Bird of the Day: Cactus Wren (Palm Desert, CA)
Malabar Plum (syzygium jambos)
This flower is the white variety of the Malabar Plum (Rose Apple) which is medium sized, tropical flowering tree that grows up to 15 meters high. This is the flowering season (March to May) for this tropical plant which yields white colored rose apple fruit.
Scherman-Hoffman Audubon Sanctuary
Northern Goshawk (Above) and Red-tailed Hawk (below) from Scherman-Hoffman
I would be surprised if any of you had heard of the small birding spot in Bernardsville, New Jersey. However, Scherman-Hoffman Audubon Sanctuary is my favorite place to bird in the world. This location is not very widely birded, but it was my avian home for the past four years. From hawk watching, to spring migration counting, to leading bird walks I had a tremendous number of opportunities to bird there and I have a special place in my heart for the staff and the birds that can be seen from season to season and year to year.
Bird of the Day: American Goldfinch
Hyper Humus, NJ
Periyar Sightings: April 29, 2012
Mr. Manu from Cochin was a recent guest at Cardamom County from 28 April 2012 to 29 April 2012. He has shared some of his excellent photography with us from his visit to the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary.
Bird of the Day: Northern Fulmar
Monterey, CA
Queen Flower (Lagerstroemia speciosa)
The Queen flower is a small to medium sized tropical flowering tree growing to a height of 20mts, native to southern India and the Philippines. It has smooth rounded leaves and beautiful lavender flowers which will add beauty to any landscape.
Bird of the Day: Lotens Sunbird (Periyar Tiger Reserve, Thekkady, India)
Photo: Mr. Manoj Vasudevan
Backwater Fishing
Kerala is a land of rivers, lakes, lagoons, rivulets and beautiful canals filled with rich and diversified fish fauna, many of which are rare and endemic species. Fisherman ply the Vemabanad Lake, Ashtamudi Lake and Kayamkulam Lake as well as the backwaters still using using traditional methods, including Chinese fishing nets as well as small nets that are cast by hand.
Food Play
In the best of cases food both nourishes and inspires. Who’s to say that it can’t amuse as well.
Bird of the Day: Northern Parula
Laguna Atascosa, TX
If You Happen to Be In Connecticut
Still Life with Peeler II, 2011; Mia Brownell; Akus Gallery
Anyone who has spent time at our site can vouch for our commitment to community and the power of the liberal arts to sustain and develop each of us both individually and collectively.
The Akus Gallery at Eastern Connecticut State University is bound by their own mission statement to provide a fertile environment for interchange among the diverse disciplinary perspectives of the university’s liberal arts community. Continue reading
Gulmohar Tree
The Gulmohar tree (Royal Poinciana) is an ornamental shady tree that blooms all over the south Indian roadsides between April and June.
Bird of the Day: Wild Turkey
Basking Ridge, NJ
Find Your Spring
Man is a complicated creature. We learn this in our liberal arts education programs. We learn it in our days of being ourselves and of imaging what it’s like to be someone else. He has seasons like his mother Earth. Some are restful, others treacherous, and some are fruitful as the spring.
Cape Honeysuckle provides nectar for the hummingbirds
We have yet to “re-understand” how sensitive we are to the winds of change, how linked we are to the ground we stand upon.
My Recent Spice Route
Do you ever have a project you keep putting off? And putting off, because the project just feels too all-consuming with no easily defined beginning or end? Welcome to my world of trying to write this brief recollection of my extraordinary experiences in India during the fall of 2011.
This is one of 3 reflections regarding my time in India and my pleasure meeting Amie Inman and visiting two of the Raxa Collective resorts. This first entry focuses on visiting the markets of Cochin and Ernakulum.
Last October my husband Dave and I visited Amie Inman, with Raxa Collective, in Fort Cochin and Ernakulam, in Kerala. At the time, I was the Adult Lifelong Learning Coordinator for the University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea around-the-world voyage. Dave and I had 6 days in Southern India and we didn’t waste a minute. Dave was returning to a region he loves while I was just being introduced, not knowing what to expect. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Heerman’s Gull
Palos Verdes, CA
Nature’s Gravitational Pull
What is it with publications in New York? They catch our attention most weeks, if not most days, with something that helps us understand our natural and/or cultural world a bit more thoroughly. Or interestingly. Click the image above for an example from today’s New York Times. If the wonders of southern India’s traditions were not enough to get your day going, then the plebeian wonders outside your own window might:
I’ve logged thousands of miles to catch a glimpse of one exotic creature or another, to Costa Rica to be dazzled by the bird known as the resplendent quetzal, to Hawaii to admire sea turtles, to Venezuela to spy man-eating anacondas. So it seemed more than a little odd that the one time I made a sighting worthy of a scientific publication, I was looking out of my living room window.
Gold’s Glitter Illuminated
Back at about the time when Michael and Seth had posted their first reflections on this site, and Michael had just encountered his own first truly unusual finding in southern India, the newspapers across India were starting to report on this. It took me months to be sure it was a true story. And finally, about Thanksgiving time (USA holiday calendar) I took a moment to reflect on it. I could not be happier to find that The New Yorker has done the kind of homework I had not had time to do. If you are not yet a subscriber, now might be a good time to reconsider. Continue reading
From the GMIC’s Sustainable Meetings Conference
Greetings from Montreal! I’m posting from Montreal and the Green Meeting Industry Council’s 2012 Sustainable Meetings Conference. I was fortunate to receive the Nancy Zavada Scholarship that enables me to attend this wonderful conference, and I’ve been thrilled to participate in the Future Leaders Forum, which informs current students of the challenges and opportunities of the meetings/events sector. I’m pleased to briefly share some of the things the conference has covered so far.
Strangely enough, the Hilton hotel at which our conference is held does not seem to be very sustainable. A lack of low-flow water fixtures, occupancy sensors, high-efficiency HVAC, and aggressive guest engagement is evident.
Organikos 