Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them

I have a very old sweatshirt with these words (Ralph Waldo Emerson's) accompanied by an embroidered leaf on the front.

I was poking around today on previous blog posts to see if I'd written about this quote before.

It turned out that I had referenced it in this post, which reminded me of a magical morning seeing spider webs in the Garden. And that experience was 2 1/2 years ago.

This quote is on my mind again, as I'm percolating thoughts about a newsletter piece about using cool apps, software, and digital technology to enhance nature observation and appreciation.

I'm totally convinced that direct experience and observation of nature is what's most important and compelling; what I like about current technology is the ability to learn more easily and immediately, complete with visuals and/or audio, whether it's at my study desktop (most often), or through some other sort of digital technology.

My guess is that our ability to learn about nature and natural history will be increasingly expanded by the ability to connect to information on a iPod Touch or similar device.

Apps from the National Audubon Society make their guides on plants, birds, mammals and other organisms available, as well as applications such as Thayer's Birding software eBird, which brings Cornell Ornithology Lab's information to your desktop or laptop. I've had excellent success with Lang Elliot's CD guides to night sounds, bird calls, etc. downloaded to my iPod and played via portable speakers during programs.

How cool is it to be able to listen to various cricket and katydid songs, not to mention tree frogs and other night sounds, when you're actually out there trying to distinguish between them?

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Appreciating nature

I was 'tagged' a couple of days ago by a fellow blogger who lives in rural Colorado, and appreciates nature in the same way that I do.

The tagging involves writing a six word haiku or memoir, and posting it, and sending it to five others. Strange for most of us, since we generally aren't that type. But this is an interesting way to connect across the 'blogosphere' to others that are interested in the natural world, and gardening for nature.

Here's mine: Live, learn, and enjoy nature. Ok, it's only five words, but it about sums it up for me. Emerson wrote something much more profound: 'Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them.'

This is one of my favorite images from an extraordinary morning where the spider webs were everywhere.

If I hadn't been out, I wouldn't have seen them.

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Spiders in the mist

Amazingly the rain last night was over three inches, and it wasn't hard to imagine the garden giving a sigh of relief.

But more remarkable was the early morning mist, and as I went out the front door to walk, a huge web was sparkling with dew.

The walk around the botanical garden was amazing. There were spider webs everywhere -- on the grass, in the trees, in shrubs.... I don't think I've ever seen so many.

Coming back home, I was able to get a couple of good shots of the porch web, and then discovered the two above the vegetable garden.


Another remarkable thing is when I went out later, all of the webs were gone. I had never really given any thought to spider webs as being temporary, but many garden orb-weavers build webs in the evening and take them down in the morning (I found out after a bit of web research).

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