Tag Archives: Nature

August 1, 2010 · 9:31 am

Rewilding the Self

Rediscovering nature and its sentient beings is “rewilding.”  In the mid-1990s, Michael Soule of the University of California, Santa Cruz, proposed the idea that to restore ecosystems one should start from the topside down — reintroduce bears, wolves and otters to a deteriorating system.  Soule’s work was in conservation biology, but is now applied to psychology.

To many people in the field of mental health, a rewilding of the psyche is essential to the “heart’s ease.”  The following article from The New York Times expands on several themes surging in ecology and psychology.  I highly recommend you read this.

Is There an Ecological Unconscious? – NYTimes.com.

Artwork by Kate MacDowell (Photograph by Dan Kvitka for The New York Times)

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May 16, 2010 · 8:38 am

Survived by her Family and the Tamarin

Devra G. Kleiman (1942-2010) at National Zoo with Golden Lion Tamarins at National Zoo (NY Times Photo)

People Not Avatars

Examples, models and real-people, not avatars, present themselves as historic figures upon whose narratives we should integrate into our lives.  Dr. Devra G. Kleiman, who died this week, transformed zoo culture and assisted sentient beings in replenishing their species.  As Livy remarked:  “She is a model to emulate.”

Kleiman’s Procedures Relevant to American West

My blog, Sage to Meadow, focuses on the American West, mainly Trans-Mississippi West, and I worry everyday about the destruction and attenuation of not only sentient creatures, but also the sagebrush and native grassland.  Dr. Kleiman represents the scientific and emotionally best in us, Homo sapiens sapiens.  Her procedures–careful study, legal applications, conservation–can be applied anywhere in the biological environs of this planet, be it the Central Plains or the National Zoo.  Her work must be carried on by us and young men and women coming of age.  Writ small, it might be the feed you distribute occasionally to the mountain quail in Taos or establishing wildlife corridor for deer in Texas.  The caretaking of dogs and cats as Caralee Woods and Jimmy Henley in Kanab, Utah, reflect Kleiman’s outlook upon the wider biological kingdoms.  Writ large, it would be the slowing down or elimination of paved parking lots and strip malls: the culture of overconsumption.

Devra G. Keiman (1942-2010) Biologist Whose Work Transformed Zoos

Dr. Devra Kleiman worked successfully for decades to re-flourish the populations of the Gold Lion Tamarin and Giant Panda.  Her research and field crews impelled the culture of exhibition zoo-dom to restructure their entertainment and captivity culture “to concerted, scientifically informed conservation.”

Dr. Kleiman, in her work with the tamarin, persuaded zoos to give up title to the tamarin in return for the designation of  “a long-term loan from Brazil,” allowing zoo tamarins to be shuffled about the world for diverse breeding.  Her work became the paradigm for 100 breeding programs for endangered species, including the California condor and the black-footed ferret.

In 1972, when China presented the United States with two pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, Dr. Kleiman and her research team begain to study the panda, holistically (social, sexual, gastronomic) in a 24-hour observation log.  Not until 2005, thirty-three years later, did the pandas produce offspring and only by artificial insemination.   The first offspring, a male by the name of Tai Shan, was later sent to China.

Please note the by whom she is survived in the quote,

Dr. Kleiman’s first marriage, to John Eisenberg, ended in divorce. Besides her husband, Mr. Yeomans, whom she married in 1988, she is survived by her mother, Molly Kleiman; a brother, Charles; three stepdaughters, Elise Edie, Joanna Domes and Lucy Yeomans; and four grandchildren.

She is also survived by the heirs of her scientific labors. When Dr. Kleiman began her work with golden lion tamarins, there were fewer than 200 alive anywhere; today, according to the National Zoo, about 1,500 live in the Brazilian wild.

Tai Shan, now almost 5, has lived since February at the Bifengxia Panda Base in China’s Sichuan Province.

