Earth Explorations

Sunset on the Solstice. Pierre, SD. 12/21/21 For me, the time between Solstice and New Year’s is a time to reflect upon the past year and plan for the new. This period of about 10 days feels separate from the regular hum of everyday life. The separateness gives it a sacred feeling. These, to me, are the holy days aka the holidays.  I am feeling my way forward in how to observe the holidays in a way that is enriching to the soul, the Earth and other people. I do observe Christmas and I celebrate with lights, music, presents, gathering with family, and feasting types of food.  These celebratory acts feel old to me, older than the birth of the Messiah, even. But I feel and have felt for a while there is more to the holidays. I found wisdom and good suggestions for practices to observe this holiday time in an article by Sarah Sunshine Manning, the communications director for NDN Collective. Before I go any further and link you to the article, I want to say I try to be considerate ...

This post is modified, updated version of one I wrote on my Facebook page on Dec 5. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Most weekend mornings for the next few months you will find me with a cup of tea watching the birdfeeders for Project Feederwatch , a citizen science project run out of Cornell University. In Project Feederwatch, backyard birders keep a watch on their feeders or other areas where birds gather to count and ID birds. This information helps scientists understand birds' winter behavior. Red-breasted nuthatch To get more citizen bang for the science buck, I'm taking photos of birds I see during the Project Feederwatch time and uploading them to iNaturalist , specifically to my  iNat Feederwatch project . Before you click through to see the project, I will clarify in advance that I did not see a Hooded Merganser at my feeder. I do not have a pond or small lake in my backyard (sadly). The merganser is included because filtering it out from the p...