Home » Uncategorized
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Dinosaur plants
It was a long, wet winter but eventually the sun came out. The yard is squishy in spots, but it has never looked more fecund. Clover, chickweed, moss, daffodils and other flowers dot the yard now. The blueberries are budding. I saw my first frog of the year hop into Farthing pond today. The pitcher […]
Lessons from the Incas
This week the Nature Boy is thankful for the ancient Peruvians. Everythingthat’s been going on in the backyard lately, they did it first, and better, too. More specifically, I’m referring to my attempts at: 1. Growing (massive amounts of) sweet potatoes 2. Storing, capturing, and distributing water for growing food This moment of recognition-gratitude came […]
Tree Cookies
This month we mourned the passing of this mighty oak, one of the original trees planted on Duke’s West Campus. It was all the buzz in the sociology-psychology building. Sadly, no one could recall the tree’s name. We’ll have to give it the posthumous name of a dead social scientist. Apparently the tree was terminal, […]
Birches
Nature is my first love and main source of inspiration. Lately I’ve been trying to express this in paintings. Bored with watercolors, I recently decided to give encaustic painting a try. This is an ancient form of art using hot melted wax with added pigments, and has a very interesting history. The ancient Greeks used […]
A Walk through Duke Gardens
On Saturday I woke up at the crack of dawn and headed to Duke Gardens. I had a homework assignment due at noon that day for my photography class, and I figured the gardens could provide some interesting subject material. There were snow clouds in the sky, and not a ray of sunshine, which concerned […]
All creatures great and small
Winter Storm Leon moved into Durham last night, dumping several inches of snow along with plummeting temperatures. When I woke up this morning I noticed our feral cats, Sunshine and Gracie, weren’t at their usual spot waiting for me to come out and feed them. I saw their footprints in the snow and followed them […]
The cinnamon bear
I’ve always felt drawn to black bears. Perhaps I am a human-ursine hybrid. Many people over the years have told me that I remind them of a bear. It’s true that I have a keen sense of smell and not the best eyesight in the world. And of course I’m always foraging for my next […]
Three feet high and rising
Yesterday the rains came, completely submerging Northgate Park for a few hours until the water receded. Kudos to our stormwater folks here in Durham; the fact that the water drained so quickly shows that all of their hard work and planning has paid off. It was quite a sight to behold, and for a while […]