Everyday Miracles

Early this morning, as I watch 12-15,000 people try to shoehorn themselves into an amphitheatre built for less than 10,000, I have to wonder about this special sunrise. Isn't every sunrise a miracle and a marvel worth celebrating?

Last night a luminous golden full Moon rose above the southern end of the Hogback as Mars sat at the Lion's right elbow and Orion prepared to sink into the western horizon. Glory to the Powers that daily offer us the opportunity to be awestruck. Perhaps we see, perhaps more often we do not. But still the sights and sounds and smells—all the sensations—of life on Earth are offered to us.

Spring itself is a recurring miracle; through dry years and wet, still it comes, sometimes with a bang, sometimes quietly sneaking up on our senses—if we are the least bit awake to it. Now and then it occurs to me that pollen allergies are Nature's way of reminding us to pay attention.

The best way, of course, is to get out there and revel in it. But if you need a reminder and can't get outside, the wonders of technology offer alternatives. Good links not to lose must be captured somewhere, and this is a great spot to be able to find them again.

Experience the dramatic unfolding of the history of the planet on this trip through Time. Long periods of apparent emptiness (from our shallow perspective) have become "interesting" only relatively recently, and it's good to be reminded how long the Earth got along without us here to direct things.

We can be reminded of our place in the order of the Universe by getting a sense of our scale in Space as well. Smack in the mid-range of creation, it seems, we are indeed:

Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great...
   —Alexander Pope

It's a wonder, really, that I don't quote Pope here more often. The couplets of An Essay on Man are pretty much burned into my brain. Poets were so durn smart back in 1733.

That's not to say that humans can't create miraculous visions; that brain is pretty amazing too, beyond poetry. Here's a creative genius at work in a whole new medium, provided by Nature. Another link too good to lose, with thanks to the Chemist for sending it.

The Mysterious Internet

It's a tangled web out there, for sure, and its ways are beyond mysterious. The Phytophactor offered kind words about FF re: the latest Berry-Go-Round, prompting me to go look at my own stats again. I'd decided last time that this is a futile exercise yielding little in the way of intelligible results. It still is. And, of course, it's hard to tell whether people are satisfied with what they find when they arrive.

Speaking of the Phactor, don't miss his posts from early this week on the evolutionary timeline, and one on endangered plants. He's been very prolific lately, and these two are great.

But I just know you'll be interested in some fascinating details about the appeal of Foothills Fancies to the online world at large. Here's a list of my all time top posts (all time being "since Blogger installed stats" or mid-2010).

• Scales and Tails
  
• Best Botany Blog
  
• My Kingdom for a Domain…
  
• Whatever Happened to Sphenopsida
  
• High Color: Alpine Tundra
  
• Live at Bear's Lair
  
• Tree Cholla
  
• Stuff Plants Do
  
• Summer Feast BGR
  
• Snowy Sunday Visitors

The moral of that story is that old posts live for...ever. A sobering thought. The twin two-year old posts on obsolete plants (Sphenopsida, 27 in Feb) and obsolete taxonomy ("My Kingdom...", 38 in Feb) are still tops in this past month's searches. Several people wanted to know about Zosterophyllum and Asteroxylon? If FF comes up, that surely speaks to the paucity of information out there on fossil plants.

It's heartening to know that people are also out there looking for botany blogs. That means I should be doing more botany, right? (We all should...) A little post I wrote five years ago, simply pointing to the wonderful Botany Photo of the Day is still a top-notch vote-getter.

How do people find us? It's clear from the above list that participating in carnivals adds to one's visibility, as most of those posts were included in one carnival or another. Google, in all its guises, is always a great source of traffic; this month the new listing FF got from Online College Courses is already being productive.

Other bloggers, and being well connected, also help. I already miss the Watcher, who sent more people my way than anyone until he stopped posting one month ago today. Inexplicably moving to the top of the referral list lately is the terrific bird-blogger Bootstrap Analysis. As far as I can tell, my only acquaintance with her was a post I submitted to I-and-the-Bird FIVE years ago! (Thanks, Nuthatch!)

