Photo Submissions: Rocks and Fossils

April 30, 2023April 30, 2023 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 9 Comments

^{Garden statue in Mary Kings yard Washington, USA By Mary King}

Hello Nature-Led friends, I hope you are ready for May because May is ready for you!

I politely stole the above image from Mary’s Facebook page. I say polite because I said, “Hey, can I steal this?” And she said, “Yes, but does it follow the rules?” And I said, “Yes, because I make the rules!” Hahaha. What I see is an adorable angelic kola bear. According to Mary it’s actually an adorable angelic rabbit. Well, I hope you’ll agree it’s an adorable chunk of concrete at any rate. Concrete is technically made up of two types of aggregate: fine (typically sand) and coarse (usually gravel, crushed stone, or recycled concrete. There is currently a race going to reinvent concrete as we know it to make it more sustainable either by making it porous enough to anchor plant life or by sequestering carbon. (See links below)

Our rockstar for sending pictures so quickly and nicely labeled is Kerfe of New York City, USA. Please enjoy the rocks of New York’s famous Central Park:

^{Rocks of Central Park New York NY USA By Kerfe April 2023. https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/ & https://kblog.blog/}

Thanks to Kerfe!, These rocks look like a nice spot to sit and read a book. I heartily approve!

Dinah shares with us some rocks from here and over there.

Near her home in Australia:

^{Lambert’s Lookout in Australia By Dinah https://moreidlethoughts.wordpress.com/}

^{Pet rock or prehistoric glyph? By Dinah https://moreidlethoughts.wordpress.com/}

A prehistoric pet rock.

Then there was that time Dinah went to Spain…

^{Somewhere on the Malaga coast Spain By Dinah https://moreidlethoughts.wordpress.com/}

What a nice little beach protected by rocks.

^{Rock wall somewhere on the Malafa coast of Spain By Dinah https://moreidlethoughts.wordpress.com/}

I love rock walls and this one is particularly interesting with the variety of shapes and sizes of rocks. They must have used mortar to keep it all together. The purple flowers are nice too.

If you’re going to travel, one must do so fashionably. I’ve never been accused of being fashionable, so fortunately we have Marika Stone to show us what a rocktastic accessory looks like.

^{Petrified wood belt buckle By Marika Stone Florida USA https://womanaloud.blog/}

She may or may not have been wearing this fabulous accessory when she spied a rock owl talisman…

^{Owl talisman By Marika Stone https://womanaloud.blog/}

As many of you are likely aware, the owl represents wisdom in many cultures, but additional attributes vary beyond that. Some cultures view the owl with positive attributes such as protection, while other consider the sight of an owl an omen of death.

What about finding this on the beach?

^{Stone spirals Overstrand, North Norfolk, England Oct 2019 By Inexplicable Device: “But Where Are The Knockers?”}

I’m a big fan of circles, I think it’s quite possibly my favorite shape. I love the beautiful transitions of size and shapes of these rocks. IDV has a good eye for design. The links in both captions will take you to additional photos from his posts.

^{Chalk fossil Overstrand, North Norfolk, England Feb 2021 By Inexplicable Device: Misty Mysteries}

These nice protective rocks below help keep the jetty in place. The Reynolds family is very fond of this jetty and adjacent inlet.

^{Protective rocks in Jupiter Florida By Mary Reynolds}

Today Ms Scarlet closes our rocks and fossil photo submissions with a stacked duck and rock fudge. It seems only fitting that we should start with whimsy and finish with whimsy.

^{Pink “fudge” rock Clovelly beach UK By Ms Scarlett https://wonky-words.com/blog/}

^{A rock duck at Duckpool in Cornwall, England along with some other balance rocks By Ms Scarlet https://wonky-words.com/blog/}

I think the duck is riding a unicycle. I love the color and composition of the other picture.

May the blessings of the Angelic Kola Bunny and Unicycle Rock Duck hail the start of a wonderful week and month! May you also have the wisdom and protection of the Owl.

