February 2009
The Archives
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02.24.09Recycling Is For the Birds!
Birds, Crafts, Spring, Urban, Winter, nature study (21)Nothing is wasted in nature. I was reading the newspaper one day, scanning the weekend garage sales, and came across a morbid delight. A widower, a doctor, living alone in his home, had died. The belongings of his estate was itemized, monetized and laid for sale that weekend. I knew this man. His wife, whom he had survived by six months, was a dear friend of mine. I met her when I was nine. First, she was my art teacher, then my mentor, and finally, my boss. All of the tender things she had kept in her home as a reminder of ...
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02.22.09Paddling up Elkhorn Slough
Birds, Boats, nature study (11)In 2007 on Thanksgiving day, I floated with a handful of other surfers in Capitola, waiting for swells. The bull kelp was a thick forest below at low tide, snaking between our legs and boards. We compared dinnertimes while sloshing wet cords of the slimy cable off our boards, yanking our legs up out of slick knots of the kelp, some of us whining. Finally, the swells came and lifted us higher, releasing our feet. I paddled shoreward ahead of a wave and could have popped up if another hank of the kelp hadn't snared my fins. Instead: the big ...
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02.18.09Pine Cone Bird Feeders
Birds (27)A simple and inexpensive gift that boys can make is a pine cone bird feeder. All it takes is pine cones, a jar of peanut butter ($1.29) and some birdseed (we paid $10.99 at the nursery). We used Sugar Pine cones that we gathered a few years ago on a logging road somewhere between Ross Crossing and Wishon Dam. Here is how we made bird feeders out of them. 1. Seth covered the bristles with peanut butter. Seth does not suggest sampling the peanut butter once you have started the application process. Presumably it gets pitch in it and does not taste ...
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