I like that paragraph, “survived by the heirs of scientific labors.”  Give us legions of men and women like Dr. Kleiman.

Devra G. Kleiman, 67, Biologist Whose Work Transformed Zoos – Biography – NYTimes.com.

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May 11, 2010 · 8:35 pm

Over the Hill

Over the Hill, February 2009

I am leading Star, Lilly and Sweet Hija over to the Pecan Tree Pasture.  They don’t really need my assistance to go over to the field, but on that day, the horses had not been there in several months and I wanted to walk with them.  The photograph was snapped in February 2009.  Hija was pregnant with Shiney and Fanny was behind Brenda who took the shot.  She stands in the creek bed and is looking up the road to the pasture.

The gate to the Pecan Tree Pasture was closed and I had to open it for them.

Their habit pattern is to go over to the far field and browse on grass most of the day, then near sundown that will come running at a gallop to get their grain in the stables.  Since this photograph was taken, I have kept Lilly close to the stable because of her age.  With Lilly back at the stables, they will not linger in the Pecan Tree Pasture all day long, but come back early to be with Lilly.

Brenda entitled this photograph, “Over the Hill.”

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May 8, 2010 · 7:29 am

Fanny with Verbena

Fanny with Verbena, Spring 2010

I thought you might like this photograph.  I do.  It doesn’t have all the right composition angles, but it’s a good snapshot.  But, ’tis not a Kodak moment any more, folks, is it?  Digital.

Anyway, it’s a picture of Shiners Fannin Peppy on a warm spring day a few weeks ago.  Fanny is coming up the pasture to where I am standing on Poprock Hill.  The sun is shining brightly, it’s probably near high noon as I recollect.  You can see that her coat is sleek and she is a good two-year old that has been trained well and tended–Duncan Steele-Park’s regime of education.

In the background, emerging and standing brilliantly, is a nice stand of purple verbena.  Verbena has been all over the place this spring–in pastures, corrals, stables, front yard, back yard.  There’s some yellow flowers also in the mix and some yucca blossom stalks about ready to burst.  It’s just a fine, sunny picture on a good day here on Flying Hat.

And, here she is up on the edge of Poprock Hill, being cute and pretty and all-horse.

Fanny with Live Oak, Spring 2010

Equus Fanny, Spring 2010

Equus. Long ago and faraway I read the play, Equus, and saw the movie with Sir Richard Burton as the psychiatrist.  Peter Shaffer wrote the play in 1973, based on a true story.  It’s not a pleasant story at all, and I won’t summarize it here, but the play and Burton’s acting inspired me to delve more into depth psychology and formative events in human development.  As a result, I became immersed in anthropology.  I was already in anthropology as a sub-field of my discipline, history, but I went way, way down into the discipline and eventually began to teach cultural and physical anthropology at a college in the Texas Panhandle.

There are many starting points for learning a field of knowledge.  Wherever you find that interest, follow it and exhaust your curiosity by reading late into the night, visiting museums and researching in libraries–wherever it takes you, go, go, go!  One of my starting points was Equus.

Did I say I liked horses?

Yes, I did say that, especially Fanny in verbena, on a sunny spring day.

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May 5, 2010 · 6:01 am

Blog Collective I: Vectors

Blog Vectors with Sage to Meadow, March 28, 2010

This is a Blog Vector Analysis, a *quick-and-dirty study of interactions among selected bloggers interacting with Sage to Meadow, March 28, 2010.

Each of the lines represent a blogroll connection.  The arrows generally go two ways: bloggers put each other on their blogrolls, a matter of friendly and interested reciprocation.

I have more blogs on my blogroll than is seen in the Blog Vector.  This diagram lists only those blogs that I have had interaction with for at least ten (10) to fifteen (15) times in the comment section of our blogs, both comment sections combined.

My blog is Sage2M or Sage to Meadow.  My interactions on an involved level (10-15 comments) are with ten (10) bloggers.

