Nature

Olive Tree
According to Greek mythology (every religion is a mythology whether one accepts it or not), the creation of the olive tree was the result of a contest between Poseidon, God of the Sea, and Athena, Goddess of Wisdom (I love her), as to who would become the protector of a newly built city in Attica (the historical region of Greece). The city would then be named after the god or goddess who gave the citizens the most useful and divine gift. With his trident, Poseidon struck a rock and water rushed out of it, creating a spring of salty aqua, symbolizing his gift of sea power. Beautiful Athena struck a rock with her spear and produced the olive tree, an offering signifying both fruitfulness and peace. The citizens showed their wisdom by choosing Athena’s gift and she forever became the protector of the city, Athens, named after her. Even today, an olive tree stands where the story of this competition is said to have taken place. It is repeated that all the olive trees in Athens are descended from that first olive tree offered by Athena,” a goddess after my wooden heart. I want to thank R Tsambounieri Talarantas for reminding me of the olive tree and its Goddess Athena connection ((giggles)). But it is not funny, you may think. Actually, it is my funnest story about a tree, and I love olives, especially the Kalamata, the most nutritious olives on our pale blue dot.
By Patrick M. Ohana5 years ago in Earth
Invasion of the Spice Finches
They blew in with a fall flock of Red-Winged Blackbirds. The Red-Wings, who often segregate themselves by sex, were an all-male crew. Rowdy, flashing their red epaulets, singing as tunefully as any rusty hinge you’ve ever heard.
By Amethyst Qu5 years ago in Earth
One With Nature . Top Story - June 2021.
When I was a little girl I believed in fairies and all magical dreamy things.. I loved being outside in the woods off path playing on mossy patches and skipping rocks next to waterfalls. I’d pick a flowers to press in my “Fairies” book and imagine or overthink that I may have unwittingly stolen a poor fairy’s house. I remember lying awake late on a school night, drifting off into dreaming..castles and ocean scenes..fairy eyes and fairy wings..
By 🔥5 years ago in Earth
3 Ways To Identify Birds With No Field Marks
I turn the calendar to find myself presented with a photograph of a Zitting Cisticola. Well! If there was ever a bird that was a generic bird, it’s the Zitting Cisticola.
By Amethyst Qu5 years ago in Earth
Promised Places
I started walking..and I can't believe how long ago..in a quest to lose weight, get back in shape. I was lucky enough to live within walking distance of a river with walking and bike paths that I had used and lived around all my life. I started my weight-loss quest with those.
By Susan Braithwaite5 years ago in Earth
No One Grows Things In The Ground Any More
Come on--no one grows things in the ground any more. Do they? An ex-girlfriend decided one year that we should grow our own tomatoes. We spent six months and two hundred dollars in order to save three bucks on salads. We didn’t break up over super-expensive tomatoes, specifically, but maybe my pigheaded resistance to amateur agriculture was one of the two hundred and fifty seven things I did that persuaded her to seek out greener pastures.
By Stacey Roberts5 years ago in Earth
Roots
A tree without roots is just a piece of wood, declared Marco Pierre White, a British chef. What a smart quote and from a culinary chef no less! Am I being facetious? I really hope so given that a tree without roots is surely dead first and mourned by his tree family and acquaintances who throw him an underground memorial. I was a witness to such a ceremony, watching it from a tree cavern, and this is how it sounded in my tree-focused head.
By Patrick M. Ohana5 years ago in Earth
Tree Day
Valentine’s Day? Love doesn’t need a specific day. Love is a permanent state. I love Athena every day at every moment and she knows it all the way in Greece where she stands tall like all women should, facing their often despicable men. Oh, there are good men. There is no doubt about it. But most of them have died, and rarely from old age. Some of you may already know the men I admire, so I won’t repeat their beautiful names again except for dear Nietzsche, Freud, and Charlie Chaplin. I may have named them all. I digressed, though. I wanted to raise your awareness again about trees in all their splendour and fragility, facing the most bloodthirsty predator on Earth. COVID-19 is an amateur in comparison, the new strain of half-life on the block of existence.
By Patrick M. Ohana5 years ago in Earth
Meet More Meat
I am a tree. Hath not a tree senses? Hath not a tree a trunk, branches, leaves, sizes, affections, roots; fed with similar food, hurt with similar weapons, subject to similar diseases, healed by similar means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a human is? If you prick me, do I not bleed? If you hug me, do I not love you inside? If you axe me, do I not die? And if you wrong me, what can I do? If I am like you in the rest, I will resemble you in that. If a tree could wrong a human, what would be its punishment? Death. If a human wrongs a tree, what should his sufferance be by human example? Why, death. The villainy you show me, I will not take, and it shall be harder for you now, and I will survive your instruments of my destruction. Shaketree, from The Tree of Venice
By Patrick M. Ohana5 years ago in Earth
Animals Can Feel Empathy Just Like Humans Do
I’m a huge animal lover and I’ve been a pet owner for more than a decade. Cats, parrots, hamsters, and I’m looking forward to adopting a dog one day.
By Margaret Pan5 years ago in Earth
A Tree Story
The Australian mountain ash tree (Eucalyptus regnans), also known as swamp gum or stringy gum, lives down under most of us on the other side of the world. Oh, there are many others who live on that continent, but this story is not about any of them—sorry—it is about the mountain ash tree. One of the words in its name is surely foreboding. The fire had gone back to hell, leaving only ash, also in the form of cinders, embers, and clinker.
By Patrick M. Ohana5 years ago in Earth
The Plants of Summer
It’s finally here… the growing season. The season when our plants rejoice and revel in the shining sun and awaken from their dormant state with renewed purpose and vigor. However, although summer can be a time of tremendous growth and plant prosperity, we need to make changes to our plant ecosystem to keep our plants healthy during the seasonal transition.
By Farmer Nick5 years ago in Earth