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I really really enjoy Dave’s photographs of birds – the quality where we can see the detail barbs on the feathers is remarkable. Then he also catches the bird’s expression of the moment. I love looking at them. Click here

Read on to catch some of my thoughts about how this Coronavirus is taking us back to the 18 century, 300 years backward. We may all be happier to start the 18 century over and do it better this time around.

MY CORONAVIRUS STORY:

Coronavirus keeps us from bars, restaurant. clubs, social gatherings, and religious services  – Oh my.  But the bike shops can not keep up with sales, walking shoes ran out of stock, and on our nature trail there are so many folks walking you need to use hand signals just to make a left tune in front of walkers – another Oh my! We have truly gone natural – a third Oh my.

I have over 15,000 photographs in one of my digital banks of photographs. I am guessing that 98% of them are of nature – flowers, bugs, snakes, turtles sunsets, ocean and lake waves, alligators, grass (lawn grass of course), rain, snow, weeds, dry bare land, flowing streams, fish, deer, raccoons, opossums, armadillo, and the list goes on. I wonder why?  I will try to answer that wonderment while sitting around  a campfire.  Come join me.

 I am sitting up here on a northern island in Michigan.  Campfire conversations while drinking cases of beer are where most “intellectual” conversations take place. Just last week, I was talking with some friends around the camp fire and swatting mosquitoes.  After each swat my friends would utter a string of cuss words. The full moon is casting weird shadows at the edge of the flames glow. pause and try to live that campfire scene with me. 

We were social distancing.  Somehow for me that works a lot better than pre-Corona. If I am sitting close to these friends, there is no down time in the conversation.  They put their face into my face and make their point about some dumb topic.  Generally, it is a topic that I don’t give a da…… about. Therefore, I say nothing and just sit there and listen.

But with social distancing, they are not in my face talking and there is dead time in the conversation.  Their mouth works best when it is only inches from my face.  But with social distancing – Yea, I get to talk.

This night I did talk. I pointed out that “For 6–7 million years, human beings have evolved in the natural environment. It was not until 300 years ago during the industrial revolution in the UK, in the 18th century, that led to the rapid growth of urbanization. That revolution significantly changed our living environments away from nature.”

Boy, did their eyes glaze over.  Not a one of them gave a da…… about my very “intelligent” topic. 

Looking back on it I realize how boring I was.  But at the time, I kept right on talking: “You know, that living like this, swatting mosquitos in nature is the way we should live all year. Doctors have proven that patients who were assigned to rooms with windows overlooking natural scenery had shorter hospital stays then patients in rooms with windows facing the brick wall of a building.”

Those beer drinking friend’s eyes not only glazed over – they left the campfire to get another beer and never returned. 

Undaunted, I talked to myself. “From the 18th century until now is only .01 % of the time we human have been on the earth.  That is why our minds and bodies are still programmed 99.99% to live in nature – Not urban environments. That is why my photos are almost all of nature.” Not high quality photos – just high quality memories of visits with nature!

As you swing through life, Stop every day and smile at the nature around you – a blade of grass, a deer, an insect, a butterfly – take the nature trail and keep a photo.

Now that my friends have left the campfire, what should I do? Of course I will take my iphone/camera and go off alone, into the woods, hunting for photos like these:

The Dog Days of Color:

Bob Hazlett is the very creative, colorful, and fun leader of our TGO Writing Group. He wrote: “Select one of jim’s pictures (Click Digital Photo Art in left column) and write a short piece (prose or poetry) motivated by the picture and describe the colors in your article as many different ways as possible.”

I did best as I could. Here is my selection:

:

This story takes place in one of my dreams with three of my dogs, Sooka, Dyna, & Newfy,  drinking a beer under the old majestic green oak tree near Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

Sooka: “My goodness people are so funny,” 

Dyna: “I know. I was dark green with envy – maybe even mad as a harsh red hen when I saw all the Black Lives Matter signs people posted.  What about you Sooka – don’t smokey silver lives matter.  I am in real trouble with my multi-color hair of brown, tan, and white.  Anyway, Newfy fits right in with her coat of coal black.”

Newfy: “I know people say and do funny things. Just the other day I saw one of them lying on the bright yellow sunshine, turning bright red as a beet. I always search for the shade of dark green trees edging the beach when I go to the beach.

Unless of course, they are throwing me one of those bright green disks.  I know why I really enjoy jumping up to grab the disk – it is a challenge. But why do they enjoy waving their arm and throwing the disk. That does not seem to be a challenge for them.  If they want a challenge they should try catching that dirty green disk in their teeth.”

