Category Archives: earth

Apr22

*good planets.

Posted on April 22, 2023 by beth

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good planets are hard to find

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photo credit: earthtalk

Mar21

listen, earth sings.

Posted on March 21, 2023 by beth

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May be an image of flower, nature and body of water

Claude Monet’s gardens in Giverny, France

“Spring has returned again.

The Earth is like a child

that knows poems by heart;

so many poems, so many verses,

patient toil winning her prizes at last.

Strict, the old teacher.

We loved the whiteness in the old

gentleman’s beard,

its bright snow.

Now when we ask what the green,

what the blue is,

Earth knows the answer,

has learned it.

She knows.

Earth, you’re on holiday,

lucky one: play now!

Play with us children!

We’ll try to catch you.

Glad, joyous Earth!

The gladdest must win.

Every lesson the old teacher

taught her,

all that is printed in roots

and laborious stems:

now she sings it!

Listen, Earth sings.”

– Rainer Maria Rilke

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“The inspiration for this sonnet came from

a visit to Ronda, in southern Spain, in the

winter of 1912-13. Rilke had overheard a

group of schoolchildren singing in the Convent

of Santo Domingo, accompanied only by a

triangle and tambourine. He didn’t know what

their song meant, but the light-hearted

animation of their singing is reflected in the

cadences of the second and third stanzas.”

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on international poetry day

Dec21

essence of life.

Posted on December 21, 2022 by beth

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picture from a past solstice celebration

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every year

one of my favorite things to teach and share with my class

is the story and traditions of the winter solstice

i get to play the sun

the children play the tilting earth and the seasons

who spin and dance and throw snow

as the season changes

the sun stays in the middle

offering extra light

to the other side of the earth now tilting toward it

knowing it will always return to them

even as our days grow shorter

they quietly rest on the ground

waiting, waiting

only to emerge

when the time is right

happy to dance once more

in the light of the warm spring sun.

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*notes: here is my recipe for the winter solstice, and many thanks to all for your low-tech special effects support of this performance: torn paper snowflakes made by the children, many smiles, a bit of dizziness, a sun doing an interpretive dance, a person to turn off and on the classroom lights at just the right moment, a flashlight, a yellow paper sun, a dj to play the music (‘carol of the bells’ by george winston, and ‘here comes the sun’ by the beatles) at just the right time, and a class full of kinder/whirling twirling planets throwing snow, lying down, and awakening as emerging new life in the spring when the sun returns. somehow it all falls into place, each year a bit differently, as is the way of the world.

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“spiritually, life is a festival, a celebration. joy is the essence of life.”

-agnivesh

Aug17

“if you see me, cry.”

Posted on August 17, 2022 by beth

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Hunger Stone :

Recent droughts in Europe once again made visible the “Hunger Stones” in some Czech and German rivers.

These stones were used to mark desperately low river levels that would forecast famines.

This one, in the Elbe river, is from 1616 and says: “If you see me, cry.”

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“when the well is dry, we will know the worth of water.”

-benjamin franklin

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credits: history review

May24

“no mow,” said the bee.

Posted on May 24, 2022 by beth

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bee kind

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“for this,
let gardens grow, where beelines end,
sighing in roses, saffron blooms, buddleia;
where bees pray on their knees, sing, praise
in pear trees, plum trees; bees
are the batteries of orchards, gardens, guard them.”
― Carol Ann Duffy, The Bees

Apr22

on earth day, and every day.

Posted on April 22, 2022 by beth

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kinder in their natural habitat capturing the ever-elusive giant stick

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“live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink,

taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the Earth.”

-henry david thoreau

Mar14

who are the dinos in your neighborhood?

Posted on March 14, 2022 by beth

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is this midtown manhattan?

amazing interactive map shows you would dinosaurs roamed your neighborhood millions of years ago

While most of us know that all sorts of prehistoric creatures once inhabited Earth, you might not realize which ones used to wander around your particular city. Thanks to this interactive map, you can easily find out. Type in your city name, and you’ll see it plotted on the globe, along with a list of species whose fossils have been discovered nearby. If you click on the name of a species, a new webpage will open with details, images, and a map that shows where else that species lived.

Omaha, Nebraska, for example, was once home to the pteranodon, the trinacromerum, and the mosasaurus Those last two are both marine reptiles, meaning that Nebraska used to be underwater—which the globe will show you, too.

In addition to searching by city, you can also see what Earth looked like during a specific time period by choosing an option from the dropdown menu at the top. Choices range from 750 million years ago—the Cryogenian period, when glaciers abounded—to 0 million years ago, which is Earth as we know it today. Using a different dropdown menu on the right, you can view Earth during its many notable “firsts,” including “first land plants,” “first dinosaurs,” “first primates,” and more.

As CNN reports, the map was created by California-based paleontologist Ian Webster, who added to an existing model that mapped plate tectonics and used additional data from GPlates, another piece of plate tectonics software.

“It is meant to spark fascination and hopefully respect for the scientists that work every day to better understand our world and its past,” Webster told CNN. “It also contains fun surprises. For example: how the U.S. used to be split by a shallow sea, the Appalachians used to be very tall mountains comparable to the Himalayas, and that Florida used to be submerged.”

You can find other fun surprises by exploring the map yourself here. For the best experience, you’ll want to access the site from a desktop computer or tablet versus a smartphone.

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“observation: i can’t see a thing. conclusion: dinosaurs.”

-carl sagan

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credits: cnn, mental floss, ellen gutosky, orla, getty images