But the all-time top of the Foothills Fancies hit parade, with more than twice as many visits as any other post, is the delightful Scales and Tails, documenting a fascination with snakes we might not have expected. In particular, strong in the search terms are things like "baby rattlesnake identification," "images of baby prairie rattlesnake," and so on. (We can only hope these weren't emergency searches.) Thanks go to this little guy. I hope you're doing well, sweetie, wherever you are.

I think I feel a rattlesnake post coming on... stay tuned!

Blog-Keeping Updates

This month's edition of Berry-Go-Round, the carnival of all things Plantae, will be hosted any moment at Catalogue of Organisms... I'm as far behind in carnivals as I am in writing about plants, but as BGR will be hosted here at Foothills Fancies in December, I'm going to have to catch up fast! If you run across interesting plant blogging, please send me links at ffnaturalist AT gmail DOT com or post them in the comments here.

Pixie at Name That Mushroom has awarded me Brownie Points and over-the-top blog reviews in recognition of my (partial) identification of one of her mushroom photos. Laura, that's above and beyond the call of duty! But many thanks... I look forward to more frequent fungal posts from you over there soon, please!

In my absence, I missed ABC Wednesday's visit to "S"... but you can review the results at S-is-for-Sodalite, and check out one of my favorite minerals at the same time.

Pretty Me! has honored me with a Proximity Award for introducing her to fibs*—her first excellent one is here. This award honors blogs that "invest and believe the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement." Now, by the "rules" of blogging, I guess I need to pass the award on to eight others. A tough assignment, as I've been supported and inspired by so many of you! Give me a little time on this, Prati... and thanks!

——
* A form of extended haiku, 6 lines with a 1-1-2-3-5-8 syllable pattern, following the Fibonacci series. See my earlier attempts at this, and regular haiku, here.

Fun Fungal Games...

Catching up with the blog world the last couple of days, I ran across Pixie, who has discovered a great way to make blogs interactive—and way fun—at Name The Mushroom. She awards brownie points if you're the first to identify a posted photo, and I'm happy to report that a shroom neophyte like yours truly got one right (sort of)! She's posting from the UK, with fun guys from Iceland and other faraway places, just to make the game more challenging.

So, if it's not too late for Halloween, here is my own local version of Dead Man's Fingers, Clavaria purpurea. Although it's claimed to be edible, it's so unappetizing I can't imagine trying it.

Pixie is kindly giving me credit for guessing the common name, but names her quite different species Xylaria polymorpha. It allegedly occurs "throughout North America," according to the Audubon guide, but as it prefers maple and beech stumps, I doubt we have much of it here in Colorado, as Evenson's Mushrooms of Colorado confirms.

I haven't yet posted my promised mushroom field trip reports, but earlier mushroom-lover insights can be found over on Small Wonders.

Pixie says my brownie points are on the way. Can't wait!

The Dark of the Year

How's this for fall color? Taken Wednesday, after a dusting of snow overnight, the early morning light indicates we were still not quite adjusted to the mandated seasonal shift in schedule. Someone is looking for breakfast, but The Husband recently muley-proofed the chicken feeder, so she's come close to the house to scavenge birdseed under the feeders instead.

A new blog-buddy, the Watcher, commented on the fact that Foothills Fancies had "gone dark," with no posts since last May. I quite like the phrase, as if a little light had gone out (in my brain maybe?). I've been thinking a lot in recent months about what, if anything, happens when a blogger stops writing, really stops. How would we know he/she was never coming back? What if said blogger took up elsewhere? It can be tough to track favorite writers down, as I discovered when Crayons left a bad link as a forwarding address. Blogger can be good about protecting our anonymity if we let it. As mine is pretty much shot anyway, I want to let you know that I've set up a new email for blog-business: ffnaturalist@gmail.com.