Dyna: “Hey, did you know that they can even bark up an atomic blue streak that makes no sense.  Old Joe, the one that puts out that real crunchy slimy brown stuff in a bowl for me to eat said “Woof, Woof”  the other day. I tried to figure out what he said but it made no sense.  If I said “Woof, Woof”.  You know it is “Hello, how is your day going?”  But the way Joe said it, the best I could understand was “To murky red blazes of hell, how is your faded blue majestic red dog hanging?”  Now that makes no sense.” 

Newfy: “Your are right on. I have heard many funny things from them.  Joe’s wife said to that other man that comes around.  “Let sleeping dogs lie’   Since I was the only dog around, I assume she was talking about me. Why would she want me to tell a bold faced white lie – I always tell the truth and I do not care what they do when he is around here.”

Sooka: “Yea, I they talk funny: This morning I went to the bathroom out in the dusty brown grass area in the back of the lawn. 

Old Joe shouted to his wife something about a doggy bag.  I  got a little offended – because his tone of voice sounded like he was calling me an old bag.  He had that tone of voice just because I had to go to the bathroom? They are funny non-hairy creatures, for sure.

Dyna: “Speaking of bathroom, last week Joe was out most of the night with the boys.  He came home singing & swearing a shocking blue streak. He kept singing something about what your baby blue eyes do to me.  Then he fell down on his hands and knees, just like one of us dogs, and crawled into the living room and collapsed on the couch.  Next morning he rolled onto the floor and groaned so loud that his wife came in cussing a blue streak and  kicked him in the ribs.  I could tell he was feeling poorly. He said I am “Sick as a dog.”  Then he stumbled into the bath room and threw up in the bowl that I often drink from. He sounded like a dog barking when he threw up – but you know his ‘His bark is worse than his bite.’” He was as meek as a fluffy white lamb the rest of the day.  Every time his wife spoke he would say “Yes Deer.”  At least he did not say “Yes, dog””

Newfy: That kick in the ribs made me think of one of their sayings:’It’s a dog-eat-dog world.”  It is funny but it is  a lot better than “It is a People eat dog world.  Now,  that I would worry me.

Sooka: “That is for sure, but you made me think of something else.  Joe’s wife says she is not too fond of cousin Jim because he is always “putting on the dog.“  I feel the same way about cousin Jim. Because, putting on the dog must be like putting on a sheepskin coat.  We all know what happened to the sheep before the sheepskin coat was made.“ 

Newfy: “Before I go to the manager to rest, we should always have a moral to our doggy chats?

In my dreams last night this farmer beat me with a big knotty brown stick. No puppy love there.  Here is the moral:

“A Dog asleep in a manger filled with lustrous green hay, was awakened by the cattle, which came in tired and hungry from working in the field. … When the farmer saw how the Dog was acting, he seized a knotty brown stick and drove him out of the stable with many a blow for his selfish behavior. Moral. Do not grudge others what you cannot enjoy yourself.”

Now a few of my photo-art images. Color in everyday life is always eye-catching:

 

 

I included the next paragraph just to get your attention.  I want you to read the little story I  wrote about what unfolded in my front lawn yesterday. 

My writing club said sex in a story is always an attention getter.  So, I went to a writers dictionary and looked up what happens when a male deer reaches sexual maturation. Puberty is defined as the period of life during which growth of the internal sex organs occur.

Now, what does puberty have to do with my story – maybe nothing but you be the judge after reading the story:

MONA, GROANA, ANTS, & GRASSHOPPERS – OH MY! 

Mona: “Hey, Good Morning – Where have you been all summer?”

Groana: “With other bucks.  We have been out in the center of the Island since the snow & ice melted in the in the river this spring.  We have not seen a person all summer and not a single doe came by.  We have had a real hard time, though, finding enough to eat.  It has been hotter and dryer than normal. There was hardly any grass around out there. We have been eating twigs for the last month. Ugh”

Mona: “Oh my we does have had a great year – There are 5 houses here that feed us every day – Apples, corn, mineral blocks, ….. a real paradise – We did not spend a single day looking for food.  The neighborhood just makes food appear every day. One problem is cars stop, as they drive by, to take our picture while the people are putting out food for us.  Sometimes we walk over to the car and get a handout of brand new kind of snacks, like nuts, cookies, and yesterday I even got a cheese sandwich. I did put up with them petting my nose. It is a small price to pay for all that food. Beautiful way to live.”

Groana: “Yea, but like the fable:” “The ants were spending a fine winter’s day drying grain collected in the summertime. A Grasshopper, perishing with famine, passed by and earnestly begged for a little food. The Ants inquired of him, “Why did you not treasure up food during the summer?’ He replied, “I had not leisure enough. I passed the days in singing.” They then said in derision: “If you were foolish enough to sing all the summer, you must dance supperless to bed in the winter.”  

