time to enjoy a good book. Thanks to some remarkable authors out there, you can enjoy a little surge of nature in the written word. Thoreau’s Walden is a great read for anyone who fantasizes about packing up and living off the land for awhile (or is perhaps sick of yet another reality show commercial on the tube). Other greats are A Sand County Almanac and anything by David Quammen or Tom Brown. For kids, there are lots of nature related books out there, that can help them plan their next outing. Some of my favourites growing up were Island of the Blue Dolphins (I still want a fort made of whale ribs) and the Beatrix Potter series. What are your faves for you or the kids?

• Have a nature backup plan. Now, this one involves a bit of planning, but trust me – it’s worth it and you and the kids will love it. The key here is to go out before the bad weather hits and collect your favourite bits of nature. Dried leaves, pressed flowers, rocks – anything goes (of course, we like to leave the living things in their homes). Put all your great finds into a memory box or cloth bag of sorts and presto- you’ve got yourself some portable nature to whip out anytime you’re itching to get outside and the weather won’t cooperate. If you’ve got kids, the dreary outside can be a great opportunity to research your latest nature goodies.

So there you have it.  As always, comments are open – let’s hear your thoughts! How do you enjoy nature when bad weather hits?

We all have our secrets. Today, I thought I’d introduce you to one of mine.

This is Gerry. Say hi to him!

Gerry is an Eastern Gray Squirrel that has been inspiring me for months. Everyday, he comes around to the patio outside of my office (lucky writer, I know) and eats binges on the seeds that I have so graciously tossed out for the wildlife. Of course, Gerry has grown to be a pretty hefty squirrel (in fact he probably weighs about as much as a cat at this point), so the birds have to get up pretty early to get the jump on him!

As a busy writer/illustrator/educator/aspiring nature superhero, life can get pretty hectic. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget about the simple things – the reasons why we do what we do. For me, animals, nature and science are my thing. My shtick. Having Gerry (and his assorted friends) around outside the door is a great reminder of why it is that I do what I do. I know many of you reading are also nature superheros, so Gerry is a reminder to you too. But I digress.

So, my top 3 favorite things about squirrels? Glad you asked.

#3 – They have no thumbs. Yep, they accomplish all of their squirrel-tastic tasks without any thumbs. If I had no thumbs, my writingwouldprobablylooklikethis. But this guy climbs trees, scares off cats (I’ve seen him do it!) and otherwise kicks squirrel booty without so much as an opposable digit. Fantastic.

#2 -They stand up for what they believe in, and when needed, yell at you. We’ve all been minding our own business, walking under a tree, when suddenly we hear it. Grinding chitter-chatter coming from above our heads. Alas, it is Gerry (or one of his relatives) reaming us out for daring to walk under his tree. Forget the fact that we outweigh Gerry a hundred-fold and that he’s got no thumbs. Nope, squirrels stick up for themselves. No matter how big (or human) their foes are.

#1 – That crazy tail-bopping thing they do. If you’ve spent any time with squirrels (why wouldn’t you, really?) – you know what I’m talking about. They’ll hop and scamper along, with their tails bopping up and down in weird, jumbly rhythms. I’m convinced that there is some sort of behavioral/evolutionary reason for all of this bopping, but I have yet to devise a scheme experiment to figure it out. Is it a signal of some kind? Reflective of their physiology? Only Gerry knows.

And now my friends, I leave you with a picture of Gerry – decked out 300 style. You know, the movie about the Persians and the battle for Thermopylae? He is a squirrel to be reckoned with. Epic, no?

I’d love to hear your own backyard wildlife stories – feel free to introduce us in the comments!

Good morning on this snowy day!

Just wanted to pop in and show you a teaser of some new clay illustrations I’ve been working on for some Wild EduCards (flash cards for your little one, done Wild-Jess style)!

These cards will be available by download in the Trading Post soon (that flashy new link up top) for a very reasonable price – one buck!

This sort of reminds me of Willy Wonka’s lickable wallpaper, no? Please don’t lick your computer.

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently led a few workshops for 60 12 and 13 year olds, who were very interested in changing the world for the better. We spoke about mixing different mediums to send positive messages, and about how each person can make a difference no matter what their passions are. Of course, one of my favourite mediums is clay, so I let them loose with a few colours and some illustration board. I wanted to see what they would come up with, if challenged to create something with a positive message.