The fact is, for me, blogging can be a bit of a dark-season passion. Winter inspires reflection, and maybe creates a sense of quieter time for writing. I don't know how I fell off the wagon, as it were, last spring. Certainly not for lack of things to talk about. Once you stop briefly, though, lack of blogging creates its own momentum as you wonder where to take up again, how to catch up on all the experiences not blogged. I suppose we never do. But just for the record, I do believe in blogging, for a number of reasons. And apparently I had a similar hiatus in 2007. Nothing unusual.

A blog I ran into early in my posting career similarly went dark last February, leaving a poignant post. I feared the worst; perhaps she'd never return. If you happen across my path before you check in on Endment again, know that she also is back this week!

The bottom line: My enthusiasm for blogging persists, whether I'm actually doing it or not!

Signs of Change

If Juncos and White-crowned Sparrows show up, can winter be far behind? Something roared in this morning about 3 a.m., wind whipping branches and howling around the windows. Today looks good—but tis seriously cool out there. A Steller's Jay, harbinger of foul weather, has come down from Evergreen to suggest we are in for something weather-wise. Photos, and great story, of Steller's Jays here, courtesy of the Watcher.

Yesterday a Flicker on the suet, today only Magpies and Scrub Jays fueling up, and a lone Red-wing Blackbird where there was a horde a day or two ago.

Links will take you to photos and/or stories of these birds during previous visits. This started as a bird-blog, after all. We'll get back to plants soon, in preparation for hosting Berry-Go-Round in late December. I have in mind a "Plant of the Week" feature with this year's photos to get back in the swing.

All I have time for today...

Another Taste of Spring

Addendum: In my search for posts for Berry-Go-Round in recent weeks, I missed a wonderful opportunity to introduce you to Cate at Beyond the Fields We Know. She was buried in snow the last time I stopped in, so I hadn't expected her to have flowers already. For a glorious look at eastern woodland wildflowers, some of my childhood favorites, please drop by. Her May Day (Beltane) tribute is just up, but do scroll down through a marvelous sequence of Trout Lily, Bloodroot, Trillium and more!

Meanwhile, here at "the Shire" (as The Husband would say), we are having a lovely Beltane Day as well. Much needed moisture, but perhaps not preferred in quite this form. I must go cover the asparagus, just emerging. Wonder if the ash leaves will make it through this time.

Spring at Berry-Go-Round (#4)

Welcome to Edition #4 of the celebrated plant carnival, Berry-Go-Round. Those of us in the northern hemisphere are seeking and celebrating signs of spring, but we invite you to explore many other topics—and places—with us this month as well. Read on, plant friends!

(By the way, if you're featured here—or even if you're not—please help promote Berry-Go-Round by linking to this post from your site.)

Spring arrives in the south first, and our Texas Travelers captured it in photos of coastal wildflowers. If you’ve ever wondered about the namesake of fiction’s famous Scarlet Pimpernel (I know I have), Troy and Martha have got that covered too!

Laurent reports that some flowers get cleaned up and ready for spring with a flower bath. Amazing! While you're visiting Seeds Aside, take a look at the genetics of apples and explore the crossroad between biodiversity and health. Lastly, Laurent offers a seed guessing game that will challenge you.

GrannyJ revisits her reliable wildflowers, which have returned to Arizona at Walking Prescott.

Hedgewitch awakens our senses with the scent and lore of Lemon Balm, posted at Earth and Tree.

In Floyd, Virginia, Fred brings us someone in a pulpit and considers renaming a favorite spring flowering tree.

In Non-seasonal Works...

Nomenclaturally speaking, if you thought "Cypress" always meant "Cupressus," get an update from the wonderful folks at Botany Photo-of-the-Day, who explore the elegant and iconic Monterrey Cypress. You'll have many other daily plant fixes to choose from there as well, but hurry back, please!

