Thorns and Ice
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” – W.B. Yeats
The Point
Tag Archives: Nature
Paddington’s dangerous cousin
Very cool finds in caves in Missouri — prehistoric bears, peccaries.
Click on the Riverbluff link to see photos of a serious large claw mark. {8 inch wide and 15 feet up the wall.) Glad that these days we only have to worry about grizzlies in the Rockies and not Arctodis simus. . .
Arctodus simus by Sergiodlarosa via Wikimedia Commons
North and South America were the last continents to be conquered by humans. We have been in Africa since we first evolved, Europe and Asia for over a million years, in Australia for about 60,000 years, but in the Americas for only about 15,000. Considering that reaching Australia required a treacherous ocean voyage but you could walk to Alaska without getting your feet wet via the flat, treeless, mammoth steppe of Beringia (with plenty of game to hunt en-route), why did it take people so long to reach the promised land? Some researchers have suggested that perhaps people did reach Beringia much earlier, but what they met there prevented them from penetrating any further. Along with the mammoths, cave lions, bison, and horses, Beringia had something else. Something that would have been completely unfamiliar to the humans who encountered…
View original post 989 more words
Forrest Fenn’s Holiday Ornament Contest
So it’s December 20th and I still hadn’t submitted an entry to the contest over on Dal’s site. Better late than never, right? But before I headed out back, I checked the rules once more—hand made of found, natural items—and thereby saw the awesome competition. Fantastic ornaments.
{Results are in. Congrats to the talented winners!}
Okay, so clearly I’m not winning this thing but since Forrest is mailing every entrant a bona fide arrowhead from his collection, I’m not not entering. (BTW you still have time to enter, too.)
I planned on making bells somehow out of pine needles since I hadn’t come up with any other ideas. You know, Snoopy’s “Christmas bells, those Christmas bells, ringing through the land, Peace on earth and good will to man.”
I booted and bundled up. It wasn’t long before the hike took its own course. I got to a pond that was just icing over, bubbles trapped below the surface, took some photos, and proceeded along the frosty edges. 
While I took more pictures, the outline beneath the surface finally registered. Yikes. An alligator snapping turtle? It was in shallow water. Is it hibernating? Is it even alive?
A little farther on, I found another one. It’s much bigger, older cousin maybe. I didn’t see them this summer, but often enough in summers past to paddle carefully and not tip over the canoe.
Add those beasts to my list of frightening things. (Spiders, snakes, prions, and, I forgot to mention, cougars. One’s been sighted again within twenty miles of here. Yes, really.)
Anyway, on my way to the white pines, I found some twiny, viny stuff for binding, red berries for color, wild grape vines for fun, and all manner of prairie grasses. A thought started to form in my mind. Hmm. One of Forrest’s treasured possessions is Sitting Bull’s Peace Pipe. Still running with the Peace theme, it began to take shape. But just in case, I continued to the pines and grabbed cones and needles—brown from the ground, green from the branches torn off by the White tail deer who just love destroying the young trees when their antlers itch.
So, here’s what I brought in the house.
Here’s what I came up with. (See the authenticated original here.)
“IMO” (very important words on Dal’s blog) this ornament is small enough and light enough to go on a Christmas tree. I could prove it, except our tree isn’t up yet.
In fact, it’s still alive and well in the back yard, a beautiful Frazier fir that we planted maybe 7 years ago. Maybe tomorrow Mr. W will saw it down and bring it in while I bake cookies. Company’s coming. I’m not usually this far behind, but it’s hard to say no sometimes.
Besides, I’m “having too much fun!”
Related articles
Today’s Trove
(Not the treasure trove, of course. Still working on that.)
Forrest Fenn’s Treasure Chest
Remember last winter’s blossoms? 
I’ve now got a half-dozen Meyer lemons and I think they might be ripe.
So when life hands you lemons . . .
Hmmm . . . lemon curd, lemon meringue pie, lemon poppy seed muffins, lemon bars. I’ll think of something.
by Christopher Idone
Five hens, four eggs. (Or 4 1/2?) Pretty good for cold weather and long, dark nights in the coop.
Seems to be the only nuggets I’m finding this year, but really, it’s okay. The yolks are amazingly golden.
Skydiver almost hit by meteor [Video]
This is the first ever film of a meteorite hurling at terminal velocity towards Earth. It was filmed by skydiver Anders Helstrup who was almost struck by the object as it hurled through the sky.