Their results were incredible – It was great to see how aware these kids actually are – issues like biodiversity, poverty, health care, racism, climate change, peace and unity were forefront in their creations. I was also happy to see that, despite representing 4 different schools, they all worked together to make something. I won’t be surprised to hear about any of the awesome things these kids will accomplish in the future. In fact, I can’t wait.

So, as promised, here is a gallery of their work. Great job, folks!

The first piece represents 2 sides of the world – one side is covered in factories, stinky clouds and sludge in the water. The other side is how the students want the Earth to be – with a clean atmosphere, wind turbines, lots of trees, and of course, wildlife. Note the snowman in the North Pole – he’s there to show that we still have ice caps!

The next piece uses a lot of color to show peace, integration and unity. Bright colors and integrated swirls are on one side, with darker, murkier colors on the other. I only gave students a few colors to start with and I noticed there were people in charge of mixing new shades!

The next two pieces focus on water – pollution, fresh water needs and biodiversity are all issues these guys were concerned with. Of course, the first is modeled after the Texas-sized pile of garbage in the Pacific. Note the Cola can…

Finally, diversity, unity, racism and global needs are tackled in the last two. In the first piece here, flowers represent people, in that we are all different in some ways, but the same deep down. Brilliant, no?

The last group tackled a whole gamut of issues, with recycling, health care, biodiversity and peace depicted, around a healthy Earth.

One thing I did notice was how often the teachers peeked at the box of clay. It’s funny how when plasticine’s in the room, it’s hard to ignore…

Here are some creations from teachers who just couldn’t help themselves.

Congrats everybody on a job well done!

Just a quick update to look forward to — Last week, I was fortunate enough to speak at a workshop focused on creating positive change in the world. I chatted with 3 groups of Grade 7s-8s about sustainability, social justice, environmentalism and (of course) clay. The kids were awesome, and they definitely have some world changing ideas.

Just wait ’til you see what they made. Stay tuned for more details and pictures of their masterpieces!

In the meantime, I hope you’re feelin good.

“The reason they want you to fit in is that once you do, they can ignore you.”

-SG

In case you don’t read Seth – you should.

First item: It’s Friday. This makes me happy.

Second, I finished a new pic. You like?

In the spirit of Friday, I thought I’d write a little bit about input and output. No, I’m not talking about hooking up the DVD player, although that is an experience for the books also. I’m talking about the other part of the creative process that many people often ignore.

Here’s the way I see it. Creativity is output. It comes from inside of you (this is starting to sound a bit like Alien, but bear with me) – and then something is formed, stitched and melded together from your own blood, sweat, tears and imagination. It could be writing, dancing, sculpting, basketweaving – it’s all coming from you and ends up representing a snapshot of your life and mindset at the time. You put a lot of yourself into it. That’s why people use the phrase “it took a lot out of me.”

What I’m trying to say is, it’s really hard.

But this is only half of the equation. These are the awesome-super-fired-up-gungho-I’m-the-king-of-the-world moments where you’re buzzing with the excitement of creating, or having created, something entirely you. What’s the other half, then?

The other half of the equation is input. I think of input as a time of mindful, active rest. It is the second piece of bread in the creative sandwich, but too often people ignore it and make a huge mess trying to eat it open-faced style. Input is the time you allow yourself to delve into those activities that you used to enjoy as a kid, or feel niggly, naggy little feelings towards now. Input is the stuff that you want to do, but won’t allow yourself to do because you’ve got work to do.

Maybe your version of input is seeing an opera. Or watching Die Hard for the eighth time (shush, it happens). Maybe it’s sneaking a read of Twilight to see what all the fuss is about (guilty), or sitting on a park bench watching the squirrels. It could be eating an incredible meal with your main squeeze or going to the bookstore and poring over the children’s books you used to love. Input is the stuff that many people see as absolute fluff. But they’re wrong.

Input, unlike creating, is letting the world come to you.

I hear you – “But Jess! I can’t just escape my life and master the art of french cooking! I’ve got pieces to finish, papers to grade, books to write!”*  *(Pick your poison there). But what we’ve forgotten is, input is part of the job. If you don’t have input, you’ll have nothing to turn into output.

