too much sky

^{Moon Balance By Melanie Reynolds Washington State, USA}

Hello Nature-led friends!

Yes, a late request for photo submissions! I have faith some of our regular people can pull it off and perhaps a few new people are ready to join in the fun too.

Kerfe, our friend in New York, USA had recommended the “sky” as a worthy nature topic for photo submissions and Ms Scarlet from Devon, UK agreed. That’s really all the motivation I needed because taking pictures of the moon during “daylight” hours is one of my favorite things. So, for the month of March please pull out your cameras (or find a previous picture) of the Sky and/or the moon. Any time of day or night. What does the sunrise or sunset look like from your corner of the world? Or maybe you’ve captured some really cool cloud formation or the aurora borealis or stars. When you think about it, there is a lot going on in the sky above us.

^{Morning Rise Moon By Melanie Reynolds Washington State, USA (Taken this morning of Mar 15, 2023)}

It makes me unreasonably happy to see the moon during the day, which is probably weird, right? I consider the moon a friend of the earth and the creatures upon it, like me. We both hang out in the same little slice of the universe and the moon influences life in both subtle and not so subtle ways just like the people, plants, and animals in our lives.

It has inspired song, words, and behaviors way before the existence of human civilizations. In the presence of the moon, I don’t feel alone. Does that make me a lunatic? In these modern societies in which we live we’re all crazy here, but the moon is not to blame. The moon is a companion who asks nothing of me. It doesn’t sell my personal information or tell me to trade my soul to the devil for cheese. Oh, how I do so love cheese though!

The moon hangs out in that big scary place we simply call “sky.” I find it frightening to think about it too much, all the space beyond the sun and moon, beyond the stratosphere and the clouds. I’ve written about it before in this previous post: https://nature-led.org/2021/01/27/too-much-sky/

Here’s a previous poem that Patricia shared and translated from a friend in Colombia about the moon: https://nature-led.org/2021/05/02/es-luna-llena-it-is-full-moon/

Finally, two more pictures of the sky to share with you.

^{Storm Clouds By Melanie Reynolds Washington State, USA}

I took this picture last week, Monday, March 5th, 2023, when we had heavy clouds and strong winds. I think it was a glancing blow from that first atmospheric river that hit California recently.

and this…

A fun picture I took a few summers ago. I texted it to Patricia with the comment: “How pilots double date.” Ha,ha,ha.

^{Planes Flying Side by Side By Melanie Reynolds Washington State, USA}

In the meantime, I’ll figure out the next few months of photo submission requests. Suggestions are always welcome and appreciated!

Submission Guidelines

The Sky and/or the Moon:

Due: March 31st

To be posted on: April 1st (No fooling!)

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.

I’m of the mountains and valleys. On a hike I’ll often say; “Just a little bit further, let’s see over yonder.” I follow paths sometimes only I can see. They have secrets I want to explore. Discoveries to make. Sometimes it’s a waterfall in a slot canyon, a vantage point to spy on animal or a really impressive tree. I once found an old miner’s cabin and on a solo trip an entire lake! It was only Tuesday when I discovered the possibility of a new adventure. I remember it felt like forever for my day off to arrive. I took my cat, who thought she was a dog.

I drove up an old service road, then walked, shimmed, and crawled through the thickets until I crested a small ridge. The lake was small, more like a large pond, but I could see the outlines of what it had been. It was a place of eagles. I made a pouch for my cat out of my long shirt and tied it to my waist with her head sticking out. I didn’t want her to become a sacrifice. I fished the lake to see what was in it, only perch it seemed. I tossed them back in. The eagles can keep their perch and their secret lake. I’ll never go back or share the location. It’s for the eagles. I was only a guest. They were still on the endangered species list at the time, trying to recover from the long shadow of DDT pesticide use.

Sometimes, we humans, kill things with kindness. As I write this now in the year 2021, the Pine Siskin and other songbird populations are crashing. The Pine Siskins are going through an irruption and salmonella is spreading from bird feeder to bird feeder. It’s time to take them down, at least for now. Nature can rebalance when we let it. It needs space and time to heal, just as a wounded person.

When you kill a forest, you kill the magic within it. It destroys a sacred song. Until more people learn to harmonize better, some things will never be known to you. I’ve never feared for my safety in the forest; The monsters live in houses.

I used to practice getting lost, but my senses guide me to water and lower elevations. The trees never stop talking. There’s always something manmade to bump into unless you keep to the higher ridges and that is a conscious thought. It incurs intent.

The first time I flew from Washington to Florida the land below me became an ironed out Shar-pei, with Florida as it’s leg. (Shar-pei being both a wrinkled dog breed and Chinese for “sand-coated”) It was here that I felt lost. It was so flat! I felt like a mouse in a field looking for a place to hide. My future father-in-law said he knew the feeling; it was the feeling of “too much sky.” My future brothers-in-law took me to a terribly unfortunate named place called “the Devil’s Hopper” for elevation. It was there that I felt at home. What can I do but embrace my oddity? I’m the kind of person that feels at home in the bottom of a sinkhole. It seems ironically befitting. I’m a cat who needs a box, a fox who needs a hole, a dog who needs a den and an ant who needs a hill.

When I lay on my back under a clear night sky I am again overwhelmed with the feeling of “too much sky.” We are tiny creatures clinging to a rock. I’m grateful the sun rises every day and hides it all away from me.

Links for more exploration:

Descend Into the Sinkhole | Florida State Parks

How Ddt Harmed Hawks and Eagles | Actforlibraries.org

With dramatic increase in population of pine siskins, PAWS advises removing bird feeders to combat salmonella – My Edmonds News

Tag: too much sky

March Photo Submission Request: The Sky and the Moon