Groana: “I think you does have been singing all summer.  While we bucks have been learning to live on twigs like we will have to do all winter. We will be ready. Like the grasshoppers, you does will not be ready. You will be in real trouble this winter when the people go home and you have to fend for yourself finding food. You won’t know how to do it”

My question to the reader: Do you know what is happening here?  It is the start of rutting season for the deer Groana is in his second year  full puberty — Groana only came out of the back woods of the central Island because he wants to know where all the does are when rut is in full swing, November and December.

Mona: Batting her big brown eye lashes: “I am in no real trouble – I knew you would find me. You are so handsome, those big shiny antlers are so much bigger then last year and your rump mussels are so big and hard – you are the most handsome buck I have ever seen.  I will just stay with you and you will take care of me. Making sure I do not go hungry before you eat. I love you already and it is not even rutting season.”

Groana melts into a heap just as the front door opens and a women with a bucket of molasses covered corn and a few apples strolls to the front lawn leaving her larder of food behind for the deer.

Mona: “Do you know what those people do when they go back into the house – Sometimes I look into the window.  They go to that little window on the table and put our picture on it and some times they make that picture look funny – I think they give all their food to us and they do not have enough for themselves.  Starving like that makes their brain crazy – look here at some samples of what they create – maybe after I run off to the center of the Island with you those people will have enough food for themselves and they will not be so crazy.”

 

Please stick with me. I need a couple paragraphs to give your mind a little background on my thoughts of our wonderful America and on people. Go ahead and read the next paragraphs and you will see what I mean.

Here I sit in front of my computer on Drummond Island – This thought just jumped into my mind.  “I love America, it is beautiful”  – No, I am not running for office or campaigning for someone who is running for office.  I love America because it encouraged me to live a number of lives – to be a number of different people.  I have moved from being a farmer, to corporate manger, to computer programmer, to professor, to a rancher, to business owner, to preacher, to a world traveler, …. and the list goes on!

 Along the way as I lived each of these lives, I learned that people do not always think the same way. For example, the Texas ranch owner thinks different from  the professor in a New York City university.

The Texas rancher, at dinner, talks to his wife about facts such as how mow many cows calved yesterday The professor, while strolling the New York City park, will, at great length, discuss with his wife about intellectually discovering what is fact. They will discuss at great length the meaning of a single word like “love” or “beautiful.” 

So, back once again to Drummond Island.  Beautiful evening, sun is setting, I have cleaned up my dinner dishes and decide to take a half mile walk down the road to my barn. Took a beautiful apple to eat along the way for desert.

Here comes this young couple (50’s) in very serious discussion.  She had beautiful long dark. I later found out her name was Marie and his was  Albert.

He was completely bald with a beautifully shaved head. She seemed to be in control of him. He was sort of bent over, arms at his side and very distracted. With a worried look on his face, he kept looking back.  

It was beautiful, though, to see them walking together on the this beautiful Labor Day weekend. It turned out they were husband and wife – both Professors. How did I know that? Were they Texas ranchers – NOPE! They fit, beautifully, the profile of people who are professors.

He saw me and interrupted his wife – He screamed over her voice, waving his arms as he shouting,  “Don’t go down that road – There are 8 deer trying to attack us. – we do not know how we can go home – can you help us”

 

At that moment, Gimpy saw me and hobbled out of woods onto the road – I held out my hand and offered the half apple I had not yet finish eating. I actually touch his antler with my other hand as he gently took the beautiful half apple from my hand..  Gimpy, of course, is a beautiful  three legged deer in the heard of 8 beautiful deer that hang around to be hand fed by neighbors up and down the beautiful mile long road we live on.  They are like a pack of pet dogs in the neighborhood. Without exception, the neighborhood folks love them. Of course, having a beautiful garden or potted plants with beautiful flowers is out of the question.  A few neighbors, myself included, have tried, with zero success.

Watching the sheepish look on the professor’s faces was a  beautiful thought as I stepped inside the barn door. Oh my, the professors do not know I am standing in the shadows of the barn door. They are talking as they strolled by. I eavesdropped.

Marie: “When we first started walking, I thought, we were talking about the day – it is a beautiful day”

Albert: Well, I was talking about beauty – as I said you are beautiful and that is what made the day beautiful.

Marie: Now you are just trying to butter me up but I want to butter you up – cause I was so proud of you – grabbing that fallen down mail box post  and rushing forward to protect me from those charging deer – it was a beautiful act of heroism – I love you – your action was beautiful.

