Nature Journaling and Haiku

I held a class on nature journaling and poetry (mostly haiku) this past Saturday. My intention was to get someone good to teach the class, someone in the nature journaling or poetry "business", but it ended up being me. The people that attended were nice about my lack of fame and talent and I think everyone had a good time.

Journaling serves several good purposes; it allows you to observe nature in a way that you might not normally. You never really SEE something until you are forced to write about it and draw it. It is also an excellent escape from everyday stress. It is hard to focus on the teeniest tiniest part of a plant or try and find just the right words for a haiku and think about money problems or family issues at the same time.

I was pleasantly surprised that several of the attendees of the class were young adults that had real talent. One young man in particular turned out to be quite a good haiku-er. I doubt that is a word, but whatever, he was really good at tossing out a haiku virtually on demand. Not that haiku is supposed to be demanding, but to some people it doesn't come very naturally. Something about the 5-7-5 format, or the simplicity of it that makes it hard? Everyone in the group got the hang of it on some level though. I had never written a haiku (that I remember anyways) before this past weekend. Turns out I can do it, not without counting syllables on my fingers, but still....

Conifer standing
Alone against the gray sky
Only hint of green


Stillness and quiet
Bird silhouette flying by
Cold doesn't halt life


Nature is a natural thing to "haiku" about. Try it. It's just 17 syllables. Everyone has a poet hidden somewhere inside.

Holiday Potty Talk

I am sorry I haven't posted this week. We have something going through our home- the Rotovirus, the Novovirus, the Devil. Whatever it is, it is ugly and has so far passed through 4 of the 7 of us. Our hands are cracked from washing and I have the smell of Lysol tattooed to the inside of my nostrils. I am so sick of talk of poo and barf that I have lost 5 pounds just from thinking about all the nastiness (well that and all the "stuff" I left behind in the toilet if you know what I mean...) There is nothing like a good case of gastrointestinal virus to bring you to your knees. Why in the world would anyone "invent" vomiting and diarrhea? I mean I know the purpose is to expel the virus from your system, but ewww. Then the expelling passes germs to others and then they must expel. Viscious circle of poison. Hopefully this circle will have an end soon.

I will be back on here with something relevant-ish to nature that isn't bathroom related in the next few days, until then, I hope that no one else has a visit from the funk that has been lurking in our house for the past week.

Moldy Food

News is that the DEC is telling people not to feed ducks and geese. I have fed my share of waterfowl, especially when I was young. I always felt slightly anxious about it though because it seemed weird to feed wild animals bread from a bag. And normally we fed the birds bread that we didn't want anymore, translation- moldy bread. I used to convince myself that moldy bread was fine, kind of like feeding them penicillin/antibiotics (after all Alexander Fleming saw the Penicillium mold destroy bacteria on his petri dish), and that can't hurt them, it might even help them...? Nope. And now I have a scientific reason to back up my anxiety. Apparently moldy food causes aspergillosis, which, according to the DEC website is "...a fungus that grows in the birds' lungs and air sacs causing respiratory distress and, eventually, suffocation." So that isn't a good way to die. Not that there is a good way to die. Same goes for moldy cracked corn and anything else moldy you might feel compelled to feed birds. They can find enough non-moldy food on their own, even through the winter, to make it just fine without the "treats" we throw their way.

Days like today, when the temperature drops and the snow starts falling, you wonder how birds make it at all. Some don't. But most hunker down and fluff up their downy underfeathers and wait. I think that is what I am going to do tonight, except I will start a fire in the woodstove, grab a book and relax. And I'll try not to eat moldy bread.

The Cinnamon Bear

I try not to get into debates with people about issues that are sensitive, I have opinions on sensitive issues for sure. But I know enough that every time something controversial comes up and people with differing views talk about it, it ends up with someone mad or offended and no one changes their mind, so I keep most of my opinions on real touchy subjects to myself (or I discuss them with my husband, who luckily, shares my opinions on major issues). That isn't going to be the case here. I am going to say something that some people won't like (kind of like my blog on global warming), but OH WELL.

My last blog was about hunting and I meant it when I said that I have no problem with hunters that hunt for the right reasons and do it the right way. If you are getting food for your family or protecting yourself or someone else, I don't have a problem with killing an animal. But killing for a trophy (and doing whatever you have to to get that trophy) I think is just plain ego-driven and sad.

The picture of the dead Cinnamon Bear in the Corning Leader this week was horrible and the editorial by a Caton resident that followed in today's Leader echoed my feelings about the killing of that bear. I think the beautiful and rare bear that was killed in Caton was the one that visited my backyard (I wrote about this bear in an earlier blog). This was the bear that my kids looked forward to seeing and that my husband and I talked about over and over again because he/she was so different. This was the bear that liked spicy food, cream cheese and frozen strawberry fruit bars. And someone killed it because....? They wanted to get their picture in the paper and then get the bear head stuffed and hang on the wall in their living room? I think there are certain animals that should be "off limits". Those that are unique and/or the "big bucks" that obviously have good genes and keep the herd strong. Hunting and killing these animals isn't manly (or otherwise if you aren't a man), it doesn't help the species you are killing and it isn't even a sport. Gun against animal, not a sport anyways, in my opinion (Gasp! Controversial.)

The man that killed the Cinnamon Bear is probably just as pleased as he can be because he bagged a rare Cinnamon black bear, but he killed something beautiful that gave many people in the Town of Corning/Caton area joy. Worth it? Probably for him. That's what stinks about today's society; what feels good to people and makes them happy often takes precedence over everything else. I had to try and explain to my 10-year old son why someone would kill the Cinnamon bear and I didn't have a good, moral explanation. I had to use the discussion as an opportunity to speak about human ego. I'm not sure he understood, but I get that, because I'm not sure I understand either.