Surprising, Sensational and Strange, it’s Nature!

Happy 2014 Earth Day everyone! This is one of my favorite holidays, and anyone who follows my posts knows I’m crazy about Old Mother Earth, and I write about her as often as I can. Luckily for me, the other sisters haven’t told me to give it a rest. Yet! Here are excerpts from two …
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Friday Inspiration: Spring!

Yesterday, March 20th, was the first day of spring. It might not look like spring where you are. Heather just mentioned having 100 consecutive days of snow in Toronto, and posted some fetching photos of herself in a snowsuit on Twitter. I, on the other hand, live in California. I know I’m better off than …
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Friday Inspiration: Writer Wanderlust

When I was a kid, my family went to Disney World in Florida. Apparently, the favorite Disney theme park for most kids is The Magic Kingdom, but I loved The EPCOT Center’s World Showcase. Now an adult, I realize this is hardly an adequate representation of the world’s countries, but to a small town girl …
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Friday Inspiration: Author John Muir

Today we kick off the weekend with a Friday inspiration post. During these posts each of us takes turns selecting something that inspires us, and we hope offers inspiration to other writers. I’m showcasing one of my favorite nature writers, John Muir (1838 – 1914) Writer, naturalist, political activist, and Co-founder of the Sierra Club, …
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The Call of the Wild and How Writers Respond.

I’ve always felt the call of the wild, that deep magnetic draw to be outside. The feeling stuck with me even after bad times, days when Mother Nature let me know she held all the cards. Like when I lost my footing while backpacking and tumbled down an embankment, or when a Tarantula Hawk sting …
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Into the Wild Part II

In the last few weeks, I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about nature. And zoning laws! And bureaucratic stupidity. Well maybe not stupidity, let’s be kind and call it arrogance, or kinder still, ignorance. Can sugar-coating turn a bitter truth into candy? Or change how we as a species, deliberately, with planning and …
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Into the Wild: Creating Nature Settings

For urban dwellers, nature sits apart. Most of us only see the spare, diminished nature of city parks and backyard gardens. Even these natural settings we relegate to the rear of our consciousness as we focus on the conditions around us, the cars in the street, our work cubical, a much-needed trip to the grocery …
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