While we're talking gymnosperms, Julia Heathcote feeds her Gondwanan gymnosperm fetish while reporting exciting but mysteriously overlooked news, "the botanical equivalent of finding a non-avian dinosaur on an island somewhere," at The Ethical Palaeontologist. Yes, Julia, it would be nice if people got as excited about plant discoveries... She also brings us an important announcement I think you'll enjoy. Congratulations, Julia!

Nunatak presents Darwin's Garden, An Evolutionary Adventure, a new exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden. Also at The Beagle Project Blog, she blogs on her own peer-reviewed research on genomics and plant evolution.

Luigi at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog asks that we mention the results of the first competition for agricultural biodiversity—a very interesting surprise winner announced on Earth Day. His other submission, on agriculture at a crossroads, is important reading on critical developments for any of us who like to eat and hope to continue doing so. It explores how modern agriculture has failed many poor farmers and discusses inequities in evolving agricultural systems, among other complex issues.

More Spring Gleanings

Spring is coming late here in the Colorado foothills, and I have no decent flower photos or posts to offer you yet. So just to widen our circle of plant enthusiasts, I've been out prowling for spring wildflowers in the blog world, and am happy to bring you a few more:

Although my photos of western spring beauties were a bit of a disappointment, Nina caught some great shots of eastern ones at Nature Remains. She later takes time out from her fascinating toad and salamander observations to comment on the trouble with flowers. I should be so troubled!

Kerri in Virginia shares excellent spring wildflowers, while Matt at Sitka Nature gets the early bryophyte with signs of spring in Alaska.

Janet brings us two tickets to springtime at the New England Flower Show; and John shows us we can even find color in pussy willows way up in Maine.

I turned up this beauty at the Reluctant Botanist. It's from Down Under, where February must mean late summer or fall, I guess.

Marvin at Three Steps Forward takes us on a walk in the woods, featuring his excellent photos of some of my favorite wildflowers of the eastern U.S. woodlands.

Kathie offers a colorful sunrise stroll in Sycamore Canyon, near Tucson, Arizona.

Lots more colorful Arizona flowers are provided by Leslie in this spring bouquet. That's quite a backyard! Also check out resurrection plant, a great recent post by next month's host, Miconia at A Neotropical Savanna.

Addendum: Just ran across these not-to-miss spring photos by Cate at Beyond the Fields We Know. Start here and scroll down through many favorites from the forests of eastern North America.

Thanks for stopping by! We hope this issue of Berry-Go-Round brightened your day a bit. Look for the next installment at A Neotropical Savanna by the end of May.

Spring, Distractions, Other Goings On...

Although I've been scarce here lately, I'm getting back in gear, what with Berry-Go-Round coming up in a week or so. Please send contributions by April 25th! Any post on plants is welcome, but especially those on spring wildflowers to help celebrate the seasons. Those who have been working on taxes are out of excuses! See previous post for details.

My focus these last few weeks has been history, with our open house coming up. It happened Saturday (Apr 12th), and I put a report up at Local History Explorer.

It has been decidedly spring-like since Sunday—warm, sunny, and magnetic outdoors. An irresistible pull to go for walks, check out wildflowers, pull some Dalmatian toadflax... I let the black widow loose in the woodpile, optimistically thinking we won't be disturbing her til fall. Yesterday, temperatures reached the mid-80s (high 20s C). Today, "they" tell us, it's back to snow and rain. At least it should bring a little (temporary) relief from the pollen!

Next up is a hike for a Green Mtn. homeowners group this Saturday a.m. I expect more weeds than wildflowers, but hey, it's all educational. As Herb Quarterly reminds me, we could consider them medicinal aids instead of invasive plants; it's all a matter of changing perspective. Isn't everything? Would it be too fatalistic to conclude we will have to get used to this homogenization of ecosystems? I'd like to drop in to Earth Day festivities at Evergreen, too; the new nature center there will be launched.

The Husband has decided we need to have a garden. Oh my. The prospect is appealing, certainly, and an excellent response to his indoctrination by Michael Pollan on the importance of eating well (he's been reading In Defense of Food). The fact that we're on well water, and not much of it, will make the garden of his vision a real challenge. Regardless, among yesterday's errands, I bought seeds. Hope springs eternal.