You’re no super(wo)man. Neither am I. But for a long time, I gave myself a hard time about needing the time to gain those inputs in my life. I would get frustrated if I caught myself staring out the window, feeling like a desperate spaniel pawing at the outside world. I would steal glances at the latest novel beside me and say to it “in a minute, in a minute”. (So I talk to books sometimes, what’s it to you?)

But you’d be surprised what a little input can do if you allow it into your life. Watch the movie. Take a walk. Get over yourself and how serious you are about your work and do something you actually want to do. The funny thing is, the more you allow yourself to be human and work with yourself (by that I mean, accepting that you need inputs), the more you’ll notice your outputs taking off! When you allow yourself to work with your own process, you’ll become more productive. Promise.

This isn’t just me telling you to go easy on yourself and take a break every now and then. It’s me telling you that input (walks, books, movies, friends, tree climbing) is necessary to any sort of creatively successful life. It’s filling up your mental dictionary. It’s expanding your brain, making new connections and sorting old files. As soon as you realize that input is part of the job, things change.

So go ahead. Don’t ignore half of your job. Enjoy some input time. Yippee-kay-yay – John McClane would be proud.

Details:

“Many things take time to create and to come alive. Be patient.”

I’ve been working on some new illustrations for a book I’m putting together. This is the first one. Incidentally, chameleons are great self-help gurus.

Details:

It happens all the time. Just when you think you Know A Thing, you take one more look and — bammo — your world turns upside down.

I’m all about seeing what we can learn from the natural world. You’re here, so you already know that. The latest in spider news actually holds a big secret for you – are you ready?

They discovered a vegetarian spider. *cue daunting music*

No takers? Bear with me.

Ok, here’s the scene: in the tropics of Mexico and Costa Rica, scientists have been studying this fellow for awhile now. Back in the late 1800s, scientists named this spider Bagheera kiplingi. Sound familiar? Literary buffs (or Disney enthusiasts) will recognize Bagheera as the straight-laced, slightly uptight panther from Kipling’s the Jungle Book. Nice little homage there.

Fast-forward now. So they’re out there in the forest checking the spider out (as one does) and they notice it using stealthy jungle-spider moves to attack its prey. But here’s the rub – it would leap Tobey Maguire style not to catch bugs or any other critter – it was catching acacia buds. No insects for this spider, he’s a veggiesaurus. They use their mad spider skillz to avoid ants (who protect the acacia buds), and chow down on a plant-rich diet.

Yeah, yeah – I hear you. You’re not into spiders. You’re not a scientist in Costa Rica spending your days swatting flies under a canopy of greenery. So why should you care? Think about it.

There are 40,000 spider species (that we know of) wandering around the globe. Until now, they have all been classified as meat-eaters. So if you’re a scientist out there, knee-deep in the fact that 40,000 out of 40,000 spiders are carnivores, how likely are you to notice that one teeny spider is munching on a plant?

How many people walked by this spider because they saw what they wanted to see? Or because they saw what everybody else saw?

Everytime you look around you, your brain fills in the gaps of your perception. This is why you can read sentences missing whole chunks of words.

C n y u rea th s?

See?

So your brain can fill in the letters that are missing, because statistically the letter ‘a’ goes between ‘c’ and ‘n’ more often than ‘p’ or ‘e’. We all know that ‘cpn’ is not a word.

This is how your brain works with language, but I’d bet you a dollar to a donut that overall perception follows the same patterns. If 100% of the time when you see a flower and it’s not talking to you, you’re going to develop some pretty strong opinions about plants. Let’s face it – sometimes ‘facts’ can drag you down.

So what does the veggiesaurus spider teach us? Do your absolute best to approach your life (problems, solutions, work, writing, creations) from a new standpoint, as often as you can.

Sometimes, all it takes is a walk outside to clear your head. Write down everything you think you know about a situation, and challenge yourself to counter each point, as strongly as you can. Create within yourself a mindset that allows you to be surprised. Develop a state of mind wherein you suspend judgment. Or, maybe just don’t be such a stubborn arse all the time.