The Blog Collective I have consists of eleven (11) nodes, myself included.

One objective I had in drawing the diagram was to ascertain where my Blog Collective might have originated and, then, multiplied.  A second objective was to diagram the interaction of my blogging friends, to see who connected with whom.

My first search for bloggers involved New Mexico blogs and I came up with two: Stark Raving Zen and Teresa Evangeline (formerly of Santa Fe).  From those two blog nodes, the Collective was begun, so that now I have the ten (10) involved nodes.

On the diagram, please note that Sea Mists and Sunsets, Chris Schutz, has four (4) interactions within the Collective, and so also does The Block with Kittie Howard and Teresa Evangeline’s blog.

Note also that the photographic blogs interact with each other and me, but not with others in the Collective: New Mexico Art Photography, Evangeline Art Photography and Jeff Lynch.

Seven nodes are related by New Mexico connections: Color of Sand, Taos Sunflower, Teresa Evangeline, Evangeline Art Photography, New Mexico Art Photography, Stark Raving Zen and I Love New Mexico.  The diagram does not relate that attribute.

In conclusion, the graphic illustrates that if you like New Mexico, the American West, photography, writing, place or nature, then you will be a part of the Sage to Meadow Collective.

*A quick-and-dirty (Q&D) study is just what is sounds like: fast, quick, but revealing.  Basically, there are two kinds of research: Q&D, sometimes called “hot” research when bullets are flying and bulldozers are idling in the background and pressure is on to evaluate a situation.  The second is “cool” research–time can be taken to hypothesize, ponder and conclude, like writing a monograph or thesis.

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April 18, 2010 · 10:37 am

Field Focus Log 4/18/2010 (RT)

North Erath County, Texas, 32.43 lat., -98.36 long. Elev. 1,086 ft.  Turkey Creek Quad.

I have a focus for field activity today: scout on ranch and immediate surrounds for white-tailed deer.  Last sign of track for deer was over a month ago and since then, noise and brush-clearing from adjacent development has occurred.  All entries for Sage to Meadow will be as close to real time (RT) as possible.

7:05 a.m. CST: scan in grove and pasture for deer, daylight.  No sighting.  Seek track later today with corn distribution.  No corn has been distributed for two weeks.  Probability of finding deer track is minimal.

11:30 a.m., depart for general store for deer corn.

1:00 p.m., arrive back at ranch with two sacks of deer corn, $7.50 per sack.  Rain and mist, 57 deg. F.

On Sundays, I purchase deer corn at the Circle H Shell gasoline station at Interstate 20 and Highway 281, approximately 20 miles away.  Since it is misting and raining, I place the deer corn in the cab of the pickup, the scent of fresh-shucked corn filling the cab as I come back to the pastures.  An attendant at Circle H remarks, “I loaded up a couple of sacks of corn yesterday in the back of my pickup and by the time I got back home there was water dripping from the sacks.”

“That’s why I put the sacks in the cab when it rains,”  I replied.  The conversation was amiable, an exchange of information from two strangers, overcoming boredom on a rainy afternoon.

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April 16, 2010 · 1:47 pm

Field Log 4/16/2010

North Erath County, Texas, 32.43 lat., -98.36 long. Elev. 1,086 ft.  Turkey Creek Quad.

Light mist this morning.  Probably 0.20 inch of rain since yesterday.

Lilly, Star and Fanny browse front pasture.  Lilly shows age with slower gait and right back leg limp.  Sweet Hija still at ESMS on Brazos.  Shiney is at Jimmie Hardin’s in Aubrey, Texas, for ground training and conditioning for Triangle Sale, Shawnee, Oklahoma, June 5, 2010.  Miss the little guy more than I thought I would.

Pasture grasses are erupting well.  Vetch in far field is waist-high in places.

