Does the natural world communicate with us? (1/10/2026)

I have started to read a book by Robert Macfarlane entitled “Is a River Alive.” In the introduction he writes that his 9-year-old son asked him the title and premis of the book, and when he told him, his son said: “well, that is going to be a short book, of course it is.” Reading this I wondered whether nature or the natural environment is talking to us. I am a pantheist and would like to argue that even rocks, stones, and clouds are alive and communicate with us, even though they do not have DNA.

This idea reminds me of a post I wrote some time ago entitled: “Does the world love us.” These are interesting questions. I know that I love the world. I take a walk with my dogs in the woods behind our home almost every morning. I wrote about this in 2018 (The Old Man and the Woods), where I describe taking a walk with our previous dog Jake. To think I called myself old more than 7 years ago. I had just re-read Hemingway’s book “The Old Man and the Sea,” and felt inspired by it. I just used the title to spin off the title of my post.

I try to live in the moment whenever I am out in nature. I always look around, take it all in and try to learn. For example, I love large beech trees; I like their elephant skin like bark, and I love their root spread. During the past years I have tried to make an inventory of the large beech trees in the woods behind our home. I do this by getting off the trails and bushwacking. To date I have found 17 bigger trees. I have no idea how old they are, but I always wonder if they were planted by folks that lived back there before it was converted to park land, and unlike the pines, oaks and maples these beeches were never harvested.

One of the beeches I found the other day

I am in LOVE, whenever I am in nature. Even in times like the other morning when we ran into Blondie, the blond coyote and our two dogs go absolutely insane. But as the song goes “Love hurts,” and I often find it more entertaining that aggravating, even if their howls and barks are deafening and they are trying to pull your arm off (yes, we always walk them on the leash). Those coyotes are getting bolder. Early in the morning, around 2 am on January 1 and 3 they were in our neighborhood, just a few houses over. Their howling and japing woke our dogs, and our dogs woke us. It was crazy.

But back to our woods. Before the invasion of the English settlers, the woods behind our home were the home of the Kiskiack tribe, a group that was part of the Powhatan Confederacy. Kiskiack means wide land or broad place in their native language, and it also seems to be the name of the town they lived in, near the current Yorktown. From what I can determine, the woods must have been cleared in spots for agriculture using slash and burn. Corn was their main crop. The area was also used as hunting grounds.

The Brits eventually cleared large tracks for the cultivation of tobacco. Our woods were part of something that was called the Edgehill Plantation, although there was no actual plantation house. The area was straddled by two roads: Warwick to York and Hampton to York (later on Warwick was incorporated into the town of Newport News). During those times, our region was a very active participant in the Revolution and later the Civil War. I wrote a tongue in cheek post about it once <here>.

I do not exactly know what happened after the civil war. It was around the 1930s when our immediate area was taken over by the National Park Service and most likely the Newport News water works. Recently, we examined the tree rings of a large pine that had fallen across our trail, and someone cut the trunk to allow passage. Dating it by counting the tree rings showed us that it was approximately 80 years old. It appears that the tree probably germinated around the 1940s and was allowed to grow without much interference. This again dates to a time just after the annexation of the area by the Park Service. The tree was one of the bigger ones and is located in an area with some of the largest trees in the woods behind our home.

There is so much to explore and think about when I walk through nature, listening to nature talking to me and to each other.

The beeches so far

A good haul today, we found 3

Coyotes and skinny dipping (12/22/2025)

Walking in the woods behind our home is one of the most pleasurable things I (we) do.  As you know, I am a huge fan of what is called “forest bathing.” No, this has nothing to do with getting naked in the woods during a rainstorm or in a river, pond or lake.  Although that does sounds like fun (at least when the weather is warm).  We have done some skinny dipping in the past, but I am not sure I want to embarrass myself anymore with this old body. 

My favorite skinny-dipping memory was the time we did it in the mountains above Logan, Utah.  We had been hiking with our friends; we were hot and happened upon a pool in a creek.  It was so inviting.  The four of us stripped and jumped in.  After sitting in the refreshingly cool water for approximately ten minutes some hikers approached and when they walked by, we recognized the male in the group as the dean of our college at Utah State University.  Both Jeff and I knew him well and the only thing we were able to do was wave and say “hi.”  The next day we were both somewhat on pins and needles, wondering if the dean would say something.  But we never heard from him about the incident.

Enough about that and back to my more recent experience.

We have coyotes in the woods behind our home.  While we already knew that, and saw one a few years ago, our sighting of them has become increasingly frequent.  Wildlife watching has become our sport, ranging from fornicating deer to coyotes.  We have been told there are at least bobcats back there and now we have been told that there was a bear sighting nearby.

Well, don’t go wildlife watching with two dogs on the leash.  The dogs go absolutely ballistic the minute they even sense a wild animal.  While the hound howled and the other barked incessantly at the screwing deer or any other deer they see, but coyotes eat the cake.  They go nuts.  On top of that, the coyotes don’t give a damn.  They just stay where they are and look at you with this attitude of “bring it on.”  I had to walk by them one day while they were approximately 60 feet (20 meters) away from me, with two insane dogs that I hardly was able to control.  The coyotes just stood there and watched me struggling (walk) by with two absolutely bonkers dogs.

By rough estimate we have approximately 17 square miles (11,000 acres) of forest behind our home.  For our metric folks that is around 44 square kilometers (4.400 hectares).  That is large enough for coyotes, bears, and bobcats to hide.

I am still working on an inventory of all the beech trees directly behind our home.  Yesterday, I set out into the woods on my own, at the advice from my wife.  She knows my love for nature and for forest bathing.  My goal was to go to one of my favorite beeches and just sit at its roots, meditate and inhale nature.

It was somewhat quiet out there; however, it was frequently interrupted by the sounds of civilization.  An airplane was landing at the airport nearby and you could hear the incessant noise of traffic on the highway.  Finally, I heard the call of the pileated woodpecker.

