I believe that one of the ways to help get people interested in environmentalism is to make them passionate about creation. Most of us have a bucket list and often out bucket list or passions involves something from nature.
A few of mine are:
I want to see and handle the roughly 65 species of snakes in alabama including the venomous ones. I’ll eventually take a class on snake handling ( not at all related to anything religious) .
I want to find the roughly 30+ species of ferns in alabama.
I want to see the Northern Lights in person. I think seeing the aurora borealis would just be cool. Maybe this can be coupled with stargazing from Sawtooth Mountain.
I want to start a comprehensive private “‘herbarium”’ of leaves and their buds from native flora.
I want to see the underwater forest located in the Gulf of Mexico. Hopefully I can couple this with seeing Hammerhead Sharks a bit closer.
There are many natural wonders I’d like to see but I’m not sure when/if I’ll have enough money to do it. If we ever take a road trip across the country, I’d love to see Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, maybe the La Brea Tar Pits too.
But for right where I am, I want to grow lupines and get enough milkweed established that it self-sustains, and I would really love to see an owl in the wild. I know we have them around here, I just don’t get out after dark much.
Seeing owls in the wild can be lots of fun. I have best luck seeing them within the first hour of dawn in larger trees with clear hollows near the top. They often are very well camouflaged.
I always have to clarify Snake handling because people first think I’m taking about some kid of sign of s apostleship.
Where I live I also cannot see the galaxies or the northern lights. The place I want to go is about 1200 miles away. But I can get a flight there in just a few hours. There are some places closer I can go that will allow me to see a lot more though. I could also potentially head out into the ocean but I’m under the impression you can’t get good images because of the rocking. That does sound freezing though. It was about 23°c here where I live. But it’s getting colder everyday. Never as cold as where you are. We almost never get snow. About as cold as it gets here is 4-6°c. I prefer 28-30°C.
I think Andromeda is the only galaxy you can see with the naked eye. Well, outside of the Magellantic Clouds in the southern hemisphere. Stars are best seen with low humidity and higher altitude. That is why the stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of the desert Southwest. I enjoy this time of year when Orion returns to view, like an old friend.
I’ve only seen the Southern Cross once when close enough to the equator to visualize it. It would be sort of fun to see the stars from the viewpoint of our Aussie friends here.
The Triangulum Galaxy is fairly readily visible if you have absolutely no light pollution, and Centaurus A, M81, and the Sculptor Galaxy are technically possible to see if you know exactly where to look, have really good eyesight, and no light pollution.
Nature minus man is my bread and butter. But there is one creation by a human creature that gets the top place in my bucket list. It’s Gaudi’s cathedral in Barcelone, La Sagrada Famillia.
A garden designer Facebook friend of mine just posted the most exquisite photos and videos from her visit here and to other of Gaudi’s creations. In this case it is interesting to note how much his study of nature influenced his most artistic creation which I find awe inspiring. Not sure if I’ll make it there but this is number one on my list of places to go to see not nature sans man, but nature with and through man.
I’m not clever enough to link to her post but here is what she wrote in one of her posts from there:
A ceiling inspired by a honeycomb. Naves designed after nautilus shells. Gaudi used the asymmetric art nouveau style with the mathematical proportions of nature to create magical living spaces.
Whoo. I googled it and selected images, and it affected my knees just scrolling through them. It’s not something I would attempt just for fun or just to say I had done it! The planks loaded with people don’t seem like a good idea!
I would have to have a compelling reason, like if I could somehow save someone else’s life in the process. (And then there’s the little detail that I’m a septuagenarian not in good enough shape for the trek.)
