Tag Archives: nature
crowds.
into the universe.
wonderful day.
on earth day, and every day.
into the wild.
on the spring equinox.
now is this isn’t a sure sign of spring, i don’t know what is…
—
“spring makes its own statement,
so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of his instruments,
not the composer.”
-geoffrey charlesworth
—
Art credit: Margaret Tarrant – The Fairy Troupe / Spring’s Flowery Cloak. Circa 1920s painting. A female sprite with a blue cloak shepherds tiny fairies and elves, each carrying a spring flower, through the undergrowth. Published by the Medici Society.
rocks.
who are the dinos in your neighborhood?

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.
—
“observation: i can’t see a thing. conclusion: dinosaurs.”
-carl sagan
—
credits: cnn, mental floss, ellen gutosky, orla, getty images
memoir.
the kinder wondered what happened to the big, old tree they used to play under
it was a good tree
we sat under it when it was hot in the sun and its shade kept us cool
we collected pretty leaves that floated down from it in the fall
it was on a hill and we ran by it in the winter when we were playing in the snow
pieces of it had been falling off for a very long time
we guess that maybe it was very old and very sick and it was getting too tired
the kinder began to put its little pieces back on to decorate it
we hope that in the spring
a new sapling will come up near where the old tree used to stand so tall.
—
“a tree’s wood is also its memoir.”
-hope jahren