It felt good to be out in the woods, although it was difficult to relax and meditate with all the crap going on in the world around us.  Despite all that, I definitely need to do it again.

 

We call the Blondy and Yote

Crazy, just relaxing in clear sight 

At my favorite beech

Stories of my life 3 (moving) (2/19/2025)

I have lived in my current home for almost 25 years now. Since I am almost 72, that means that I have lived here 34.7% of my life. Before moving to our current domicile, I moved approximately eleven times before getting married. That does not include four longer vacation stays (more than a month) in the Netherlands. Once out of college I served in the Dutch army at three different locations during the 16 months that I served. Moving while in the Army was easy, just a large duffle bag. We got married while serving on the last military base and that allowed me to move into civilian housing. We rented a vacation home on a Dutch camping nearby, where we lived for the first few months. First, we rented a camper from a minister but left after a few weeks when he tried to get into my young bride’s pants. Not very surprising from a religious leader trying take advantage of a young girl. A young (she just turned 22) somewhat vulnerable lady in a foreign country who doesn't speak the language, trying to fuck her. Then to think that he was married and had two young daughters. We moved into a ramshackle cabin on the same camping after that and we lived there for two months.

After leaving the service we lived in at least 13 more locations, not counting brief stints of a few weeks with both sets of parents. Twenty-eight moves or new homes in the first fourty-seven years of my life. On average , I moved from one place to another every 1.67 year or every one year and eight months. During that time I lived in nine countries (that count includes two islands in the Caribbean) on five continents (placing the two islands as Central or South America). Phew, I am tired of thinking about all that travel and moving. But on the other side, I miss it at times.

During the past thirty years I had careers that required a lot of traveling. First as a consultant I traveled for the various projects I was assigned to. I traveled to Los Angeles and a week later I was in New Hampshire or up state Pennsylvania. Then it was Louisiana or Michigan; you get the idea. When I took a job as an instructor for the state of Virginia, I was required to travel overnight at least two weeks per month, albeit in State. I liked the pleasure of solo traveling, be it by car or by air. While traveling with colleagues is fun, I somehow liked to be alone, for meals or just in my motel room. I assume that is a true sign of being an introvert, although my wife think that my claim of being an introvert is pure bull shit. However, my career forced me to be out in public and act extroverted. Marketing is the game as a consultant; although I was never good at it or comfortable with it.

And now I am retired. Do I miss the traveling? Yes and no.

Since retirement I have been across the country three times; really from the east coast to the west coast. I have written about these trips <here>, <here> and <here>. We camped at least three times around our state and stayed in a cabin at a state park. I should not forget our camping trip to the eastern shore of Maryland. Finally, another solo trip this year to Missoula, MT where I explored Walden and Desert Solitaire with a group of like-minded folks as part of the “Listening to America” organization.

Today I got the news that a friend of mine passed away last night; I am going to miss you, Roy! At least Roy led a good life (although you might say he was not kind to his own health). During retirement he and his wife travelled to South Africa, Egypt and to Petra in Jordan, just to name a few places. Other retired friends are currently in the Galapagos Islands; another good friend spent ten days in Marocco straight after retiring this year, and finally some very good friends just returned from a trip down under (New Zeeland and Australia), they were in Finland last year. I told my wife today that we better do some traveling before it is too late. Although we have seen a lot of this world and tell people things like “been there, done that, loved it, and got the t-shirt,” there are still places I would like to explore or even revisit.

Here I am in the woods behind the house I now have lives almost 25 years.  I love to walk and explore these woods, I forest bath as much as I can.  After 25 years I am starting to feel restless and start thinking of moving closer to our daughter. 

Transform yourself ... Stories of our life 2 (2/11/2025)

I am reading a book by Neil King, Jr. entitled “American Ramble" and was struck by a passage in the chapter on his visit to Amish country. It was a quote from the Bible: St. Paul's letter in Romans. It goes: “Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” A little later in the book the author provides his own interpretation or translation: “Do not let the world form you. Do not conform to it. Instead, transform yourself through a renewing of your mind.” A very interesting thing to think about in todays world, indeed.

I also ran into a quote by Erasmus the other day. This quote takes me to the political situation we are finding ourselves in as a country. The Dutch humanist, philosopher, priest Erasmus’ words still ting true when he warned us in the late 1400s and early 1500 about today's politics when he wrote: “The less talent they have, the more pride, vanity and arrogance they have. All these fools, however, find other fools who applaud them.” These two quotes (Erasmus’ and King’s) intersect each other in an interesting way.

Fools in this sense does not infer that these folks are poor, destitute, have a low IQ, or not successful; just plain dumb. Bringing it back to King, these fools have been formed by a demagog called tRump. However, I am not sure who is the largest fool tRump or mUsk, who is following who in that case, and who else conforming to them and applauding them? They do not want to renew their mind but be back in the 1920s and 30s, or even earlier (McKinley?) and make this country backwards and racist again.

I want to leave it there and go on with some of the stories of my life and go back to Mr. Kings interpretation of St. Paul's words. “Do not let the world form you. Do not conform to it.” This was somewhat of the motto that I live by from my mid to late teens (late 1960s) and probably all the way until 2010. I mentioned in my previous post that I was moved to The Netherlands in August 1969 from the island of Curacao. I use the term “was moved" because it had nothing to do with my free will. As a 16-year-old you are not supposed to have free will but do what your parents think is best for you or the entire family. This move set me off on a more nihilistic path. I came from an exotic island that a lot of my new fellow students never heard of, let alone had never been too. The attention allowed me to become somewhat of a class clown, rebellious, different with an attitude of I don't give a damn.