Photo Submissions for May?

We’re about to round out our first full year of photo submissions! Yippee! We’ve got three blank months that still need a subject matter: May, June and July. Lets hear more of your great ideas!

Maybe grasses? Bamboo is a grass and there’s lots of ornamental grasses and grass-like perennials to choose from. Pictures taken for the month of the subject are great, but it’s okay if you want to use a picture you already have. We do this for fun and the enjoyment of nature.

How about water? Lakes, rivers, ponds and oceans. This should be a fairly common subject to photograph, yes?

Let me know in the comments.

Photos Submissions Monthly List:

January: Moss & Lichen

February: Ferns & Unexpected Blooms

March: Skies & Moon

April: Rocks & Fossils

May:

June:

July:

August: Unknown Paths

September: A Tree

October: Leaves

November: Mushrooms & Fungi

December: Nature At Rest

Links:

Bioreceptive concrete – Respyre – https://www.living-lab.nl/experiments/respyre

Carbon Sequestering Concrete – Greenbiz – https://www.greenbiz.com/article/carbon-sucking-concrete-capturing-attention-and-funding

Don’t forget your rocks…and fossils!

April 24, 2023April 25, 2023 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 10 Comments

Greetings Nature-led friends!

I’m constantly writing posts for you in my head, but when its time to sit down and write them something more pressing always needs to be done. I could really use a WordPress mind reader app. You wouldn’t want people reading your mind all the time, but imagine if you could think the words, *Begin post* and then write with your mind and add images. Think of all the millions of images we see in our lifetime, being able to recall and image and plug it into a post or book manuscript would be amazing! It would save so much time too!

I’m a visual thinker and experiential learner. I can do something once and then teach it to others. I see words in complete sentences and paragraphs with appropriate white space and font size. I visualize music and numbers in colors. Zero is white with a halo back shadow, one is white outlined in black, two is blue, three is red,…12 is purple.

In one of my early jobs, I worked as a long-distance telephone operator. At the end of the night my mind would purge all the credit card numbers as they scrolled before my closed eyelids like movie credits. I accidentally spooked a regular caller once when he dropped his card while reading off the numbers and I cheerfully said, “It’s okay. I know them.” Oops. I’m well aware that complete strangers don’t want to know I have their credit card number accidentally memorized. A missed opportunity for a life of crime I know.

Wait! That’s not what this post is about. I got distracted. Thoughts like butterflies and all that…

Send me your rock and fossil pictures!

The deadline is this Sunday, April 30th.

I’ve only received pictures from two people, Kerfe and Mary Reynolds. Thank you both!

Here’s some inspiration. A couple of pictures of the petrified wood that I inherited from one of my grandfathers back in the 1980s.

Assorted Petrified Wood Samples By Melanie Reynolds

and this one that usually ends up as a door stop in the summers:

It’s as big as my hands and I have big hands for a woman! It’s also appropriately heavy for something that’s been turned to stone.

About Petrified wood: https://geology.com/stories/13/petrified-wood/

If you want more pictures of rocks and fossils, including a cool Cave Bear Skeleton visit/revisit my road trip to Montana last summer.

Road Trip! Montana, United States

Have a lovely week! Don’t forget to play outside.

Updated 4/25/2023 @ 7:58pm (PST) to include the Photo submission Guidelines

The Fine Print: Photo Submissions Guidelines

Email to: natureledlife@gmail.com, Subject line: Photo Submission for [month] (Multiple months of photos in one email is fine.) Image: Attached as a .JPEG or .PNG file preferred. Captions each picture: Subject in the photo (if known), State/Providence & Country, Date (optional). Your name as you want it to appear, Your blog link (if you have one.)

Feel free to add any interesting notes about a picture. I love interesting stories behind things! Let me know if it’s just for ‘my eyes only’ or if I can share any part of it with your photo. Pictures must be your own or you have permission from the Photographer to share it. All copyrights belong to their respective owners. This is a free, fun, community site about nature. Non-commercial and ad free.