Depending on patterns is inevitable, and most of the time it will help keep you alive. After all, [hot stove + hand = bad] is probably a good pattern to notice. But too often, we miss out on a lot because we’re seeing what we’ve geared ourselves to see. Lightning can strike, but normally it occurs in the form of a quiet insight. Train yourself to notice the vegetarian spiders of the world, and you just might be surprised what else you find.

See you next time. Til then, I’m gone, man… solid gone.

Artists and writers, listen up. Scientists, you too. We all play nice here and this post is for both of you.

Looking for something to really help you open up and create a masterpiece? What about a clever trick that just might lead you to stunning scientific epiphanies? Are you ready?

Sfumato. Kind of sounds like a weird sort of tomato-fungus hybrid, doesn’t it? But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Sfumato can change your life.

Literally, sfumato means ‘to go up in smoke’. It is normally used to describe an Italian painting technique, most notably demonstrated by our pal Da Vinci and his Mona Lisa. The wispy thin layers of paint endlessly applied over each other created one of the most ambiguously beautiful images in our history. Sfumato is why this painting has become one of the most talked about icons of all time. Is she smiling? Smirking? Pregnant? Happy? Innocent? Seductive? What is her deal? The Mona Lisa personifies sfumato because we really have no idea what is going on with her.

But sfumato is more than just a paint technique.

In life, sfumato is the principle of accepting and embracing the unknown. It is seeing the paradoxes and contradictions – the gray areas, the smoky hazes and the veils between ideas. Da Vinci once said that the things in life that make us the most happy will also make us the most sad. That’s a paradox if I’ve ever heard one. To me, this is a lot like what Achilles says in Troy: “Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed.” Life is full of contradictory ideas like this. Joy/sorrow, journey/destination, good/evil, incubation/output, change/permanence, logic/imagination; we live with the tension between these ideas everyday, but we don’t really think about it. The principle of sfumato allows you to contemplate these ideas simultaneously, while accepting the fact that you just don’t know.

The Big, Bad Unknown

Typically, when faced with the unknown we get anxious. We freak out. We enter denial. We become control freaks, desperately trying to align our world in clean, right angles and tidy, colour coded boxes. But this is no way to view the world – at least not if you want to do something extraordinary. You must be willing to not know, which inherently means you are willing to absolutely fall on your arse and fail remarkably. When you start a new project, admit it – you have no idea where it may lead. You may create the next bestseller or the world’s heaviest paperweight – who knows? You might seek the cure for cancer and find it, or you might lead the way to something else or (just as remarkably) add to the pile of ten thousand ideas that don’t work. You just don’t know. Embrace that.

Why Sfumato Is Where It’s At

If you’re okay with the concept of uncertainty, you are open to more. More sights, more sounds, more tastes, more experiences, more ideas. If something comes at you when you’re hell bent on forcing certainty, the chances are good that you will miss it, because it wasn’t part of your plan. It might even bug you. If you are open to doubt, you are open to all sides – the yesses and the nos, the rights and the wrongs. Most importantly, if you are open to the unknown, you won’t miss your hunches. And hunches, my friend, are quite possibly your best opportunity for success, in work and life.

Say it with me. Sfumato.

Allow yourself the possibility of seeing things differently.

Yes, this post is ambiguous. See my point?

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful..."

The macaw is a beautiful creature that is quite well known for its intelligence, bubbly birdsonality and downright eerie ability to mimic human speech. But since it’s International Macaw Day (I just declared it), I thought I would treat you to some trivia on our flashy, florid, feathered friends.

5. They are rowdy party goers. In other words, they love spending time in a big flock of 20-30 individuals. There are 17 different species of macaws and they’re all the life of the party. Just don’t ask them to keep it down, because they just won’t listen.

4. Don’t let the cute face fool you — the hyacinth macaw is the biggest of its kind, with a wingspan of four feet. They also have a tongue that has a bone in it, that helps them easily crack through the tough shells of nuts and seeds. Take that, Tweety.

3. They self-medicate. You know how you run off to the drugstore and grab yourself some of that pink stuff when you have a stomach ache? Animals do that too, they just don’t have ready access to drugstores. Instead, they use what’s around them. Macaws (and a whole truckload of other animals) have been known to eat damp soil, which helps to neutralize their stomach and all of its fruity-diet induced erks and aches.