The snakes have been restless. Must be spring. The smaller one has been eating fairly regularly for a couple of months; the larger has yet to break her seasonal fast. I was hopeful; brought home food yesterday. She curled up in the dish with a few baby mice, but declined to nibble. So it goes. She'll have to decide to eat soon, but her weight is holding so I guess we're okay for the moment.

I spent a couple afternoons helping the Artist take down her bread exhibit at the Conifer Library and set up a new one on fly-fishing. She sent me home with a large shopping bag of dried-out artisan breads in assorted styles, so the chickens have been having a major carb fix. The croissants were greatly favored. The flock is also enjoying occasional forays into the front yard, where there is green grass coming up. I'm testing a theory that they might be good for controlling cheatgrass. The Husband has agreed that we can get new chicks this year, so that means more fresh eggs come fall! (Our 14 aging hens produce only a few eggs a day now...)

That's enough!—just a few of the slices of life around here recently.

An Earthbound Perspective

As you know, my attention is usually "down to Earth," on this mundane plane where there is more than enough to inspire and excite me. But we needed new binocs, and The Husband brought some home over the holidays, along with an inspiring book on the stars.

I've always enjoyed my few familiar constellations and watching the Moon go through its paces. I've learned to clock the seasons, making sure I check out Orion every winter and Scorpius in summer. Last year, I was surprised to observe a new, very bright, star hovering just above red Antares. It could be a stationary satellite, I thought, "polluting" my night skies, but I'm still not sure even of that.

[I must have skipped over the "planets" chapter. Now we know that we were watching Jupiter all summer, not some satellite. I'll be more enlightened about planetary positions this year!]

But my star-gazing had limits, so it was with surprise that I found myself reading the book (How to Identify: Night Sky), cover to cover. It may be because I do like learning the names of things in nature, and the night sky holds many names. Some were old friends, familiar from a childhood spent reading science fiction, but many were new. My indoor study, however thorough, evaporated in the face of outdoor reality. It will be a long time before very many of the new names sink into my bank of longer term knowledge.

The new binocs are fine for birds, but without a tripod, the stars were only jiggly swirls of colored light. Shivering didn't help. I will probably never be able to post night sky pictures here, so let me introduce you to someone who is better at it:

Spotlight: Visit Matt, at Sitkanature.org, as "an aspiring naturalist learns his place." He is managing to combine an earthbound perspective with one more ethereal in his photos Sunday and today, both not to be missed. Beyond his incredible blog from Alaska, he's also undertaken a huge effort to catalog 1,000 species from his chosen habitat.

Front Range Today; Web of Nature

In the interests of balance, full disclosure, et al., here's a picture of the status quo today. I noticed, putting together the slide show in the sidebar last week, that I have a tendency to take pictures when it's wintry, or green and foggy or drizzly—all the days that are a little out of the ordinary. Well, here's the ordinary. We do, it's true, have a lot of brown. Guess that's why I'm given to photographing the green and white!

Before you get to feeling too sorry for us, I just came in from the back patio, where I was basking in 70 degree sunshine. The official temperature, absent such a protected location, is 62 F (17 C). I'm not complaining—this is the "other" typical weather for the Front Range this time of year. Sometimes our January days are more pleasant than those in March! But they are mostly brown.

I just discovered that the new edition of the Tangled Bank carnival (#97) is up over at The Inoculated Mind, featuring our post on alpine wildflowers, Life on a Cushion. FF is a little late to the party, but thanks TIM, for including us!

Reading around...

In other happy news, while getting reacquainted with the blogosphere of nature, I've made several delightful discoveries, many of which you'll find in the sidebar. As in the ecosystem, it's all about connections. Some of my regularly read blogs introduced me to

Fragments from Floyd,

who introduced me to Via Negativa,

who introduced me to naturalist-writer Marcia Bonta, and so on.