This week, Mourning Doves (Zenaidura macroura) are cooing.  No calls before then, but noticed their presence.  This morning the doves were ground feeding in the front yard.  From Peterson: has a pointed tail, most widespread dove in the West.  As to the call, Peterson says it is a “hollow mournful ooah, cooo, cooo, coo. At a distance only the three coo‘s are audible.”  The color of the dove in our front yard was a reddish-gray with black spots.  The two dove would ground feed a moment, then hunker down in the grass and loaf.  I must have watched them for ten minutes and then had to come back to office and work on college Blackboard classes.  I will have to focus on their call to hear the 00ah.  I am practicing on imitating their call better.

We have a larger dove that is whitish that appears in late summer.  It is untyped.  The two dove will perch on the power pole by the barn and watch me feed the horses.

The following are some photographs I took this morning.

Vetch and Clouds Far Field, April 2010

Prickly Pear Bush, April 2010

Cactus Fruit, April 2010

These photographs were taken last week.

Round Pen and Twin Mountains in Distance, April 2010

Harris' Hawks at Play, April 2010

Field grasses obscure pasture lanes.  Minimum shredding planned this year, indicative of lower carbon footprint.  In addition, taller grasses can harbor wildlife.  Hand cut mesquite brush this season, using clippers and large cutters.  Lessen vehicle use in pastures.

Lilly, Star and Fanny have browsed their way to the front pasture and are now standing close together, switching their tails to keep the flies away.  They have all this space to lounge around in and they prefer to stand together with their bodies almost touching.  Herd animals.  I worry about Lilly during the night and have corralled her so she can avoid predators.  One mountain lion sighting three months ago on SH 108 near Gibson place.

I must get the duct tape down in the barn and duct tape my Peterson’s Field Guide.  The binding is coming off.

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March 25, 2010 · 5:17 am

Logo of Grrl Scientist

I have discovered in the last few days, two striking logos, artful and intriguing.  I posted The Conelo Project logo yesterday.  Here is another artful logo from Grrl Scientist, Living the Scientific Life, and her other blog, Maniraptora: Tastes Like Chicken Blog.

GrrlScientist Image on About Page (artist unknown)

Grrl Scientist’s logo picture of herself is a parrot, inserted on her blog site.  I am always intrigued as to self-portrait selections, logo appointments and gravatars.  My gravatar is Evangeline Chavez’s photograph of buffalo stampeding through the snow at Sandia Pueblo.  If I parse out the personal-emotive rationale for using award-winning Chavez’s photograph (with permission), it is this:

Motion, winter, symbol of the West (bison), vigor, nature, white and brown, buffalo hair, undomesticated, untamed, consequence of over cropping, revitalization, reestablishment of wilderness virtues, ghost and present animation, return of the repressed.

Buffalo and Snow, Sandia, Evangeline Chavez

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March 20, 2010 · 11:13 am

Field Log 3/20/2010 (Deer Track)

North Erath County, Texas, 32.43 lat., -98.36 long. Elev. 1,086 ft.  Turkey Creek Quad.

Windy from north, intermittent slight snow mist, 34 deg. F.  Heavy rain last night.  Rain gauge not measured.

Drove DX-55 tractor to arena area.  Slippery, used four-wheel drive.  Walk to grove revealed no track.  Camera tucked under zipped field coat.

Hawk sighted, soaring low from north to south along pasture.  No definite typing.  Voice resembles a high-pitched shrill pweeeeeee; diminishing (see Peterson, A Field Guide to Western Birds, p. 68, under Broad-Winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus) [2nd ed., 1969]).  Tailbanding verification is ambiguous.

Deer track found on north side of The Grove, near corn site.  No corn set out for five days.  One deer track.  Mature.  Headed southwest.

Deer Track North Side Grove, March 20, 2010 (approx. 2.5 in. length, click to enlarge)

Deer Track North Side Grove Large View, March 20, 2010 (click to enlarge)

Scouting to creek area revealed no deer track.  Creek running high at approx. three (3) feet above normal.