2. They get married. Ok, so that was wildly anthropomorphic, but macaws really do mate for life. (In fact, I bet their ‘divorce’ rate is much better than ours…) Once a macaw has found its other half, they will breed together, groom each other, share food and quote Tennyson. Bottom line: if your marriage is in trouble, perhaps you should talk to a macaw.

1. Most of them are lefties. Yeah, you heard me. Lefties. Scientists have determined this by carefully filming and documenting dominant hand/claw preference for hours on end. They probably could have saved some time by trying to high-five them.

So there you have it. Up next, International Buy Me A Sandwich Day. Any takers?

As a writer and creative soul, I’ve hit a lot of blocks. Writer’s blocks, artist’s blocks, verbal blocks, Lego blocks – I’ve experienced them all.

One thing I’ve found that always helps is music. But not just any music. When times are tough and you need do something epic, you need to turn to the big guns. When you’ve got blocks, you need to blast them. And blast you shall – with decibels.

So here it is. The official Wild Earth Integration Top 10 List of Songs for when you Need to Kick Arse. Please note that these songs are geared to help beat the blocks, so you can do anything fantastic and difficult. Like write a paper, paint a picture, fight a ninja or solve world hunger. They are in random order, because, well, I am a commitment phobe when it comes to lists.

1. Queen – I Want To Break Free — For Pete’s sake, Freddy Mercury is wearing a mini-skirt and tights. You have to at least give him your attention for that. In all honesty though, this song can break down barriers in your mind, get you revved up and commit you to your task at hand. Wig optional.

2. Hans Zimmer - Chevaliers de Sangreal — You probably don’t even realize how many of Zimmer’s songs you have etched into your neurons. Seriously. Google him and you’ll see just how much of your brain he owns. This one in particular works its way up into an incredible crescendo that is worthy of the masterpiece you are creating. If I ever met Elvis, Einstein, Da Vinci – I’d want this song to be playing in the background.

3. Metallica – One –It is paramount here that you listen to the Metallica and Symphony version of this song. Not only is it an astounding piece of integration, mixing the Metal of the Ica with brass, strings and sophistication, ‘One’ is just one of those songs that gets inside your blood and makes it run just a little bit faster. Perfect for getting your butt in gear.

4. Moulin Rouge - Come What May — Yes, yes, I hear you. Moulin Rouge is a musical and the actors aren’t even ‘real singers’. But hear me out. Ewan McGregor has a voice. Not just “oh, yeah, he can kinda sing, maybe at parties and stuff.” He has a voice. The sheer ‘beltiness’ of this scene is enough to get through any block, and you’ll be on your way to success before you can say ‘Why is John Lequizamo so short?’

5. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird — ‘Nuff said.

6. The Who – Love Reign O’er Me — Like Metallica’s ‘One’, this song gets inside you and makes you forget about what you were thinking about (which is how much you want to be a rockstar/artist/writer/non-loser) and takes you to a whole different arena. That arena is the one wherein You. Just. Rock.

7. u2 - Beautiful Day — Ironically enough, I’ve heard at least 5 people say that if they were to set a song everyday to wake them up, this would be it. Maybe it’s the trembling guitar riffs, maybe it’s Bono’s glasses… but this song makes you feel like you can run a Marathon, shoes optional.

8. Elton John & George Michael — Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me — Of course, pretty much any Elton song could be on this list, the man could cough into a can and it would become a hit record overnight. But I digress. This is one that is close to my heart because it has gotten me through many a 4am-why-can’t-I-finish-this-sentence-already writing dip. It’s passion, and that is exactly what you need when you want to kick some serious … well, you know.

9. Great Big Sea – Ordinary Day — This list wouldn’t be complete without some Canadian content – (Represent!) Great Big Sea is one of those bands that appeals to all ages. Even my own father, who is prone to listen to ‘Easy Sunday Country’ on the AM radio, gets the appeal of GBS. The beating rhythms and raspy front man work wonders on a mind that is heavy with (as yet) unattained goals.

10. Michael Jackson – Thriller — I debated long and hard before including this song on the list, mainly because it has been so hyped up in the past couple of decades. Then I realized – that’s part of its charm. You just can’t listen to this song without getting up and trying your best to do the moves (if you can get more than three people doing this in a mall with you, send me footage). In the very least, this song will elicit you to chair-dance while doing the zombie head jolts. There is no such thing as a block when MJ is in the house.