Photo Submissions: The Sky & the Moon

March 31, 2023April 2, 2023 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 21 Comments

^{A modern dinosaur flies above the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and Vancouver By Dinah https://moreidlethoughts.wordpress.com/}

When I look at the sky or moon, the word transition comes to mind. I think about the many transitions that take place within our world and our individual lives. Death is a shadow to our light. We are of both matter (body) and anti-matter (spirit.)

The sky changes throughout our planetary cycles in a unit of measurement we call days. Yet measures of time, gravity and composition can change vastly on planets different from our own. The movie Interstellar is one of my favorites and a great example of what other worlds could look like. The movie was based on our current understanding of black holes, worm holes and relativity. Dr Kip Thorne Nobel Laurate of Physics in 2017 provided equations and insight as a subject matter expert to bring authenticity to such a brilliant movie.

Real science is not boring. It expands the universes within our minds. In my heart, Pluto will always be a (dwarf) planet and the Apatosaurus will always be a Brontosaurus. The scientific community might change the name of things, but I still know what my favorite dinosaur is.

^{The night before a super moon in New York, USA By Dinah https://moreidlethoughts.wordpress.com/}

As the moon dances with the earth, I feel a kinship to all living things. It reminds me that we are not alone and its phases, while often predictable, remind us that change is constant. The presence of the moon can be felt throughout the world in king tides, migrations and the hours of sun in a day. Without it the earth would spin faster, and the days would be shorter. I fear I really wouldn’t get anything done if the days became any shorter!

^{One hour later – The night before a super moon in New York, USA By Dinah https://moreidlethoughts.wordpress.com/}

The Moon –

^{Moon at Summer Solstice, Overstrand, North Norfolk, England – 21 June 2022. IDV, Inexplicable Device: I get up at four in the morning so you don’t have to!}

^{Moon peering through the trees. Routt National Forest, Colorado, U.S. By Tracy Abell Another Day on the Planet}

^{Moon through the branches Manhattan NY USA By Kerfe https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/ & https://kblog.blog/}

^{Moon above a building Manhattan NY USA By Kerfe https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/ & https://kblog.blog/}

^{Moon and clouds Manhattan NY USA By Kerfe https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/ & https://kblog.blog/}

Sunrise –

^{Obscured sunrise over the North Sea, North Norfolk, England – 28 Oct 2020. IDV, Inexplicable Device: Crack of Dawn.}

^{Sunrise over Brooklyn NY USA By Dinah https://moreidlethoughts.wordpress.com/}

The Day –

^{Mist over the fields} ^{Devon England By Ms Scarlet https://wonky-words.com/blog/}

^{Clouds over a field} ^{Devon England By Ms Scarlet https://wonky-words.com/blog/}

^{Clouds that resemble a snowy avalanche rumbling ever closer Routt National Forest, Colorado, U.S. By Tracy Abell Another Day on the Planet}

^{A ship sails the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and Vancouver By Dinah https://moreidlethoughts.wordpress.com/}

Sunset –

Special Capture –

^{An early morning rocket launch from Cape Canaveral FL USA captured by Lisa Troute in her driveway several miles away.}

Thank you!

My many thanks to everyone who submitted photos and those who strongly thought about submitting photos but weren’t able to for one reason or another.

You expand my horizons!

May Submissions – Rocks and Fossils

This nature site is severely lacking in sediment appreciation. Let’s remedy that! Show me your pictures of cool rocks and/or fossils.

Due: April 30th

To be posted on May 1st.

The Fine Print: Photo Submissions Guidelines

Additional Links:

How does the Moon affect life on Earth – Natural History Museum of London

Types of Clouds – Sciencefacts.net

What is a Moorland? – World Atlas

NASA has a launch for a new instrument to detect air pollution this month, April 2023. For more information: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/langley/new-instrument-to-track-air-pollution-hourly-shed-light-on-disparities