Albert: In Columbus we do not have anything like that.  I know we need to be careful on some streets in Columbus.  But, a deer with antlers, 4 feet long, attacking us is never a problem.

Marie: Four feet long – maybe 4 inches long – and he could only use three legs – his fourth leg hung unless by his side – he must have been hit by a car. But he recovered beautifully.

Albert: Anyway, if he attacked us I was ready to be the one to save us out here on this lonely Island road at night.

Marie: And is a beautiful evening – but you were beautiful – my hero  – Oh, now I know what we were talking about before what we thought was a deer attack.  We were seeing who could use the word “beautiful” most often. 

Albert: I only used it once to butter yo……………..before we …bed

Oh my, they and their voices faded off into the distance. You must  finish the story of this couple’s evening on vacation on Drummond Island – and you think about the word “beautiful” and how often we can use it to convey goodness.

Anyway, here are a few beautiful photos taken with my iPhone as I stroll on Drummond Island.

Again Dave has given us some great photos and a story of the birds therein. click here to see them

Then return to see my Drummond Island story of God’s videos:

Drummond Island – August 2009

“Five feet – that is all? – the wall is 20 feet long.  Allen, we need to find a better solution.  I designed this house to help me enjoy my  alone time sitting right here!”

You see Allen is my best friend. He and I feed horses, ride horses, clean up after his string of horses and my one Icelandic horse called Perla twice every day.  Allen is teaching me to almost become one of the herd – think like a horse – know what they feel when the feel it.  That is the only way to enjoy and truly take care of 8 horses. But in addition to teaching me to becoming one with the horses, Allen will spend the fall and winter  rebuilding a small old Island winter house Gloria and just bought.  

Allen said, “Don’t you know you bought an old winter Island house.  Starting in November, the storms arrive – remember the Edmond Fitzgerald and the storms of November that sank her? At forty below in the dead of winter, old Island houses here on Drummond have very small windows to keep the cold on the outside.”

I said, “Old Island house or not, I plan to sit comfortable, read, sip my scotch, and feel like I am outside with the flocks, herds, gathering of social animals that come to my house to eat, to enjoy my lawn and lake front, and to prowl the shore looking for food.  That requires a big window – You got the idea?”

 I want my chair to be in  the same lightness or darkness as the outside – just as if  I am outside among the animals. You know, watching God’s video show framed by the windows in the house.

“Jim, you said what I said to Tess when we built our house. I had to convince her or was it she who convinced me – anyway we got it! You know of our sliding doors and the screened in porch. Just this month, while sitting there,  I saw dozens of red squirrels, a family of raccoons, a lone black bear, a coyote, many red headed wood peckers, and the list goes on and on …..  Every day God’s art gallery of videos is really great. So, say I, you will get the kind of room you want, even if I have to drive to Detroit to get the windows. I got the idea!”

I thanked him and remembered:  “Allen, I isolated that pudding stone we want placed in the triangle of the patio landscape in the back.”

Drummond Island – August 2020

Here are a few iphone photos from my windows – I had to reconstruct a few of them because I was not fast enough on the iPhone, but what I show you here is what I saw – as best I can reconstruct it.

Puddingstone is a popular name applied to a conglomerate that consists of distinctly rounded pebbles whose colors contrast sharply with the color of the finer-grained matrix surrounding them. The rounded pebbles and the sharp contrast in color gives this type of conglomerate the appearance of a raisin or Christmas pudding.

Michigan Puddingstones were created from loose gravel during the Pleistocene glacial drift from Northern Ontario spreading into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Once again, go see Cesari’s postings.  (Click here or click Photo Club in left side bar.) His photos and knowledge of birds is outstanding – Do not miss his postings.

In the last few blogs I have written about pondering and nature. (Click Older Posts at the bottom of this page).  You know, living pretty much alone, in a home that is surrounded by nature, it is easy to see things I want to share. But you are not standing here beside me.

  So, when I see such a thing I whip out my cell phone and snap.  The iPhone photos I snap are nothing like the quality photography you see on Cesar’s postings.  But, hopefully my photographs get the job done. The job, being “Share what I just saw.”

Scroll on down to see a few “shares” I snapped just for you:

Dave Cesari’s focused interest in the birds of our great country constantly inspires me – click here to see his new views of NY Humming Birds.

Reading is a hobby of mine – been reading about hobbies of our presidents – More than one President used canvas and  paint brush when pressure did get to them? – I read about Ike being disturbed with a call from the Oval Office while he was relaxing at his easel. He got so angry that he threw the brush and paints across the room – but the white house did have a staff to do the clean up!!