So what have we learned tonight, folks? The key to getting rid of blocks and kicking absolute arse does not lie in rational thinking about goals, or drowning one’s sorrows in root brusky. It lies in passion. Passion for what you are doing and passion for why you are doing it. Whether these songs are from your favorite genres of music or not, the one thing they all share is passion. And that, my friends, is quite contagious.

Now it’s your turn. What music helps get out of a rut?

Note: Songs that are better left for non-productive days = anything by James Blunt.

Hey folks! Check out this dandy article on neuroscience and music – published by the fine folks over at Cramscience. If you’re into popular science and hit music, you’ll love it. Click here to find it – hope you enjoy!

I was at the library yesterday indulging on my somewhat healthy obsession with children’s books and came across this gem. Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes takes me back to the days when I used to toddle to the local library with an armful of books I could hardly carry and subsequently hole myself away reading Matilda in a corner for hours.

Inside are recipes inspired by Dahl’s amazing books, like ‘Wormy Spaghetti’ from The Twits and ‘Mosquitoes’ Toes and Wampfish Roes Most Delicately Fried’ from James and the Giant Peach. I think my favorite is the ‘Enormous Crocodile’, imaginatively built from a baguette covered in spinach and artichoke ‘scales’, with hard boiled eggs for eyes. Of course, you can make a teeny crocodile with a small submarine bun.

The book filled with Quentin Blake’s unique illustrations, so if you’re a fan of Roald Dahl, or maybe just looking for a sandwich that can look back at you, this book is tops. Now, I’m off to find myself some spinach…

More about Quentin Blake here!

My first plasticine zebra!

It is a truth universally accepted that if you don’t stand out, you’re much less likely to rock the boat. People might call this being a wallflower, but in the wild, blending in can save your hide. What can we learn from the camouflaged creatures out there?

Tiger stripes make sense. The shimmering gold and black plays tricks with your eyes, so much so that you can’t make out their bodies, which are inevitably stalking their prey in the grass with a ghost-like coolness. (Admit it, tigers are to cool as Tom Cruise is to kooky). They look like the grass, the grass looks like them – score one for camouflage, the world makes sense again.

So, what about the zebra? A black and white horse in the middle of the browns, yellows and greens of sub-Saharan Africa? What kind of a monochromatic joke is this? Would it not make more sense for them to blend in? The secret lies in the bigger picture.

It’s called disruptive patterning and it’s pretty much one of the coolest tricks of the wild trade. Here’s how it works. Of course, if a zebra were out there on its own, its stripes would stand out like a sore thumb. Or more accurately, it would stand out like something bright, black and white in a land where browns and greens abound. They’d be eaten up in a heartbeat.

But here’s the catch. Hardly ever is there just one zebra. Instead, they’re always hanging out together in large groups. Social animals have safety in numbers on their side. Zebras take it one step further. Disruptive patterning works so well because their predators can’t tell where one zebra ends and other begins. Their audacious stripes confuse everybody, so lions (or anyone else looking for a meal) don’t know where to attack. To a lion, a herd of zebras can look like one big, black and white blob. So, even though they stand out, they’re really as safe as almost anything else in the Sahara.

What can we learn from this? If it suits you, you can choose to blend in. You can be like everything around you and never worry about rocking the boat. But if you decide to be different – like a zebra, fear not.  Because soon enough, others will notice your bright stripes and they’ll join you.

Then, before you know it, you’ll be running with a whole crowd of zebras and you’ll wonder why you were so worried about standing out.*

*In case you missed it, I’m not just talking about what you wear!

As an integrative knowledge specialist, I’m familiar with the writing styles of all disciplines. I am also (admittedly) a bit of a grammar fiend. If you’re looking for constructive help with your masterpiece, I can help you out.

For editing and proofreading services, just drop me a line at wildearthintegration@gmail.com. Whether you are writing a paper, dissertation, cover letter, query letter, book or the back of a cereal box – we can work together to make it polished and ready for the world.

For emergency editing (college and university students, you know what I mean!), just specify your timeline and we’ll work some magic!

Happy Writing!