View original post 204 more words
Up My Creek
Play day.
A week and a half late but a perfect day for it.
(Inre: Warm waters/Putting In— I made a less than graceful re-entry after the picnic lunch. I need more practice.)
Monarch Butterfly Danaus plexippus Purple Coneflower 3008 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Monarchs everywhere lately!
Once the harvest is over, I may have more time for the Chase.
Related articles
“Afraid of Nothing”?
The “Afraid-of-Nothing” Dreadnoughtus schrani specimen recently uncovered in Patagonia is 7 times bigger than a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but I wonder how much brighter.
Skull of Tyrannosaurus rex, type specimen (CM 9380) at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. This was heavily and inaccurately restored with plaster using Allosaurus as a model, and has since been disassembled. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If T Rex was just a big chicken, brain-wise, no wonder he’s no longer around.
Photo: cast of a Tyrannosaurus rex braincase at the Australian Museum, Sydney. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Tyrannosaurus rex “Sue” displayed at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Moveable Feast—solar-powered, auto open and close chicken coop/tractor built by Mr. W
I haven’t actually named the five hens, but one of the twin red ones is going to have to be called Ginger. Not that there’s a Professor. Possibly a Mrs. Howell…
Fearless, fearsome, or chicken?
Related articles
Favorite Fennisms
A year ago, I set off on my first hunt for the Fenn treasure. I’d hoped to wait until I had a complete solve, but I knew that the snows come early on the northern Rockies. I was confident that the chest was hidden somewhere north and west of Yellowstone, but couldn’t rule out the rest of Wyoming, so off I wandered, with Mr. Waterhigh’s blessing (and/or his desire that I find the gold.)
I emailed Forrest from West Yellowstone and entertained him with my story of not having the right shoes at the waters at the Continental Divide in YNP.
Forrest’s response—
“You’re having too much fun.”
I next emailed him from the Gallatin Valley to wish him a Happy Birthday, and he invited me to Santa Fe for a cup of coffee.
Decision—
Hmmm?
a.) Should I stay on course and hike to a ‘water high’ with just the grizzlies for company, or
b.) should I skip my night at the hot springs, which I really wanted to visit, and set my GPS for Santa Fe?
Forrest said,
“Life’s short and getting shorter.”
Really. It was an easy choice.
Besides, I can always go back to Montana with Mr. Waterhigh.
(We spent our 24th or 25th or 26th anniversary there. Next month is our 35th, but he’s tied up this year….)
I was somewhere in Colorado before I got ahold of Mr. W to tell him of my change of plans. He suggested I pull the old Colombo thing as I was leaving. You know, pop back in the door, “Oh. Just one more question, Mr. Fenn….” and hope to catch him off guard with the perfect question.
I didn’t, of course. I was pretty much speechless….
So, I did find treasure south of the mountains when I got to meet the remarkable Forrest Fenn. All in all, it was a fantastic trip/chase.
Possibly my favorite Fennism is found in the Epilogue of his book, The Thrill of the Chase—
“And what I’ve learned that’s most important is that both countries and people should know enough to just leave other folks alone and do a better job of protecting our planet.”
— By the way, his 84th birthday is next Friday, so why not surprise him with a “Happy Birthday” wish from all 304 of you blog followers.
(He’s in the phone book, otherwise I wouldn’t post his address–
1021 Old Santa Fe Trail in Santa Fe, New Mexico)
DON’T just show up in his driveway! I’m thinking cards, flowers, chocolates, …. No wait. That’s me.
Related articles
66,000 Links
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
– Henry Miller
Dinkelsbühl_stadsmuur_stadtmauer (Photo credit: duitsland-reisgids.nl)
“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” ― Frances Burnett, The Secret Garden
This was once carved in stone above a fireplace in Wisconsin. I only remember the first stanza—
It may be never, it may be soon,
But I hope that it will be some afternoon.
I’ll hear a step on the creaking stair.
I’ll open the door and you’ll be there.
Keats’s Grave, by William Bell Scott (Photo credit: Martin Beek)
Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together. JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE ( 1749-1832 ) (Photo credit: frank carman)
Image taken from page 288 of ‘Goethe’s Italienische Reise. Mit 318 Illustrationen … von J. von Kahle. Eingeleitet von … H. Düntzer’ (Photo credit: The British Library)
“Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, see one fine painting and — if at all possible — speak a few sensible words.” ― Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Whatever you can do or dream you can do … Begin it now (Photo credit: symphony of love)
[I’ve been in the garden, waxing poetic, and not having any luck solving the clues in THE Poem…..]