Salt Creek After Rain, March 20, 2010 (click to enlarge)

Upon returning to house, deer track discovered along Poprock Hill Pasture, near the Blue place pond.  This indicates the one deer is still browsing between Blue’s pond, our pasture and the grove area.  No track emanates from Hall place to the southeast, as it used to.  Note: talk to Blue and verify continued support of brush growth around his pond.

One or two deer, not fifteen.

Returned to house at 11:15 a.m.

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March 13, 2010 · 9:02 am

Fine Sentences March 7-13, 2010

The best sentences from my friends on the blogroll for the week of March 7-March 13, 2010.  If the blogger did not post during the week, they are not quoted.

Old rose species are continuing the comeback they started about two decades ago, with vigorous, brilliantly-scented gallicas and dog roses gaining favor as tough, droughty hedges with tasty hips. –Coyote Crossing, Chris Clarke, on the failure to engineer genetically a blue rose.

I promise to try everything once (and all the good things twice) and let you know what I most highly recommend.  —Bunny Terry, I Love New Mexico Blog, on attending the Fiery Foods Show.

Mother Nature’s invitation to a spring party has begun:  Canadian geese fly overhead, a chorus to the tulips that nudge skyward; opened windows mean fresh air. –Kittie Howard, The Block, on spring and receiving The Honest Scrap Award.

The Honolulu Bar is the lone outpost in a service-less landscape of rusting panel trucks and constant wind. It’s four miles down Proving Ground Road where the paving and the world seems to end. –Karen Rivera, New Mexico Photography, on driving between Oregon and New Mexico today, lamenting the recession’s effect of closing Arizona and Mojave rest stops.

The principles of Ho’oponopono disarm the tendency to blame others for our frustrations by taking on full responsibility for any discord, and killing it with kindness.  —Kristy Sweetland, Stark Raving Zen Blog, on a variation of the Hawaiian philosophy and psychology to achieve a life in balance.

I’ve had potential tenants surveying the birdhouse in the carport this past week (Mountain Chickadees, I believe), and Hairy the woodpecker has been happily beating the daylights out of the vigas in the same carport…leaving his sawdust below. –Martie, Taos Sunflower, on Spring is in The Air.

The road unfolded before me in quiet beauty. –Teresa Evangeline, on her trip to Maine from Minnesota, comment near Lowell, Massachusetts.

El Paso is blessed with poppies in the Franklin Mountains in years with good rain.  This year it looks to be a great one for a beautiful display. —Texas Mountain Trail Blog, on the emergence of poppies near El Paso, Texas.

Spring has finally come to central Texas and the trees are beginning to bud, the wildflowers are starting to pop and the rivers are running freely. I’m feeling that old familiar itch to get out and see the countryside. –Jeff Lynch, Texas Photography, on the impulse to bolt from the cabin and end the fever.

A really good movie — and why waste time on anything else — is like a good novel or poem; it deserves to be savored.  —Coffeeonthemesa’s Blog, on watching movies at home rather than a public theater.

I hereby declare an end to Cabin Fever. Even the calendar tells me that spring equinox arrived Friday, but better evidence is found by a stroll outdoors. –Jerry Wilson, Observations from a Missouri River Bluff, posting in March 2009.

Next Friday we had planned to do a litter sweep along one of our local parks as our Equinox celebrations, but we are changing plans to go and clear up the reserve. The decision was easy when we found a polystyrene fast food container with swan shaped bite marks out of it. –Spider’s Animist Blog, on an early morning walk to Brinburn local nature reserve in Darlington, U.K.  [Randomly selected blog quotation that has a fine sentence.]

Taos Pueblo American Doorway with Hand, Evangeline Chavez Art Photography

Oklahoma, Kristy Sweetland, Stark Raving Zen

Spring is in The Air, Taos Sunflower

Spring Poppies Near El Paso, Texas Mountain Trail Blog

Ducks Over Flying Hat Ranch, March 12, 2010 (click to enlarge)

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