The First of Autumn!

Today is the first day of autumn. This is the best leaf I have found so far.

It is also Hobbit Day for fans of the author J.R.R. Tolkien. He wrote this about the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. "He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams."

Me too! I'll be taking a walk in the woods today, to celebrate autumn and Hobbit Day, hoping for an adventure, and with, as Bilbo used to sing: "morning mists and silver sun and wind upon my hair."

Urban Wildlife :-)

I had the flu this week and could not go urban wildlife hunting. Here's a collection of urban animals from my archives -- click the pictures to enlarge.

"Animal totems, like the tiger, come from the Other Side, to protect us while we are away from home." Silvia Browne

"I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?" John Lennon

"An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment."  David Attenborough

"Does the bowl in the garden mock nature when night after night green frogs gather to prove it a pool? Who says you can't make a pond out of a bowl?" Han Yu

"I wouldn't mind turning into a vermillion goldfish." Henri Matisse

"I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighborhood. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fafnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever the cost of peril." J.R.R. Tolkien

"This is what you should do; love the Earth and sun and the animals." Walt Whitman

"Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way." John Muir