Fred also alerted me to the Nature Blog Network, on which FF is now listed. Which in turn informed me that there's a new carnival for plant lovers at Berry Go Round, the first edition of which is posted at Seedsaside.

You get the picture. It's one giant web of life and energy out there. Drop in and enjoy!

Never Summer

In northern Colorado, there's a chain of mountains called the Never Summer Range, a constant reminder that we can always find winter here if we know where to look. Although its name has now been co-opted by commercial interests, its mountains (whose suggestive names include Mt. Cumulus, Nimbus, Stratus, and Cirrus) remind us of the range of climates we find in Colorado.

My second summer in Colorado was spent entirely in another segment of alpine tundra, 10 solid weeks working above 12,000 ft (3,650 m) at Niwot Ridge, though living a couple thousand feet lower. One of those grand formative experiences available in youth, that summer left me with many fond memories and a new store of knowledge. But memories fade and knowledge grows dusty with disuse.

Last summer, visiting yet another chunk of alpine terrain, I discovered that the names of plants I'd been introduced to so long ago popped happily into my head, like old friends, when I saw them again. There they were: alpine avens and phlox, chiming bells and spring beauty, clovers and saxifrages and bistorts. And, yes, there were some who did need a fresh introduction, as acquaintances will when you meet them at class reunions decades later.



Our first visit to Summit Lake Park on Mt. Evans in early July was at the height of spring. Most of the lake was still locked in ice. The entire growing season must fit into a short span of weeks, and, of course, it can snow or hail anytime. At 12,800 feet (3,900 m), it's a tough place to make a living.






At the peak of summer, though, alpine tundra is lush, fascinating, and diverse. Among outcrops and loose boulders are meadows of wildflowers, grasses, and sedges. All are slow-growing and long-lived, unless they get munched by the few species of herbivores who are adapted to the area.





Plants hug the ground: even shrubs like willows, tucked into protective spots, will be no more than an inch or two (3-5 cm) tall. Many of the wildflowers are cushion plants, others are tucked into crevices away from wind, as this Spring Beauty demonstrates. The interpretive sign reminds us not to trample them; they "grow by the inch, die by the foot." Only a few stomps off-trail can destroy decades of growth.





The largest mammals include these Rocky Mountain goats, "watchable wildlife" at this location. Visitors regularly marvel at their agility on the boulders and cliffs. Sometimes we might also see Elk or Bighorn Sheep, even here on the tundra. Yellow-bellied Marmots (much like the eastern Woodchuck) and the tiny Pika also scramble among the fellfields harvesting hay to store for the long winter.



Tomorrow I'll introduce some of these plant pals rediscovered last summer.
The Sequel: Wintry Wildflowers

Nevada Botany

There’s a stretch of road in Nevada known as “the loneliest road in America,” and there isn’t much to do but keep the car pointed west (or east) and hang on for the ride. Some 40 miles from the last town, I noted an unusual form of tree growth, and stopped (within a mile or two, given the speed limit) to turn and check it out. As a sometime botanist, I just couldn't place the long dangling infloresences, either the strangest fruits I'd ever seen or perhaps some kind of fungal growth.

Of course, Google was able to tell me all about this famous tree! The shoe tree of Middlegate, Nevada, even pointing me to a complete story on the subject, and mentioning a New York Times article.

Alas, the above link reports the demise of the Middlegate Shoe Tree on December 30, 2010, at the hands of vandals.

This particularly famous edition of the shoe tree (a cultural phenomenon I'd somehow missed all these years) is laden with all kinds of footwear-- even a horseshoe-- and, somewhat more grim, a couple of elk legs. Click on the photo to enlarge and explore some of the offerings here.

Unfortunately for this cottonwood tree, the weight of this sole-ful burden has caused many of the more accessible branches to break, depositing a nice pile of shoes at its feet. Other shoe trees have suffered even more from the extra attention of passersby, as the links above will tell.

Why Blog?