The second part of King's translation: “Instead, transform yourself through a renewing of your mind” is also part of my life. I have always wanted to learn, but usually on my terms and not the way you are supposed to in today’s society. I took double the number of required courses in grad school and a lot of them were outside my major of study. We still have a library of a wide variety of books, some of which we are currently trying to get rid of; we are getting older and do not want to saddle our daughter up with having to dispose of them.

As I reported in an earlier post, this year I went to a retreat to discuss Walden and Desert Solitaire. Honestly, I felt like I was infected by a case of “Imposter Syndrome.” Me a scientist/educator/ecologist studying and discussing literature and philosophy? But I was renewing my mind, broadening my experience; and I had fun, learned a lot and was inspired; so much so that I am going back next year.

This brings me back to where I started with this write-up. I will continue visiting my stories as discussed in my previous post. In addition, I will keep pointing out what my perception is of what is going on in these politically and socially difficult times.

Out with the old.  These mushrooms are digesting an old stimp to make place for a new tree.

Some nice forest bathing this morning.  I just sat on a stump for 15 minutes and mediated in the woods.

James River State Park Squirrels (10/13/2024)

“Wow, look at those branches swaying around. Oh, it is a squirrel.” We were sitting on the terrace/porch at a cabin in one of Virginia's State Parks. I sat on my rocking chair nurturing my beer, watching a squirrel run to the end of a branch, grabbing what I assume were acorns, scurrying from a branch at perilous heights to the bottom of the oak tree and after a few minutes speed back up to the end of the branch and repeat the process. It is early October and time to prepare for the onslaught of winter and store food.

We were spending a few days at James River State Park. A new one for us. We have really enjoyed every state park we spent time in and this wasn't an exception. Donna told me that this might be her favorite (a five star). I hate to assign favoritism to any state park in Virginia; however, this one definitely ranks up there. I need to update my list of Virginia State Parks one of these days.

Back to the squirrel, the reminded me that fall is rapidly approaching here in Virginia. The temperatures were in the low 70s during the day and low 40s at night. This time last year we already had colors on the leaves when we spent time in Natural Tunnel State Park in the mountains of SW Virginia. Here in the Piedmont we noticed a faint bleaching of some of the leaves, and the dropping of dried out leaves from some of the trees. My ex-colleague Doug who lives nearby in Lynchburg reported that this area was affected by a severe drought this summer, which may be the explanation of the dried out leaves raining down on us during sections of our hikes the past two days.

The squirrels also took me back to some research we did in the mid 1990s. I was working with a group that needed to restore 440 acres of wetlands just outside Indianapolis. The airport was expanding and they needed to mitigate for filling in some wetlands. We were restoring 400 acres of forested wetlands and 40 acres of emergent wetlands (swamps). As part of this effort, we needed to monitor the recruitment (invasion) of plants in our plantations. We planted some 16 different tree species in a random pattern. Recruitment patters we noticed were that species with heavy seeds (i.e. acorns) invaded closer to the boundary with natural woods or hedgerows. We assumed that these seeds either rolled in or were cashes stored (planted) by squirrels. Maybe the previous winter was mild, and the squirrels did not need all the stored food, or maybe they simply forgot where they buried those acorns. Lighter seed, like those from maples, appeared to have flown in and these plants dispersed further into our plots, while plants that were fruit baring were scatters throughout our plots. We noticed that the fruit baring species invaded mostly around the tallest seedlings that we had planted, or at least the ones that were growing the fastest. We surmised that fruit eating bird landed on the tallest plants and used these as lookout posts, in the mean time pooping out seeds from the fruit they consumed. Interesting to see how natural succession takes place.

This all came back to me watching that squirrel doing its job in securing a stash of food for the upcoming winter. Obviously, we had such a relaxing time at James River State Park that it allowed for these memories from long forgotten time flooded back into my head. Those were fine times and so are the present. Guess it is nice to be retired, slow down and remember the yesterdays. Interesting what a visit to a State Park does to you.

James River State Park is a "dark sky park" which means that on a cloudless evening the sky is amazing.  I tool this picture of the Milkyway with my Samsung telephone camera.

Mushrooms

Donna and the dogs at the Tey overlook.  There are some really good hikes in the park.  Day 1 we hiked just over 4 miles and day 2 we hiked more than 5 miles along the James River (picture below).  Evidence abounds that the river just retreated from a major flood stage, probably caused by hurricane Helene.

Embraced (7/18/2024)

In the more recent posts, I have mentioned that we had a contractor install a fence around our backyard. It was finished a little more than a month ago and we are really enjoying it. I have always been somewhat against fencing the backyard; however, now I am a convert. Our dogs Jasper and Radar enjoy the freedom of being able to roam our albeit small back yard chasing squirrels, howling at the trees that the squirrels escape into, as any good treeing coonhound should, and at deer outside the fence. Radar dapperly joins in, although he does not howl. In addition, the dogs have rip-roaring wrestle matches. I think at least three or four per day.

Since part of the backyard is in the shade we had a lovely cover of moss instead of grass. Well, that was completely torn up and destroyed by our canines and their wrestling matches. Oh well, as they say; we all enjoy a good fight. Us watching it and the dogs performing it.

We built an additional fence with sticks that fell out of all the trees in our backyard. It serves somewhat as a divider in the yard and a place for birds to hide and hang out. We planted pollinator plants along a path that I put in along the stick fence in the hope that one day it might resemble something like an English cottage garden. The area is being overtaken by a gourd of some kind. It was in our compost and based on our dietary habit, I expect that it will be acorn squash. Our green tunnel is being colonized by tomatoes and green beans. We have been eating grape tomatoes and snacking on the miscellaneous green been. It is an experiment that we will repeat next year.

I have noticed that we spend a lot more time in our backyard, now that we have a fence. The major reason is that the dogs can be with us. Jasper the hound is a runner and hunter. Radar cannot be completely trusted, and we were afraid that would attack people and other dogs that wander by. Before the fence we would either put them on a running leash or leave them inside when we went out. Inside, they would be barking to let us know that they wanted to join us. Outside on the long leash they would constantly wrap themselves around our seats, shrubs or trees. Now they are free to roam and wrestle.

