Happy, Shiny New Year!
Heartening words to guide you through 2022
from the late, very great naturalist and biologist
E. O. Wilson: 1929-2021
“You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you
and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably.
Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.”
Onward,
LSF • WW • FWP
I am a book of snow,
a spacious hand,
an open meadow,
a circle that waits,
I belong to the earth
and its winter.
Pablo Neruda
As the peaks and valleys of 2021 recede in the rear-view mirror, we’d like to express our absolute appreciation to our dear readers for making room for Wild & Wondrous in the space in between. Whether you’re a regular visitor or just passing through on your internet travels, we’re glad to have you with us as we explore the wonders of the natural world.
With your support of the Favorite World Press read-and-plant partnership, you’ve helped create a more sustainable future by empowering us to plant trees that nurture our planet. Trees that turn down the heat, purify air and water and provide habitat for our furry and feathered friends. Well done, and thanks very much, tree people!
In 2022, we’ll be focusing more of our efforts on a new sustainable development project also aimed at protecting and preserving the world’s remaining forests and biodiversity.
Wild & Wondrous will be back with more creatures to meet, things to learn, and things to do. Until we meet again, wishing you a healthy, happy, light-filled New Year, chock-full of leaps from peak to peak.
xo Favorite World Press
The W & W
60-second
Year in Rear-View
Networking giraffes,
your fair share of trees,
a snowy owl in the city,
plastic-free seas
Moths that jam sonar,
a blue bird that trills,
leafy seadragons
flaunting their frills
The rarest of rhinos,
chimps that have heart,
the plight of the manatee,
urban bird art
Tree-planting readers
putting down roots,
wild African horses
in bug-zapping suits
Big bison feelings,
a yard habitat,
the return of cicadas,
an award-winning bat
Night lights for lions,
blinking bug love,
bird feeder smack-downs
won by a dove
A headcount for walrus,
disease-busting bees,
traveling wildebeest,
fish that don’t freeze
A shout-out for science,
the songs of the Earth,
a month celebrating
what the planet is worth
Running for wildlife,
how whales keep us cool,
movie star bees,
why brainy girls rule
A hairy-nosed wombat,
the last bird of its kind,
a plan to save forests
to restore peace of mind
A remembrance of sorrow,
the pure magic of snow,
hope for our oceans,
a sea creature’s glow
The prettiest pictures,
lunar fox feet,
reducing emissions
to turn down the heat
Bringing back monarchs,
green roofs for birds,
a big meeting in Scotland
where they said lots of words
A built-in eye compass,
how mollusks got clever,
and gratitude for our readers
that goes on forever.
“Snow was falling,
so much like stars
filling the dark trees
that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness.”
Mary Oliver
May the beauty of the world
fill your heart this season
and always.
Wishing you joyful holidays,
with love,
Favorite World Press
PS: And jingle all the way – FWP Holiday Playlist.
1.5-minute read
Welcome, fall! Here are this week’s nature picks for your perusal.
Big Bird Art
In New York City, the walls have eyes—they also have beaks. The winged watchers gracing buildings across blocks of northern Manhattan are part of the Audubon Mural Project, a collaboration between the National Audubon Society and Gitler & _____ Gallery. The avian conservation art located in John James Audubon’s Washington Heights neighborhood was created to draw attention to climate-threatened species.
On Saturday, October 2, you can benefit the art of nature and help protect the feathered ones from the impacts of environmental change by participating in the Audubon Murals 5K Art Run. Whether you like to run for fun or are more inclined to stroll, snap, and chat, it’s a beautiful way to spend the day! You can register to pound the pavement with Runstreet.
Interested in learning more about the life and times of Audubon? We highly recommend A Country No More: Rediscovering the Landscapes of John James Audubon, by Krista Elrick.
Peak Leaf Peeping
It’s officially autumn—the glorious season—time for a bit of soul-restoring leaf peeping. For your tree-tracking convenience, our partners at American Forests have put together a handy U.S. foliage map so you can find out the best time to delight in a dose of peak reds and golds. Have a look!
