a miscellany of wonder
Earlier this year, I bought myself a point and shoot camera because I wanted to be able to take photos with a better zoom and resolution than I had on my phone. I bought this Panasonic Lumix ZS99 because it had good reviews and it was small enough to fit in my pocket. Now that I’ve had it for about six months, I can say that it’s been one of the best things I’ve ever purchased. I’ve been able to…
I am fascinated by colour. How we perceive it, how it shows up in nature, how plants and animals use it to their advantage, and how we use it to interpret our world. As humans, vision is the sense we rely on above all others, yet paradoxically, we see a shorter spectrum of colours than other species as we cannot see either infrared or ultraviolet. Despite using vision as our primary sense, colour…
What is that? I’m barely five meters down the path when a small yellow flower catches my eye. The prairie landscape in southern Alberta is dotted with different species of little yellow daisies, as though evolution is laughing at naturalist’s attempts at identification. But this one was not something I’d seen before. The lemon-yellow flower resembles hawksbeard (Crepis sp) and the pointed seedhead…
For something a little different, here’s a little zine I made about finding joy in difficult times. The post Chasing Joy first appeared on This Wild Curiosity .
Like so many people, I have a bookshelf that is overflowing with familiar reads and yet-to-be-discovered favourites. Among the shelves, there are always those books that stay with me and that I return to again and again. Here is my list of essential nature reads: A book that helped me see things differently. Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer This is one of those books that I recommend to…
There’s a tendency for seasoned birders to turn their noses up at Merlin, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s extremely popular bird identification app. “It’s not 100% accurate, you know.” “Don’t trust it.” “Always verify your results.” Undoubtedly, this is very good advice and I’ve had Merlin offer some suggestions, that even as a novice, I knew were unlikely or even impossible. However, I would…
There’s something clandestine about back alleys, as if they provide an opportunity to peel back the streetfront facade to reveal the real city underneath. Back alleys aren’t just unswept pavement and places for deliveries and garbage pick-up. Here are three cities that have turned their back alleys into attractions instead of places to avoid. Lethbridge, Alberta The Lethbridge Historical Society…
When I was a kid, one of my hobbies was collecting specimens of local wildflowers. Any time I went out exploring I’d tuck an old grocery bag into my pocket so that I could gather any new plants that I discovered. With my dad’s help, these new specimens would be carefully identified using a botanical key before I pressed them to dry and mounted them as part of my collection. My little childhood…
There’s something almost soothing about collections of photographs that allow us to explore an everyday subject in a new way. Here are three photographers that let us see things in new ways. First is this collection of photographs from inside musical instruments, taken by photographer and musician Charles Brooks. They make me think of what it would be like to be a minature person in a world of…
There is something extremely satisfying about a digital collection of natural objects. I think it takes me back to that desire to understand and catalogue the natural world. Today, of course, it’s possible to create an online collection of anything you would like. Here are three of my favourites: Featherbase aims to catalogue bird feathers from around the world. Seeing the configuration of the…