The other night I had decided to go outside to urinate and was struck by an epiphany. Like every other full-blooded man, there is nothing better than pee against a tree and ruminate at the same time. Yes, I announced recently that we had a powder room again and my forays into the backyard to micturate were over. However, I still enjoy going wee-wee in the natural environs. One evening while taking a leak against a tree I had a flying squirrel scamper down the tree to see what all the rustling noise was all about or maybe it was protesting my use of its tree as a urinal. We met eye-to-eye and after further inspection the squirrel climbed back up the oak.

Back to the subject at hand, the epiphany. So, what was that realization that I had? Sitting on the concrete garden bench in the dark in front of our Buddha statue, for the first time I felt like the garden was embracing me. While I could not even see the statue in the dark, I felt one with nature, the world, with the yard and everything in it. I suddenly realized that without a fence our backyard had no limits; there was no cohesion to it all. Somehow that night, the fence gave me a feeling of a hug, of keeping me in her bosom and not letting my mind and spirit wander all over the place.

Now you all know that I am a strong believer in and practitioner of “Forest Bathing.” I have given a sermon on the practice and written 54 posts on the subject. I love wandering in the woods behind our home and absorbing nature. In other words, this feeling of being embraced by the fence came as a surprise and I have not been able to shake it. Three of four times per day I enjoy walking a circle through the yard, inspecting things; pulling a weed or just sit on a bench or a chair to take it all in, fantasizing bout what to do next in the yard or just meditating. It is an amazing feeling and I guess it is still forest bathing since the yard has many trees and we still border the woods. I am enjoying it; let’s hope those feeling does not go away.

Our volunteer gourds

Night in the yard, it was at that time I had the feeling of being embraced!

Black-eyed suzan and the stick fence on the left.

No more ambition? (6/14/2024)

Ambition is a curious word to me. The Oxford Dictionary gives the following definition: “a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.” Now that I am retired, I have put ambition to the wayside and just want to experience and hopefully enjoy life, however much of it that I have remaining. I am still reasonably healthy, at least I have not been told something different.

I am not sure if I had a lot of ambition when I was working. Maybe not like others, but I did have a desire to achieve things. I always believed in down time, to relax and recharge. My brother, who I have not interacted with for at least 10 or so years had an amazing drive or ambition. He wanted to become a pilot, and that is what he eventually achieved. He tried to instill the same ambition in his two kids. I know that he looked down on me for what and who I am. So much so that every time we visited with him, I had the hear him tell us how successful and rich he was, compared to me. My brother told me that when I visited and they invite guest over, that they told the other guest to dress down, because I was only a jeans guy, had no class, and would feel out of place when they would come dressed the way they regularly do when socializing. While the saying tells us that the clothes make the man, comfort and my disdain of status permitted me to dress as comfortable as possible and while we may not be able to match them and their rich friends, we are pretty darn well of. Moreover, my international work taught me that we all put on our pants one leg at the time, and fuck status, I often had to communicate with the folks in the village and could not dress like a fashion model, that would hurt my credibility. While visits to my brother upset me at times, it was really upsetting to my wife. I was able to accept him who he pretended to be. But when you treat my wife like shit and every time we visited she left crying because of their treatment of us, I hope you can imagine what led the eventual split between me and my brother.

I may have had very few true ambitions during my entire life, unless enjoying life and learning from it can be called an ambition. If so, I am one of the best. When we were working and living in Yemen, our work days were from 7 am. to 2 pm. Lunch was a 2 and then I usually took a nap. We would then often work in the yard around our home for the rest of the afternoon, or I would work on my 1964 Land Rover. But, we probably had the best landscaped area of the three homes on the compound. My colleagues had drive and would go back to the now empty office or work at home on project related items after hours. They resented me for keeping to the official work hours. I needed to recharge and spend time with my wife who wasn't working.

No, I am not perfectly balanced even after all the self-care I just detailed. I have had my depressive moods, but I have come out of those. I sometimes wonder if minor depressions were seasonal or tied to other life stages (I have been unemployed a few times in the past).

I think that I have been happier these past few years than any other time of my life. It has been nature, forest bathing, biking, being outside in the yard, with my bonsai, or on the water where my spirits were lifted. I just needed to fully experience life around me. I can really just sit around and stare into infinity and not do anything but think. It is my form of meditating. Do I feel guilty doing that? Not one bit, well maybe after ten or so minutes it sometimes feels like I need to do something. But my motto now is: No more ambition but experience and love life to the fullest since I have no idea how much of it is left!

A photograph I took sitting in the backyard doing nothing.  Just enjoying nature and our almost completed fence (it is done now and a report will follow soon).  I often site in the Adirondack chairs and either just stare at the trees or work on my bonsai.  Very relaxing! 

Change of seasons but no changes in the world (11/3/2023)

It has been a depressing week for a person with liberal leanings like me. We witnessed a brutal fight in the Middle East, where it seems Israel has no regard for humanity; we had a mass shooting in Maine; the monster hurricane that hit Acapulco; reports in the Post on the horrible climatic situation in Hodeida in Yemen; and a Republican speaker of the house who is probably more dangerous than Jim Jordan. But let’s start at the beginning. Yes, what Hamas did was unconscionable. However, starting a full-fledged war and killing so many more people than what Hamas did, is not sitting well with me, it is unconscionable as well. I have always considered myself a pacifist, although this stance of mine has weekend substantially after the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. I am trying to follow that fighting and I am secretly rejoicing when Ukrainian forced manage to claim victory or that they managed to kill a substantial number of Russian soldiers. This softening around my pacifist edges in itself is somewhat depressing to me, where are my convictions, morals, ethics and empathy that I had in younger years? It seems that I have no dog in this fight in Gaza. I morn the deaths on both sides. However, neither in Ukraine, interesting, isn’t it?