Zero Rhinos
And on the opposite side of the Earth: if you’re a regular reader, you know that we’re big fans of Big Life, one on the most effective wildlife conservation organizations in Africa. Despite the tremendous challenges imposed by the pandemic, Big Life has continued to protect some of the most critically endangered animals on the planet—like the Eastern black rhino.
All but lost to poaching, Eastern black rhinos in the Chyulus, a mountain range in southern Kenya, were reduced to a population of only 7 animals. Big Life stepped up and put 50 community rangers to work in an endeavor to save the species. As a result of their strategic efforts, in the last five years, zero rhinos were poached—a much-needed win for African wildlife.
Watch this stunning film to learn how Big Life put boots on the ground to save the Eastern black rhino from local extinction and how you can support their critical conservation programs across East Africa’s 1.6 million-acre Amboseli Ecosystem.
From The Dark Interval:
Where things become truly difficult
and unbearable, we find ourselves in a place already
very close to its transformation.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Happy Earth Day,
Big Blue Mama!
In our small press manner, Wild & Wondrous aims to be a voice for Mother Earth. If we listen carefully, we can hear all of the eloquent, soul-stirring ways she also speaks for herself—today and every day.
Voices of Earth
by Archibald Lampman:
We have not heard the music of the spheres,
The song of star to star, but there are sounds
More deep than human joy and human tears,
That Nature uses in her common rounds;
The fall of streams, the cry of winds that strain
The oak, the roaring of the sea’s surge, might
Of thunder breaking afar off, or rain
That falls by minutes in the summer night.
These are the voices of earth’s secret soul,
Uttering the mystery from which she came.
To him who hears them grief beyond control,
Or joy inscrutable without a name,
Wakes in his heart thoughts bedded there, impearled*,
Before the birth and making of the world.
* poetry awe bonus points for rhyming impearled with world.
1-minute read
The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes — Marcel Proust
How do you see forests—peaceful, inspiring, hopeful, magical? Forests and trees play a significant role in creating evocative places that also contribute to the health and prosperity of people and our planet, whether they take root in the wilderness or a landscaped urban park.
If you’re up for a wander, you can showcase your favorite picture-perfect tree or woodland in the Forests in Focus Photo Contest and help tell the visual story of the importance of nature.
Sponsored by Favorite World Press planting partners, American Forests, the competition is open to professional, amateur, and high-school-aged photographers across the United States. You can submit up to ten high-resolution, digital format photos across seven categories, including cityscapes, landscapes, wildlife, and nature as art. Winning photos from each category will be featured in American Forests’ Summer magazine issue. Winners will also receive a one-year American Forests membership.
Expressing your unique photographic perspective on Earth’s beautiful view is a super and safe way to put a dent in the winter/COVID-19 doldrums. So head on out tree people, focus on your favorite forest, and submit what you see, now through March 5, 6 PM EST. Click, click, click!
Well, hello there, two-oh-21! We thought you would never show up! Even if you get off to a bit of a wobbly start, we’re hopeful that you’ll spread your wings and take flight in no time.
Looking forward to your happy, brand-spanking-New Year’s ways. Thanks for coming!
“Hope” is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.
Emily Dickinson
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
T.S. Eliot
This holiday season, and always,
may you find comfort and joy
in the poetry of nature.
Wishing you peace.
LSF • WW • FWP
From The Last Gold of Expired Stars, Georg Trakl:
In the evening, when the bells ring peace,
I follow the wonderful flight of birds
That in long rows, like devout processions of pilgrims,
Disappear into the clear autumn vastness.
Wandering through the dusk-filled garden
I dream after their brighter destinies
And barely feel the motion of the hour hands.
Thus I follow their journey over the clouds…
“Kindness is contagious. Pass it on.”
April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851
Graveyard at the Church of the Intercession in the Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum at 155th Street and Broadway.
Yeah, okay, but can you do this?
100 blog posts = sparklers + cake mountain!
Strenuously exercising on the inside!
“It’s going to be alright!”
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