OT - Nature

[Sailorsong]

As many of you know from my previous posts I am a nature lover. Maybe even to an extreme :) but I thought this would be uplifting of spirits ( if only for me) by writing about some of my nature related adventures. I say adventures because some if not most of you would not appreciate being in the same situations. WARNING this will probably be quite long.

I first became a nature lover when I was only 10. My dad was stationed at Ft. Lewis, WA and one weekend in late June he took us up Mt Rainier. When we got to the Park's gift shop I was overwhelmed by the fact we had to go though a tunnel in the snow to get to gift shop even though it was 70 outside. From that moment on I have looked to nature for new experiences and the lifting of my mood when I get down about anything.

Over the years I have had some great experiences in my explorations, and even when at home a few times. These have included most natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes. But most have been more in the way of wildlife and just spectacular views.  In this post I would like to relate some of these experiences that you might enjoy hearing about.

First up is my experience with a tornado which occurred in MA.  My wife and I were sitting at home and I noticed that the sky had turned a greenish color and for some reason I knew that meant a tornado was approaching. I don't know why I knew that, but maybe remembering something from when I had lived in Tornado Alley as a kid. Any way my wife ran over to a window that was starting to bow inward and letting rain in around the frame of the window and I had to grab her and pull her way. It wasn't a very large tornado and seemed to only effect my small neighborhood. We lived on a dead end street with a mobile home directly across the road from the start of the street. They had a couple of large pine trees drop along side of the front and back of their home with no damage. The house across the street had a large oak tree come down along the back of their house and their boat on a trailer was put directly on top of their car. The next house down the street also had a couple of trees come down again along side of the front and back of their house. I have never been able to figure out how the large limb of the tree in back of their house went through a window with no other damage. The shed in my back yard was flipped onto it's roof in the exact spot it was sitting before the tornado hit with nothing inside damaged. I did lose my welcome mat though.

I do love hurricanes to an extent. This is probably from my experience of the eye of one going directly over my home without sustaining any damage. While the eye was going over my home I went outside and it was the weirdest weather experience I have ever witnessed. It was absolutely  quiet outside during most of the time ( about 15 minutes) but what made it weird was as the back side of the eye wall approached I could see the trees in the distance ( about 1/4 mile ) being whipped around yet there was still no sound. I really expected to at least be able to hear the wind in the trees. From that moment on I have dreamed of being in the eye of a hurricane when I take my last breath ( of natural causes ).

One of my favorite nature activities is going to to find wildlife. My most memorable experience was when I lived in CA. I was driving along a road and spotted an outcrop of rocks that I could get a really great view of the surrounding area so I pulled over and started hiking up the trail. As I rounded a bend in the trail about 30 feet ahead sitting on a boulder there was a mountain loin. I had long ago learned to be very  quiet while walking so the mountain lion did not hear me approaching. I stopped dead in my tracks and we just looked at each other for what seemed like hours, though it probably was less than a minute. It is strange hour time slows down during things like this. I probably should have been scared, but all I could think of was how beautiful her sleek body looked  in that bright sunlight. She quickly took off up the ravine and was sad that I didn't have a camera with me to preserve that moment. This is the one area that I curse MS for taking away from me for the most part. I just can't walk that far any more nor as quietly. I really miss those encounters with wildlife.

Dennis

[HVAC]

My father and brother both loved storms at Sea and would write letters about them.

[Sailorsong]

First of all thanks for posting your pictures, they were a real lift to my spirits. :)

As I stated earlier I am a nature lover to extreme and this story points it out real good.

This occurred while I was in the Navy on tour off the coast of Vietnam. My ship ( a destroyer )   was scheduled to go to Australia for a few days of R&R but had been  diverted to Japan due to a typhoon ( hurricane ). On the way to Japan we were caught in the outer bands of the storm with high winds and 35-40 foot waves. This was my first experience with a hurricane so naturally I had to get a better experience of what it was like.

I grabbed my 8mm movie camera ( yes I'm that old :-) ) and head up to the signal bridge. This is the highest deck on the ship and is completely open to the weather. Slowly while holding onto the railing I inched my way to the front of the signal bridge fighting the 50-60 MPH wind.  Once there I wrapped my legs around a post and took out the camera and started filming the wave breaking over the bridge ( 1 deck below me ) with the spray going over the top of my head. After about 15 minutes of filming I was getting really tired from fighting the wind so I again slowly made my way back to the safety on the interior of the ship. But I loved every second of the experience and probably would do it again if given the chance.

When I got back to the US I would proudly pull out that movie I made to show friends. Every time I would show it the people would tell me I was nuts and that just watching it would make them sea sick. I lost that film many years ago due to some minor flooding I went through, but that is another story. :)

Dennis

[HVAC]

Dennis thanks for your stories I enjoy them very much!


They have cut down all the woods around us so in the morning you can see a bunch of deer in my front yard. They also jump into our chain link fence. One day a neighbor asked me to rescue a fawn who had been stuck in a neighbor's fenced yard all night. Poor thing had been hitting the fence all night. I got him out.

My husband is a cyclist and one day a group of deer came out of the woods surrounded him and ran with him riding in their midst. He said it was so quiet  and spiritual.

We have a mini nature preserve in suburbia. We have bats in the eaves, I pile up brush around the trees to attract wildlife. I have seen hawks come down and catch critters. We have harmless snakes. We have all kinds of birds at the feeders when the deer don't eat all the bird feed. They tip the bird feeders.

Because I worked in a wild life hospital all the neighbors call me when they have a wild life concern.

Oh and if you go to a certain apartment run off pond at dusk and are quiet you can watch the beavers.

I will post some of nature my photos

Alex

[Lulu54]

I know the folks with Lyme have a legitimate dislike of the deer, but I still find them wonderful to watch - it always lifts my spirits to have an encounter with nature like you've described.

thanks for the quiet thoughts today,
L

[Mand125]

Wow that buck was really looking out for the others!

We had a particularly hard winter and I guess that is why we were regularly seeing deer quite close to the city (for food I imagine) - the problem was they were regularly near a very busy road, they could have done with your crossing guard to help them out.

Mand

[Sailorsong]

OK here is another nature anecdote.

Back in 2005 while visiting my brother out in Oregon I had a couple of encounters with some deer.

My brother lives on a mountain in southern OR with a 2 mile drive up a dirt road to get to his house. As I was heading to town one morning I had only gone about 1/4 mile when I came across 8 deer standing in the road ( more like his driveway ). As I drove slowly forward they just stayed in the road until I was right in the middle of them and I had to come to a stop. They just milled around my car looking in the windows for several minutes before just slowly moving off the road to let me pass. If my windows had been open I could have very easily petted them I'm sure. They were that close to my car. :)

The second encounter was on another trip to town from my brothers house. I was down on a paved road that was straight and level for about 2 miles. I had only gone about 1/4 mile down this road when a large buck walked out onto the road and just stood in the middle of the road. He stood there just watch me and also looking down the road in the other direction. I finally had to stop as the buck just kept standing there. Once I had come to a complete stop a doe and 2 fawns walked across the road and once they had gone into the field on the other side of the road the buck finally moved off the road following the others. To this day I can't get over how that buck was acting like a school crossing guard. :)

Dennis

[Mand125]

Thank you Dennis that was lovely to read, I'm having a rare very pain day and your post about nature really picked me up.

I too love nature, possibly also to extreme but I don't see any problem with that.

Keep these anecdotes coming, they probably help a lot of people.

Mand