If you are a regular reader, you all know my stance on gun control, or tighter management of weapons. I think I have written a post about every mass killing that occurred these past 10 years, and I will continue doing so. These assault type weapons need to be outlawed and shipped to Ukraine to fight the damn Russians. Maybe we need to ship the owners of these assault weapons as well; they seem to be itching for a good fight, otherwise why buy one of these weapons.

Concerning the climate, the news was not very favorable. Climate change really seems to have hit home, and I wonder if we reached a point of no-return. Something must be seriously awry, for a tropical storm to form and blow up into the strongest Category 5 hurricane ever to hit Mexico. Couple that to reports that Hodeida in Yemen will soon become unlivable for long stretches of the year, shows that we are reaching the tip of the iceberg (figuratively or climatologically speaking). In full disclosure, I used to live in Yemen and spent quite some time on the coastal plains, including Hodeida. Regular readers know that my posts on climate change go back many years and it is not about Yemen or elsewhere, but our future generations.

Lastly the new speaker of the house, the third in-line to the crown (or is it called the presidency). This dude is dangerous. He seems to be an authentic bible thumper, a Christian Nationalist, who is definitely against the rights of women to choose what happens to their own body. Moreover, he was the leader in congress trying to nullify the election and he still does not recognize Joe Biden as president. This guy invokes God in everything he does but does not care about the little guy. He is smooth and absolutely dangerous.

In my eyes, all these items are eerily connected. We can all bring them back to the conservative trend or movement in this country. The Maga Speaker does not believe in global warming; he and the republicans are against all form of gun control (while being against birth control, an interesting contradiction in itself); of course, they are anti-Muslimism; you get the idea.

So now you are updated about my state-of-mind. What do I do about it, drink myself to oblivion? The problem there lies in that this solution is dangerous to my health and personal relations at home. Well, this blog is one of my outlets; I hope to inform and educate you, my readers; I even may be able to entertain or anger one or two. This past week I split a huge amount of wood to be used in our woodburning stove this coming and next winter. Physical exercise is good for the mind, soul and body. It was warm, high 70s or 25 to 28 degrees centigrade for the rest of the world. I did not get much time for my bonsai, but that changed when the weather folks told us that we were getting very cold temperatures. I needed to bring my tropicals inside or into the greenhouse. This occupied almost an entire day. Somehow the power cord that supplies electricity to the greenhouse had a short in it and I needed to replace it so that I could run a heater. All is good, the plants are safely tucked away and ready for the cold temperatures of the next few months.

What else do I do now we are not traveling and exploring? I try to spend as much time as possible in the outdoors. Spending time in nature, forest bathing, hiking gives me the solace I need. We try to get out and walk in the woods behind our home and in the area. Believe it or not, but with every step I take out there the beauty of nature reveals itself, again and again. Beauty in a fragile and threatened world.

The seasons are changing, and it was time for a 5+mile hike in our area. 

They are all tucked in and safe.

Nomads, the conclusion (10/8/2023)

We are home arriving a few days ago. On arrival we felt both happy and sad at the same time. Happy to be home, sad that it was over, thirty-four days of travel of which most of them on the road. Yes, we spent a week sleeping on a guest bed at our daughter's and four nights in a motel bed, but we did spend the majority of those days that we slept in a motel in the van.

Here is a summary of our itinerary, listing the places we spent the night: (Home –) Twin Knobs Campground, Cave Run Lake (near Morehead, KY) – Babler State Park (near St. Louis, MO) – Big Lake State Park (near St. Joseph, MO) – North Sioux City (SD) – Gettysburg (SD) – East Totten Trail Campground (near Coleharbor, ND) – Miles City (MT) – Lewistown (MT) – Great Falls (MT, two nights) – Dillon (MT) – Logan (UT) – Cedar City (UT) – Henderson (NV) – Long Beach (CA, a week) – Kingman (AZ) – Flagstaff (AZ) – Albuquerque (NM) – Alamosa (CO) – Dodge City (KS) – Lee’s Summit (MO) – Rend Lake (near Mt. Vernon, IL) – Ashland (KY) – Natural Tunnel State Park (VA, three nights) (– home)

 

We drove 4695 miles going and 3277 miles returning. This makes sense considering on the way there we ended up north in North Dakota. I don’t know the exact amount of fuel we bought, but at 18 miles per gallon I can estimate that we burned 440 gallons of gasoline. This could have been less if we did not have to idle the van to keep our doggies cool.

We visited or drove through: VA, KY, IN, IL, MO, NE, IO, SD, ND, MT, ID, UT, NV, CA, AZ, NM, CO, KS, MO, IL, IN KY, TN, VA, a total of 19 different states. Personally, I added North Dakota and Nevada to the list of the states I have set foot in. Before this trip I had been to all the other states on this list. How long did we spend in these states? In total we spent 8 nights in CA, MT 5 nights, MO 3 nights, VA 3 nights, SD 2 nights, UT 2 nights, KY 2 nights, AZ 2 nights. We did not sleep in IN, IO, ID and TN and in the others only one night. Does this reflect our love, enjoyment or dislike of a certain state? To some extent, we really liked Montana and Missouri; in addition, we drove from one side of the state to the other (east to west, and in Missouri again from west to east on our return trip). Both states are big, but yes, we enjoyed both and fell in love with Montana. Kansas was liked least <here>. While I loved the countryside in certain areas of Kansas, we were bothered by all the feedlots, the looks, the smell that they produce and as a result the huge number of flies we had at our camp site. It was almost too much and it made us wonder if vegetarianism was the answer. Getting the hell out of Dodge seemed appropriate.

