Turtle Tracking

Turtle tracks leading back to the ocean.
These are the tracks from the female loggerhead turtle that I watched lay eggs early in the morning of 24 June 2005. Her carapace measured 46 inches and she probably weighed between 250 - 300 lbs. She laid 160 eggs this morning. The average nest has 120 eggs. Her nest was moved manually by the park ranger and the turtle intern to protect the eggs.

For more pictures and a complete description of my experience on Edisto Island,
check out my nature blog at:
http://skunkroot.blogspot.com/

Snake on the Fence

A snake at Phinizy Swamp June 10th 2005

Aiken is in South Carolina

When no one writes to tell me that I had Aiken located in Georgia in the other night's post... I have to wonder if I'm the only one reading this blog! :-)

The 12 Days of Bush-mas

Here is a song by Dave Lippman (touted as "The world's only known singing CIA agent") who I had the pleasure of meeting after one of his performances in Aiken, SC last weekend. His performance was great - he played the part of a CIA agent to a tee. Afterwards he came out as Dave Lippman and the transformation was as complete as any that I have seen. The audience was laughing the entire time, despite the otherwise serious nature of his songs.

The 12 Days of Bush-mas

You can find more of his songs at:
http://davelippman.com/mp3s.html

And of course there's the main site at:
http://davelippman.com

Wishful Thinking

I would love to find a relatively small store, owned by someone that I know, within 10 miles of my home where I could buy everything that I need while knowing that I was helping to make that person's business thrive.

If I could Walmart in the middle of the night, when it is one of the only stores in town that is open, and buy something there without thinking of the effect that it has on small businesses, on local commerce, on the wages of retail workers, and on the efforts made by those retail workers to unionize, I might just consider doing so.

If there were more privately owned, non-chain restaurants other than greasy-spoon fast food joints, I would truly enjoy eating out more often and would feel more a part of a community than when I'm being served by a waiter or waitress with a plastic name-badge who is wearing the obligatory "flare".

It would be so enriching to be able to find things manufactured locally, for a reasonable price, that looked somewhat different from the things created 1000 or even 100 miles away. If my house were filled with unique items made by craftsmen that I knew personally, every piece of furniture would be imbued with personal meaning.

It would be refreshing to see more people spending more time outside talking, laughing and playing, instead of inside with their TV sets and their commercials, being bombarded with messages about how to live, while not doing much living themselves.

I wish that violence was not glorified in the movies the way that it is, and that the common person wasn't quite as numb to death and destruction as they have become through their exposure to scenes in the media; at the same time I wish that people could experience every bit of cruelty and inhumanity that is presented on the news as if it were happening to a family member and feel compelled to do something about what they're seeing. I wish that could all happen and still leave each of us enough time to live our Clark Kent lives without always gallivanting around the planet to play Superman.

If only we could have all of the luxuries that we now enjoy while living in a world as rich as it was when travelling just a few hundred miles brought you into a somewhat different culture, where people were self-sufficient and relied on one another in a very personal sense, I think we would all feel more satisfied with our society.

Every time I travel through the states now, I marvel at how much every place resembles every other place along the route. "One sprawl to rule them all..." Where is our Mordor?

Grasshopper Guide

Grasshopper Guide - Phinizy Swamp - 04 June 2005

This grasshopper was guiding my path through Phinizy Swamp this evening. It seemed to be following me along my route, and at 3 different places where I had to decide which way to turn, it flew on up ahead of me as if to say: "This way! The good stuff is this way!" I chose to follow, and found many wonderful things. I was able to take some great nature shots which I will be sharing over the next few days. Thanks to this "grasshopper guide" for helping to make my time outdoors today exceptionally enjoyable.

Orthoptera Link

Gordon's Orthoptera Page

Caring for Crickets

Slouching Toward The Millennium

Here are the lyrics to another song on that Kris Kristofferson album "Moment of Forever" that I checked out from the library to see if I could find something that I liked...

Slouching Toward The Millennium

One thing can be said about Kris Kristofferson without a doubt... he knows how to write lyrics that will make you think.

Johnny Lobo

I have so many topics trickling through the spaces in my mind these days that I'm having trouble getting myself to sit down and write about any single one of them. I have decided that I'm going to let those ideas percolate and absorb all that is in there until they're so saturated that they just pour out without being forced.

I've been checking out music CD's from the library that I otherwise might not ever listen to. I've been playing these in the background while I'm doing whatever else I'm doing at home. The great thing about this is that there are absolutely no expectations and if I'm lucky I might find a song that speaks to me. This is one that caught my ear today. Johnny Lobo by Kris Kristofferson.

Johnny Lobo - by Kris Kristofferson