Every year I create a nature calendar for my mom. She likes to keep track of her events — like family gatherings, her book club, medical appointments — by writing them into the boxes of a paper calendar hanging on the wall in the old-fashioned way. She has a deep passion for beauty and the outdoors. She and my dad had many wilderness adventures all over the world. Until just recently my mom went out hiking every week with her Wednesday Walkers, but now most have passed on or are too frail to walk. However she still walks every day, at age 91, in all weathers, up to a mile down the lane or through a pasture, with her sticks for support. Even so, there’s a limit to how far afield she can go these days, and she really loves the pictures of wild beautiful places to remind her of the rugged hikes she used to take.
Last year I posted the photos of her 2015 calendar in this Daily Bucket. Today’s pictures are of the 2016 calendar I gave her last xmas. I’m not posting the calendar pics for 2017’s, in case she visits my blog post before the 25th!
The Daily Bucket is a place to note what you are seeing around you: animals, weather, meteorites, climate, soil, plants, waters. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the phenological patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. To have the Daily Bucket in your Activity Stream, visit Backyard Science’s profile page and click on Follow.
Calendar theme for 2016: Seascapes
January ~
February ~
March ~
April ~
Backstory on the seascape scene framed by the arch above:
In the 1930s my grandfather bought property on an empty barrier sand spit along the New Jersey shore. I spent my summers on this beach as a child, learning to swim, discovering shells and all, before the area became so upscale my family couldn’t afford it any more. I haven’t been back there since 1969. This house was one of the earliest built on the spit, with a full basement and concrete foundation — when Hurricane Sandy came through it was one of the few houses in the area that survived intact. Subsequent owners walled in these arches and made it all fancy (I saw in real estate fotos), which makes it a much less interesting house, imo.
This photo from the mid 20th c. shows the view my mom remembers, standing on the breezy wooden deck, with the ocean out front and Barnegat Bay behind to the west.
May ~
June ~
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September ~
October ~
November ~
December ~
I make a collage of personal photos on the last page of my calendars. These four seascapes are from some of the places my mom and dad have visited and lived. Counterclockwise from top left: my dad playing the harmonica after we anchored our rented sailboat (a different trip) in the Lesser Antilles; North Sea waters near where my mom and dad lived on Orkney Island for a year; crossing the Arctic waters near King William Island in northern Canada on an trip searching for signs of the lost Sir John Franklin expedition; and on the Atlantic shore not far from where we used to live in the summer when I was a kid. That last photo was taken just a few months before my dad died of cancer 7 years ago at age 88. I know these pictures take my mom back to good times — they were married and shared many adventures for 61 years.
The quote on this page is from To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf:
“The sigh of all the seas breaking in measure round the isles soothed them...”
What in nature soothes you?
Time for you to share what you’re seeing in your natural neighborhood . . .
"SPOTLIGHT ON GREEN NEWS & VIEWS" IS POSTED EVERY SATURDAY AT 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME AND WEDNESDAY AT 3:30 ON THE DAILY KOS FRONT PAGE. IT'S A GREAT WAY TO CATCH UP ON DIARIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED. BE SURE TO RECOMMEND AND COMMENT IN THE DIARY. |