What did I or we learn from this trip? This country is damn big! No wonder it took Lewis and Clark so long to get across <here>. I realized that I still miss the desert, or maybe being an arid-land ecologist, observing all the changes in the plant life. I am and will stay a biologist or ecologist at heart. You read that folks complain about the monotony of the Great Plains; however, to me this area is fascinating. This includes the land use, differences in vegetation and most likely soils, the prairie potholes, the limitless sky, you name it. Moreover, I realized during the trip that the desert still remains my second love (after my wife/family/dogs of course). I have often written about forest bathing and my love dor wandering in the wood; I even presented a sermon on the subject. Yes, we drove through forests in Montana, New Mexico, Colorado and even in Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia, and loved it. However, I wonder if traveling through and spending time in the prairie and desert gives you the same benefits as experiencing the forest.

What did we learn about camping? You run out of time! Our van is small, and with two dogs we tend to cover the bed, a place where they spend most of their time while driving. The cover is used to keep the allergens (read dog hair) off our pillows and bedding. It generally took us 30 to 45 minutes to set the van up for sleeping once we decided it was time. Getting ready to get on the road in the morning is a different story. We never got on the road before 9:30. Stowing everything and cleaning up takes a long time. Thank goodness we both have our tasks and overall, it went very smooth. Usually, Donna would walk the dogs while I got the van ready for sleeping and driving the next day. I would make coffee in the morning while the dogs got their walk and breakfast, and at night I would make our evening coffee while Donna did the dishes. But still, it is a process to arrive at a site and depart the next day.

A little about camp sites. We stayed at commercial RV sites, KOAs, US government and County sites, and a town park. While KOAs started out as the last resort, they are the most expensive, later in the trip they became a great fall-back option and actually a preferred option at times. We found that commercial sites packed as many campers or RVs into their places as humanly possible. The sites were on gravel, which is a pain for the dogs, and two of the sites were next to livestock holding areas, smelly and teaming with flies. With the possible exception of the camping in Lewistown, MT, we left none of the commercial sites with the thought that it was so nice that we should return soon. Commercial sites charge around $50 per night.

KOAs are generally cleaner, have larger plots per camper, often have trees, clean restrooms and shower facilities, recreation facilities, a store, and sometimes a restaurant of sorts attached to it. Now, if you are passing through this may not be important, but it is nice, albeit more expensive. The cost for a night is close to $80 or even higher in desirable locations.

We fell in love with the State and County parks in Missouri and Virginia. They are relatively inexpensive ($20 to $35) and as good or better than the KOAs in my opinion. They miss the miniature golf, camp store and swimming pools, but they are clean, have nicely spaced sites and are well managed. With the special government pass, the US government sites are $10 per night. We stayed at one in Kentucky and in North Dakota. They were the two favorite sites on our trip. Finally, the city park site in Gettysburg, SD <here>. It seems that some of the small towns in the mid-west have opened their city parks to camping. They even provide electricity, water, bathroom and shower facilities to the weary campers. This is all for free, but a donation is welcomed. Moreover, you are expected to spend some money in town. We had breakfast at a local coffee shop the next morning. We loved the place and will return.

Something we never realized is that the public camp sites, like those owned or operated by the federal, state, or county governments have camp hosts. We encountered a camp host for the first time during our camping outing in July <here>; I wrote about them thinking they were unique; however, I now realize how ubiquitous they are. Hosts are folks that are volunteers who stay in the campground for free and manage things. At the campground in Lee’s Summit, Missouri and Rend Lake, Illinois <here> they even handled the registration and money. Camp hosts will bring firewood and ice to your camping site, and they all seem to drive around in golf carts to check on you and occasionally to chat. Now the town park site in Gettysburg <here> had no host and we were all alone, but the sheriff lived across the street.

As I mentioned above, we stayed in motels four times during our trip. Three of them were weather forced, in North Sioux city we read 108 on the thermometer <here>. In Cedar City we were hit with thunderstorms, and just outside Las Vegas we hit the heat again <here>. We had agreed to meet up with our friends who were moving from Yorktown wherever our paths crossed and stay in a motel <here>. The dogs behaved in the motel rooms, so it was actually not bad. Motel rooms are more expensive than camp sites and therefore are something to avoid.

Concluding this long post, we had fun. Will we do something like this again? Yes, probably but we need to plan the season better to avoid extreme heat, cold or inclement weather. Thirty-four days? Who knows, but first some shorter trips exploring our immediate area and the East Coast.

Google gave me a location map for September, and this shows the route we took.

Our dog Jasper is happy to be home, not to wear a harness and cuddle with mommy.  

Zombies (7/27/2023)

“It must be the zombie apocalypse” was our reaction, while sitting in the parking lot of the Burger King in Hillsville, Virginia. A sirens was going off, an ambulance was coming by, various fire engines, and not to count the large number of police cars. We were on our first real camping trip in our van; post retirement. Somewhat of a dress rehearsal for our coming trip across country, and also just our first real vacation. (By the way, I am borrowing the zombie apocalypse metaphor from Nigel Saunders from the Bonsai Zone who always uses that phrase when he hears a siren.)

We left home on Monday morning for the Rocky Knob Camp Ground on the Blue Ridge Parkway, just outside Floyd. We planned to stay there two nights, knowing well that there would be no electric hookups; water was available at the restrooms. In other words, camping was relatively primitive. It proved to be delightfully true when we got there. It was a larger campground than expected, and the camping spots were fine. It took a bit of adjusting to get a somewhat level site, but by the second night we were fine. We had taken the van out to go to a magnificent hiking spot (more about this a little later), followed by lunch at a winery and a visit to Floyd which was downhill from the campground. So, when we returned, we had learned our lesson and parked the van at a more level position.

After two nights, we packed up and drove to Grayson Highland State Park. Their campground is much more developed; it has running water and electricity. Spots are tighter together, and here again, partially because of my choice and because of the vehicle, getting a perfectly level (sleeping) site was difficult. However, the second night was a charm. We stayed in the park, did some magnificent hiking and after two nights, we moved to Highland County to visit friends where we camped in their driveway but ate and showered in their home. My wife even managed to break their toilet seat cover. The following day we drove home.