We’re all so busy… who has time for blogging? Evidently, a large number of us do, and we know it’s great. But how do you explain the fascination to someone who hasn't tried it, or doesn’t get it? Here’s my attempt, but I’ll look forward to hearing more ideas from the rest of you. (This post is for those to whom I’ve promised to send my list of interesting links.)

1. You like to write. Some of us can’t help writing. It’s a disease. It may even be infectious, because bloggers seem to inspire each other to write more. Before I joined the blog world, I would have thought writers (and even thinkers) were relatively rare. Now I know better—there are, just in my limited experience, dozens of amazing writers in the blog world. Thank you all!

2. You like to read. Some of us will read cereal boxes if there’s nothing else available. Reading blogs is a far better use of your time.

3. You don't like to write--or read.If you're not into writing, try lurking, being a blog voyeur of sorts. If you don't even like to read, try a photo-blog. Several good ones are listed at Tuesdays Photos.

4. You like people. You meet the nicest people online! Join—or create—a virtual network. Find one person whose blog you like, and let him/her lead you to other like-minded (but very different) individuals. I found a blog carnival, I and the Bird, and met some real birders and great people, like 10,000 Birds, Birdchick, Carel, Coturnix (who recently went pro-blogger), Nuthatch, and Dharma Bums. Endment found me from IATB, and introduced me to Cate the Bean Counter, Willow Grace, DebR, Tammy, Fran, and Susan and Jennifer (see Haiku Monday under #6), among her many fans.

5. You don’t like people, but you want to. The internet, like the world, like life, is filled with the good and bad, the ugly and the beautiful. It is, in short, whatever you choose to make it. If you’re selective, you will find something online that matches (or challenges!) your interests, your biases, your understanding. And helps you grow. Browsing blogs can restore your faith in people. Could probably destroy it too, but I’ve been focusing on uplifting arenas, and I’m charmed by what I find. Please note: Most of my blogging has been science-nature oriented, so you'll have to find your own way in other arenas. Art, culture, politics, crafts, parenting, celebrity, music, cooking, unimaginable diversity!

6. You’re bored. Need something to do? How about Sunday Scribblings, Haiku Monday, Tuesdays Photos, Poetry Thursday, Illustration Friday? That only leaves you Wednesdays and Saturdays to be bored, and a little browsing is likely to fix that as well. (Who could be bored?) Fun and games? Try a meme, like the letter B, or The ABCs of Me, or Wordplay.

7. You’re nosey. Blog-browsing is like eavesdropping on the lives of strangers. We can only learn so much from our one (current) lifetime, why not learn from the lives of others as well? Especially because we can learn things we will never personally experience. The more you learn, the more you blog—and you can share what you learn each week at Life’s Little Lessons.

8. You wish you could travel more. You can, even if you only have a few minutes, go anywhere in the blog world—free! Blogs hosted on blogspot.com often have a small “Next Blog” button at the top of the page. Click on it, and see where you end up! Can’t read Malaysian? Click again for another random page somewhere else in the world. Or use the “Search” feature to find blogs from Tasmania or Lapland. Remember, one nifty blog leads to many others (think Six Degrees of Separation). In 3 clicks, I think it was from I and the Bird, I discovered Baghdad Burning, an inside look at what’s really happening in Iraq that the newscasts aren’t telling us. We all should be reading this!

9. You want to escape reality. You could use the “Search” button again to find fantasies or science fiction worlds. But remember, someone else’s reality can also be your fantasy—see number 7.

10. You want to immerse yourself in reality. If you think your life is too boring, start a blog. Then you’ll have to find something interesting to do, just to blog about it!

11. You could use a little therapy. As someone said “I write to find out what I’m thinking.” Expressing yourself in a blog, as in a journal or a letter to a friend, can help you figure out what you’re about cheaper than—and probably faster than—conventional psychotherapy.

Okay, this has taken most of the morning, so breakfast will now have to be lunch. More links another time--this is more than enough to get you started!