A State Champion Yields to Decay and Gravity
July 9, 2022, the State Champion shingle oak at Joe Wheeler State Park succumbed to the forces of age, decay, and gravity…gently in its sleep. This Post serves as a reflective obituary and memorial. Nothing in Nature is static. Permanent is a human construct. Across my career I’ve held several interim or acting positions, wherein […]
Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary: A Tale of Two Extraordinary Women
This Post launches the 14-minute land legacy video tale for the Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary in Huntsville, Alabama. The Post chronicles and presents the year-long video production. Bill Heslip, retired videographer, and I conceived and co-led the effort…Bill Directed; I Produced. Bill dubbed our two-person team Two Guys & A Camera. We enjoyed the project immensely. […]
Mid-August Hike Circuiting a Summit-Glade Racetrack
August 16, 2022, Jim Chamberlain, friend and fellow Nature enthusiast, and I hiked to and circuited the Racetrack Trail at Wade Mountain Nature Preserve, located just north of Huntsville, Alabama. This summit-top limestone glade is a climax plant community dominated by low growing herbaceous species and associated shrubs and trees. I had done little homework […]
Spiritual Wildness in an Urban Setting
August 12, 2022, I visited the 20-acre Indian Creek stream-side property owned and stewarded by Huntsville, Alabama’s Grace United Methodist Church, toured by my friend and Grace UMC parishioner Jim Chamberlain, a fellow Nature-enthusiast. It’s fitting that a church owns this sacred place, where I feel the nearness of a higher Power, immersed in a […]
Special Post for October 2022 PLT Training
I offer this as a new Post, yet it encapsulates three previous Posts from my earlier wanderings on the Land Trust of North Alabama’s Chapman Mountain Nature Preserve in Madison County Alabama. My reason for this break from my normal routine is simple — I will participate October in presenting a Project Learning Tree (PLT) […]
Mid-August Hike — My First Visit to Wade Mountain Nature Preserve
August 16, 2022, I hiked the Racetrack Trail at Wade Mountain Nature Preserve just north of Huntsville, Alabama. Jim Chamberlain, friend and fellow nature enthusiast (below left), led the way on our early morning venture. He had hiked the preserve multiple times; this was my first visit to Wade Mountain. Like all of the Land […]
Cumulus Conspiring to Create a Downpour!
I am a lifetime addict of weather-watching, study, and appreciation. I shamelessly address my addiction from time to time in these weekly photo-essays on Nature-Inspired Life and Living. Wednesday evening, August 10 found me enraptured on my Madison, Alabama patio, captivated by a few energized cumulus developing upwind of me across a 200-degree arc, from […]
Snippets of Nature from Two July Overnights at a Cave City, KY Hotel
July 27-29, 2022, Judy and I, along with Alabama grandsons Jack (14) and Sam (8), spent two nights at Cave City, Kentucky to visit one of my bucket list National Parks, Mammoth Cave. Although the world’s most extensive cave (420 miles of mapped passageways) provides lots of fodder on Nature-Inspired Life and Living, that is […]
New Forest in a Jurassic World
Along with our two Alabama grandsons (Jack and Sam), Judy and I spent the nights of July 27 and 28, 2022 in Cave City, Kentucky. Our primary purpose was to visit Mammoth Cave National Park, just ten miles from our hotel. Because Dinosaur World is right there at the Cave City interstate exchange, we could […]
Turn, Turn, Turn at DeSoto State Park: Nothing in Nature is Static
I returned to Alabama’s DeSoto State Park July 20 and 21, 2022 for an Alabama State Parks Foundation Board meeting. Arriving too late for an extensive hike the first afternoon, I managed only to hike down to the Azalea Cascade Boardwalk the next morning before the meeting and to stop by DeSoto Falls the second […]
A Recent Dose of Nostalgia: Nature-Inspired Aging and Healing
This Post serves as my retrospection on two recent serious health issues affecting my life and elevating my relationship with and reliance upon Nature: November 8, 2021 left shoulder replacement surgery and March 24, 2022 stroke. This Post represents the evolution of what I call Nature-Inspired Aging and Healing! Shoulder Replacement Surgery I began […]
Mid-July Circuit of the Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail
July 17, 2022, I hiked the Rainbow Mountain Loop Trail at Madison, Alabama’s Rainbow Mountain Nature Preserve. My intent was not to rush from start to finish, but to proceed slowly and deliberately…with eyes wide open, searching for what lay hidden in plain sight. This Post offers observations, reflections, and photographs from my three-hour stroll. […]