Joe Wheeler State Park’s New “Awesome Trail”
Allow me to set the stage for this Post with a simple quote from Wendell Berry: Outdoors we are confronted everywhere with wonders; we see that the miraculous is not extraordinary, but the common mode of existence. It is our daily bread. The Alabama State Parks Dirt Pass Trail Crew completed the eight-mile Awesome Trail […]
Visiting a Southern Sanctuary: Nature’s Insistence Upon Renewal
I visited the Goldsmith Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary June 6 and presented my reactions, reflections, and photographs in a June 23, 2020 Blog Post: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/06/23/visiting-a-southern-sanctuary-my-orientation-visit/ Please see that earlier Post for general information about the Sanctuary. I’m following up now with a second Post, this one focusing on what I’ll term Nature’s insistence upon renewal. Suffice […]
Visiting a Southern Sanctuary: My Orientation Visit
Virtual Orientation: Southern Sanctuary I’ve often mentioned how fortunate we are in north Alabama to have so much wildness within an hour-and-a-half drive: several State Parks; Bankhead National Forest; Sipsey Wilderness; Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge; County Parks; Greenways; Nature Preserves; and the Goldsmith Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary, which I visited for the first time June 6, […]
Relative Motion
A statement of fundamental Nature-essence: Everything in Nature is relative in space and time, including our own lives. Nature-Inspired Poetry I’ve toyed with Blog-Post-by-verse a few times since I enrolled in a beginning poetry course this past winter at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Funny that I spent much of my professional higher education […]
Earth Day Visit: Wildflowers along the Wells Memorial Trail at Monte Sano State Park
May 19, 2020 I issued a Post reflecting my Earth Day hike on the Monte Sano State Park Wells Memorial Trail: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/05/19/earth-day-visit-to-the-cathedral-forest-along-the-wells-memorial-trail-at-monte-sano-state-park/ Here is the opening paragraph from that Post: Earth Day (April 22, 2020) Judy and I (along with 12-year-old grandson Jack) hiked Sinks, Keith, and Wells Memorial Trails at Monte Sano State Park. […]
Seasons Flowing with the Waters of Bradford Creek
I’ll begin with the broad lesson I draw from these photos and reflections: Just as the waters of Bradford Creek flow ceaselessly seaward, Nature’s seasons advance reliably day after day, annually completing a full cycle. So too do the seasons of our lives pass year after year. Seasonal Progress Across Geography I published a Blog […]
Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge Spring Green-up
We’re now nearly 11 weeks beyond the call to distance safely from our circle of friends, family, and associates. Judy and I speak of being under Covid-19 house-arrest. We continue our daily neighborhood walks. In addition, I escape as often as I can to local trail-hiking and greenway-biking. I prepared this Post after a Spring […]
Earth Day Visit to the Cathedral Forest along the Wells Memorial Trail at Monte Sano State Park
Earth Day (April 22, 2020) Judy and I (along with 12-year-old grandson Jack) hiked Sinks, Keith, and Wells Memorial Trails at Monte Sano State Park. Because we were continuing to deal with Covid-19 restrictions, Jack sat in the third-row SUV seat and all of us wore face masks while in the vehicle. On the trails […]
Acorn Rondeau
Acorn Rondeau I am NOT a poet, yet I enjoy the magic of words. Winter quarter I completed a beginner’s poetry-writing course at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Here’s the poem I wrote for a class assignment: Acorn Rondeau (Rondeau is a kind of poem that […]
Introducing Nature’s Richness to Residents of Wellpoint Assisted Living
May 7, 2020 I led a Facebook Live virtual tour along Big Cove Creek Greenway just north of Hays Preserve. Residences at Wellpoint, a new assisted living community just a mile from where I led the tour, produced the video. My personal goal includes reaching out to multiple audiences… from K-12 across the lifespan to […]
A Covid-19 Escape Hike — Inspiration from Nature’s Curiosities
I published a previous Post (including one of my poems) based upon my March 21, 2020 Covid-19 hike at nearby Rainbow Mountain Preserve: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/03/24/resurrection-fern-a-metaphor-in-verse-for-natures-simplicity/ I focused that Post on the wondrous nature of resurrection fern. I subsequently issued a Post on spring wildflowers I encountered on that same spring equinox hike: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/04/27/a-covid-19-escape-hike-wildflower-lift/ A lot more […]
A Covid-19 Escape Hike — Wildflower Lift
Covid-19 Escape March 21, 2020, in the midst of our societal Covid-19-induced social distancing, I hiked nearby Rainbow Mountain Preserve. I posted March 24 about the spectacular resurrection fern profusion that afternoon at the Preserve just three miles from my front door: https://stevejonesgbh.com/2020/03/24/resurrection-fern-a-metaphor-in-verse-for-natures-simplicity/ I saw enough beauty, magic, wonder, and awe to distill to two […]