Related articles
The Blue Marvel
I seem to have only been like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. Isaac Newton
The Blue Marble from Apollo 17 (Photo credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video)
“Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.” Albert Einstein
A replica of Newton’s second reflecting telescope of 1672 presented to the Royal Society. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Related articles
Panther-Passing-Across-The-Sky
I love a good meteor shower. And I once stayed up with the kids to watch the Russian Mir fly over. Pretty cool. I missed Friday night’s sky show here, but it put me in mind of a story which circles around to broken potsherds. Well, I guess all sherds are from broken pots, and Forrest has a slew of them in his backyard and at San Lazaro.
According to Alan Eckert in The Frontiersman, the night Tecumseh was born, March 9, 1768, a brilliant meteor flashed across the sky. This shooting star was, according to the old tales, The Panther, a great spirit passing over seeking a home in the south and it was a good sign. The Shawnee newborn was, therefore, named Tecumseh, The-Panther-Passing-Across.
English: Possibly a painting of Tecumseh, the Shawnee Indian who tried to unite all Native Americans to defend themselves from the growing Unites States of America. (Photo credit: Wikipedia
Tecumseh’s brother was called the Prophet, but according to the author, Tecumseh himself foretold the coming New Madrid earthquake several years before the event. In addition, another great meteor blazing across the sky would be a sign for the tribes to begin the countdown to the earthquake, which was itself the sign for them to gather as one to defend their land against the Americans.
Tecumseh had given each tribe a slab of red cedar with symbols on it and a bundle of red sticks. Each month they were to toss one stick away. When there was one stick left, they were to watch for the sign.
Just before midnight on November 16, 1811, the flash of light came out of the southwest and crossed to the northeast. The chiefs were to cut the last stick into thirty pieces when they saw the meteor.
At 2:30 am on December 16, 1811, the earth shook, from the south of Canada where the Great Lakes sloshed, to the western plains where bison stampeded and earthen vessels shattered. And those tribes that kept their pledge headed for Detroit.
An observer in Louisville recorded 1,874 separate quakes between December and March. The diary of George Crist is compelling reading:
16 December 1811 —“It was still dark and you could not see nothng. I thought the shaking and the loud roaring would never stop…..I don’t know how we lived through it….”
23 January 1811 —“What are we gonna do? You cannot fight it cause you do not know how….We lost our Amandy Jane in this one…. A lot of people think the devil has come here…..”
8 February 1812 — “If we do not get away from here the ground is going to eat us alive….”
20 March 1812 — “We still have not found enough animals to pull the wagons and you can not find any to buy or trade.”
14 April 1813 — “We lived to make it to Pigeon Roost…..From December to April no man…would dare to believe what we lived through.”
Another great eyewitness account was written in March 1816 and published in 1849: Lorenzo Dow’s Journal.
Can you say, “Teremoto“?
But, back to the pottery. I’ve been digging deep in the chapter of Too Far To Walk, the one where Charmay and Forrest are doing archaeology at San Lazaro. Not to put too fine a point on it, I was going to email Forrest about another rabbit trail I was on.
Now, I’ve always been a bit cryptic about my ideas, even when emailing him. Not that I didn’t trust him. I do. I just figured some 12-year-old whiz kids could tap into people’s communications, if they so chose. Have I been cryptic enough? Too cryptic. Hmmm.
So.
Sorry.
You read all this way and it’s a dead end. No clues for you.
No. Really. Sorry.
Fade to music: Gordon Lightfoot singing “If You Could Read My Mind, Love, What A Tale My Thoughts Would Tell…..”
From Forrest Fenn’s Collection See more at Old Santa Fe Trading Co dot com
Or, Kermit, the Frog, singing “The Rainbow Connection”
Related articles
Worth the Cold?
Glad to hear of the successful rescue of a searcher who got stuck in the snow out west! (See Dal’s site, Thrill of the Chase, for details.)
But hey, people. Could we not be doing things that might keep Forrest up at night! And his nephew Chip. And the other heroes. Just saying.
I’m only hunting morels and asparagas until the snow is melted in Yellowstone. (Can’t eat ’em, but, you know, it’s the thrill of the chase.)
The Fenn Diagrams 