What amazed me the most about both camp grounds was that they had volunteer hosts. These were older couples in their 70s and 80s who stay at the place for free and help with hospitality and in the camp store (if there is one). Something to consider.

The hiking:

In the Rocky Knob Recreation Area, we did the Rock Castle Gorge Trail the first day. We only did the lower part, approximately 2.8 miles each way, although our FitBits told us it was closer to 3 miles (so 6 miles total). It is an absolutely gorgeous trail. A fairly moderate hike (on the easy side of moderate in our eyes), with some nice up hills and vistas along a wild creek. It was extremely enjoyable. We topped it off with that visit to the Chateau Morrisette Winery for a glass of cold white wine and a cheese plate for lunch. The winery is very dog friendly; I highly recommend a visit to this winery. The location, vistas, layout and the wine a super.

On our way out, on the second day we walked the 3-mile Black Ridge Trail. This trail was also very nice, somewhat slightly more challenging, but very pleasant with some nice vistas. This trail has much more variability in the landscape; however, both trails in this area were great.

In Grayson Highland we only walked one trail. The 3.7-mile Stamper’s Branch Trail kicked our butt; however, it was great! With the 3.7 miles I mean that the trail is actually only about 1.9 miles each way and it leads from the camp ground to the visitor’s center. The trail has an elevation gain of close to 900 feet and let me tell you, these 70-year-old knees felt it. Moreover, coming from sea level, I noticed that we peaked at an elevation of almost 5000 feet. Grayson Highland is near Mount Rogers, Virginia’s highest mountain. I enjoyed the types of vegetation we hiked through and we even saw a bear in the far distance.

So how did my bonsais fare while we were gone? I had received a LinkTap Wi-Fi watering timer what is called a “tap linker”. This is a Wi-Fi water timer that opens a valve to a hose on which I had two sprinklers mounted. I had the sprinklers go on every morning for 20 minutes. Let me tell you, from the looks of it my plants loved it. They look lush and in much better shape compared to when I water them by hand. Thank goodness, my neighbor Bob was also looking out for them, and all was good.

In all, we had a successful trip. We now feel much more comfortable and want to do again. Living the retired life! Not like zombies.

Our Rocky Knob camp site.  Somewhat primitive, but very pleasant.

Our first hike.  It was a nice tail along a stream.

Chateau Morrisette Winery.  Our cheese palte after a nice hike.  A great way to recover.

The view on the hike of our second day (departure day) on Rocky Knob.

Our Grayson Highland Hike.  The stream crossing.

The End is Near (5/17/2023)

I guess I will be reporting on two weeks of my farewell tour. Two more to go! The past two weeks I spent in Norfolk (week one) and in Richmond (week two). Crazy enough, I was teaching the same classes at each location, in exactly the same order.

Items to report are that things are getting closer as I go, and more emotional or nostalgic and the end is getting nearer and nearer. In Norfolk, one of the members of the Virginia Beach gang started sending a retirement card around and everyone wrote something nice. It was very moving. Then, around the end of everything one of my students came over and asked if she could have her picture taken with me as a memory of taking my classes. Also, on day two I had lunch with the Virginia Beach gang.

In Richmond, I had another selfie taker at the end of day two. Furthermore, a lot of handshakes, well wished, going out to lunch as a group on day one and folks interested in my reading list (mostly or all my natural history books). At the end of day 2, I actually walked around a stormwater BMP with one of my students to evaluate it for potential maintenance issues. In addition, all four days ended in a standing ovation for me and a thank you for your service. I almost felt like I was coming out of the military service.

Food and drinks were somewhat uneventful these two weeks. The newest microbrewery on my visit was the Veil in Norfolk. The beer was good and the homemade pizza as well. Richmond was just in and out with a quick lunch.

A quick hotel review, In Norfolk I taught and stayed at the Delta Hotel, by Mariot, near the airport.  The only thing I can say is, that it was not bad.  Breakfast was better than most.  I was given the smallest room a king-size bed could fit in, but then, I paid State rate.  State rare is about a quarter of the going rate.

Things are getting more nostalgic and sadder. I am not sure if I am ready to call it quits. I enjoy teaching and working. As one of my colleagues mentioned, it seems I affected a lot of folks in our business. This makes me happy and maybe I should go out on top, when I have a lot of friends or folks that seem to respect me. But it is difficult to do. It was a good ride.

The next two weeks I am looking forward to a webinar and a trip to Abingdon before it is over, and I start the next phase of my life. Reading the obituaries, I am watching those ages of death creeping closer and closer. I am going to need to fight depression, loneliness and get a hobby. But then, I already have one and up to this writing I was not depressed! The unknown is both exciting and scarry.

Me with one of my students who wanted a selfie with her teacher.  It was so humbling! 

Hopefully this will be in my future.  More hiking outside.  During this hike, this past weekend, we actually saw a cottonmouth. 

Winter, love it or hate it (1/20/2023)

Having been born and grown up in the tropic I never particularly like cold, cloudy, dreary weather. As a novelty it is fine: a “snowstorm”, a few inches of snow, a day below freezing and a night around 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-12 degrees C). But to me it gets old very quickly, I like it above 80. Strangely enough, winters in Gallup, NM were tolerable. There nights might dip to 15 below zero Fahrenheit or negative 26 C, while during the day it would still go up to 40 degrees (4.4 C). The advantage of living in the high desert of New Mexico (7000 feet or about 2100 meters above sea level) is that it was sunny almost every day and that compensated for a lot of the temperature swings we experienced.