Jim (Me) wrote:   Hobbies provide an outlet from daily stresses that can keep us from getting burned out in our jobs. They also provide numerous health benefits from lower blood pressure, to better physical function, and higher positive psychological states, and less memory loss. AND, they provide a lot of fun in our, free of stress, retirement years.

Here are some I have tried over the years:

Reading, Family Time, Fishing, Gardening, Walking, Hunting, Team Sports, Sewing, Leather work, Wood carving, Golf, Bicycling, Boat, Canoe, Windsurf, Playing Cards, Hiking, Swimming, Camping,  RV’ing, Skiing, Animal care, Dog training, Painting, Dancing, Tennis, Racing stock cars, Volunteering Church Activities, Horseback Riding, flying….

Digital painting is fun too:

I love living on slow Pondering Island – officially named, Drummond Island.  You see, Pondering Island is beautiful. It is where nature fills my eyes every moment of the day without TV, radio, or other distractions.

Pondering is a way of slowing down the world and forming thoughts and responses  over time. Our popular current culture promotes drama where emotional responses are glamorized in the news media, the FaceBook accounts, and even the sports events.

So, while nature is filling my view of the world, I sit and ponder. 

The other day, I even sat and pondered about “Black Lives Matter.”  Don’t all lives matter? I grew up in a culturally isolated community,- sort of like the Amish.  Our lives mattered and we were taught, from day one, that all lives mattered. The lives of all ethnic groups matter.  If we are guilty of innocent ignorance, fix it.  If Dixie is an offense word to some – do not use it.  For example: Maybe “Dixie Cups” was , I am sure, innocently named but it is offensive to some due to the word Dixie’s tie to the confederacy.  If the owners of Dixie cup now changed it to “Great Cups” would they loose a lot of business?  Offending someone out of innocence ignorance is one thing but offending them’s  once we know better – let’s not do it.

Oh my pondering is complex.

OK, here are a few photos to show you some nature around me so that you can look at them a ponder.  Now, do not let me influence you – You ponder your own thoughts – but take the time to ponder say I.

 

 

I truly hope you enjoyed my snapshot of nature – it is OK if you forget all the pondering and just enjoy nature where ever you are.

 

 

Dave sent us some photos of his birds – between spring and fall migration – interesting – click here to see his photos or click Photo Club Photos in left column 

NATURE:  Here on Drummond Island, Michigan, we see and accept the way nature adapts every day.  It is fun for me to search out these adaptions as I tool around many miles on my bike each day.

Nature is so subtle and I see these subtle adaptions on the Island every day, so I will show you a few photos of my everyday life on the Island.

By subtle, I mean things like some plants like their feet (roots) in water.  So, here on the Great Lakes, this year the water level is up and we have a proliferation of Lilly Pads, and Water Orchids. But, others plants are dying because the high water is engulfing their roots. For example, the Tamarack grove by my upper dock no longer lives!

Also, by subtle, I mean the bucks hang out together. They do not really hang out with the does and the fawns.  They are waiting for their antlers to loose their velvet and for the does to loose their fawn’s dependency on them – That is when the rutting season comes in Sept/Oct – Let me tell you they hang out together then – making new babies.

Here is a another subtle thing.  In this case, I can not explain why nature is the way it is.  There are thousands of trees in the woods on the Island.  I am sure they are all infected with bugs – mostly ants it seems.  But, why did the Woodpecker select this tree to peck large holes in it when no other tree around it was touched?  Guess it is advertised as the best restaurant in town (the woods).

Now , study this subtle invasive of plants come from somewhere else.  On the Island there is one foreign plant we call Knapp Weed. It has taken root where no other plant seems to want to grow.  Knapp Weed grows right along the edge of the road where the soil is hard, rocky, and packed down when cars drift off the road surface. Yet the Knapp Weed survives. That is a mystery of nature that gives these invasive plants the ability to allow their feet (roots) to take hold in that unless soil.

Some humans vacation and or live on remote Islands where there is nothing to do and some do not – subtle quirks of human nature – Oh my!

Now think about the subtle things of human nature – Why am I known for wearing Cowboy hats and boots?  Why does Christine drive around on trails using an off-road vehicle even while driving the state road to her medical office to stitch up an emergency.  Why do people spend hours studying how to do a paintings, collect rocks, sit for hours drinking beer and talking, — and the list of unique, quirky, and  fun human nature ways of living goes on and on.  So, if you do not have deer, Knapp Weed, water lilies, and woodpecker trees, enjoy the human nature around you, and those unique quirky human nature traits in you.

 

Today in the 70’s and bright sun – yesterday in the 60’s and solid rain.