So, was this feeling of dread in the winter caused by seasonal affected disorder (SAD) and the lack of sunshine, or my hatred of the cold winter season? I really don’t know, maybe both. I know one thing, ever since COVID I have been working at home and my home office has a lot of my tropical bonsais and plants around. Yes, my greenhouse is too small to house them all. I run several grow lights on timers to allow these plants to survive, and I am constantly radiated by these lights when working here in my home office. I know that my mood has been much better in winter since COVID and maybe it is all these grow lights, who knows? Maybe it is all the oxygen I am bathing in released by those plants in my home office, or the walks with the dogs in the woods behind our home I have every morning. Or all the above?

Believe it or not, this was not what I wanted to write about when I started this morning. But if you know me, a mind is a terrible thing to waste, and my fingers tend to go where no fingers have gone before, on this keyboard at least; this is what came out up to now.

Back to the subject “du jour,” or subject of intention. What I do like of winter is my ability to see the branch profile of trees. As a dilettante in bonsai, I have this perverse interest in the profile of trees, and the best time to examine this is in winter. You can clearly see the branch patterns, the ramification of the branches, basically how the canopies of the trees are constructed. I can learn how to duplicate that in my trees. Study how oaks do it versus maples, even versus pines. You can see oddities that you might want to try to copy on your benches. More and more growers aim to mimic the natural growth habit of their miniature trees to what the mature counterparts look like in nature. In the past they wanted to make something strange, now it is more “does it represent what you see in the natural environment?” I love it.

I find that there is always something different and new to see in winter. In the summer many of the trees and canopies are obscured by leaves (you must be my age to notice all my hidden rock music and other non-original references/plagiarisms today). It is important to be able to see things in real life and on the trees on my benches. This winter I have been studying both and slowly pruning the trees on the benches. I might actually start thinking about repotting some of my trees, if it was not going to rain this Sunday. I need to get a jump on the season, this year I have a lot that need work done. There is of course a risk of some heavy frost until the end of February; however, if I keep track of the ones I repotted, I could move them into the greenhouse or the garage for a night or two if it gets too cold.

Concluding, while I miss the tropics and used to loath the winters for it’s cold, damp, dismal, dark and dreary days or even stretch of days, I am starting to appreciate them for what the bring when I am out and about. I also like it because it allows me to see the profile and structure of my trees unencumbered by leaves and it forces me to prepare for repotting season.

I just enjoy looking up to see how the branch structure is in trees because that is what we try to mimic in our bonsai.  This simply profile is just nice to look at.

This is a closeup of the picture above.  Somehow two trees grew together and formed this bizarre looking tree that almost looks like a man with two legs.  During the summer there is a hedge here and this was the first time I discovered it. 

I am happy to be alive and happier than a clam (11/29/2022)

Strange title to this post, isn’t it? Today, during my morning walk in the woods with the dogs I was overcome by this feeling of extreme happiness and contentment. I was feeling happier than I could remember ever feeling before; even during my daughter’s wedding a few months ago, although I felt pretty damn happy then, but also full of anticipation, thinking about everything to come the rest of the day.

Come to think of it, this was probably one of the happiest moments in my life. So, what brought this on? I am not on drugs, and as I mentioned in numerous posts of mine, I am not particularly depressed or optimistic. Neither am I a pessimist or optimist. Well, thinking about it during my walk, I concluded I was happy to be alive, and even that thought did not bring me down!

Let me explain.

Bad news abounds, three mass-shootings lately, two of which were here in Virginia and one in Colorado Springs. My wife and I were talking about the shooting in Colorado Springs and how a brave guy put himself at risk and stopped the shooter. We were talking about “What would you do” in such a situation. Armchair quarterbacking is easy, but my first reaction was that I would not hesitate and try to stop the shooter. As I explained to her, I survived at least four episodes where I should have been killed by a gun in Uganda, but somehow escaped it, and once by a natural disaster in Nepal. While I am not invincible, I have been so lucky to have lived through these episodes and survived this long. Therefore, it would be ok if someone gets me, if I can save someone else’s life; I lived a full life already. The thought of that full life did it to me, it made me realize what a great life I have led, and I should be happy.

Now I was walking with my dogs today. In winter we usually we take one of two routes. One takes us behind our home through the woods and then back to the neighborhood to the front of our home. This is about a mile and a quarter long walk. The other one starts out the same way but veers off into a trail that eventually leads you to what I consider to be a piece of relatively old growth forest with huge oaks and yellow popular trees. The stand has an understory of pawpaws and maples. That route is slightly longer and is only in nature.

My plans today were to walk around to the front as we call it. However, the dogs had another idea. They wanted to take a left into the woods to the old growth, my favorite area and surely theirs as well. This time we walked a bit further than usually because it felt so good. The dogs walked calmly, and we were just enjoying ourselves. It was then that this feeling of extreme joy came over me and it has not left me. I was in a high of the woods, the sights and the thoughts.

Researchers talk about how important forest bathing is for your wellbeing. The looks, the sounds (or the lack of them), and the smells, the phytoncides are so good for your health, mind, blood pressure, and overall wellbeing. It seems that one walk in the woods can last weeks. I sometimes have two or three walks in the woods each day. I wish they were cumulative; I would have enough for the rest of my life. Let’s just hope I can capture this happy feeling for a bit longer.

This photograph of the old growth was taken a week ago.  My wife can be seen in the middle of the trail.  You can see the beauty and size of the trees.  

Natural turnover everywhere in these woods.  Mushrooms are active all over the place.  I just love looking exploring and just taking it all in.

A quick after remark.  This past evening ( the evening after publishing this post) we were walking the dogs, and I saw two falling stars in a row.  The both radiated from the direction of Mars.  The first shot right into the constellation of the Gemini, almost directly towards Castor and Pollux.  The special thing is that I am a Gemini and have an affinity to those two stars.  The second meteor shot away less than a minute about 90 degrees away from the first towards to tip of Orion.  Absolutely a great ending on an already great day.