February 3rd, 2007
recently read or seen – and enjoyed
It’s been a few weeks since I put up a collection of good stuff seen, read, or heard around the web. Here are a few interesting things that I thought you might enjoy:
* At The House & other Arctic musings, Clare has posted a wonderful photo of the sky as it appeared at Arctic Bay, just days before the return of the sun. Be sure to click on the image to see a larger view of the photo.
* As many of you know, we’ve been hearing coyote around our place this week. If I open the window when the chorus is close by, it feels as though the wild has entered the room. This week, Robin at Dharma Bums writes evocatively about a similar experience in Winter Fog. The accompanying photos are wonderful.
* In The Magnificent Log-Cocks at Marcia Bonta’s blog, you’ll find plenty of interesting observations and facts about one of my favourite birds, the Pileated Woodpecker.
* Have you ever wondered how birds manage to survive through winter’s worst? In his illustrated essay Cold Duck, Carel at Rigor Vitae provides us with much insight into their secrets to staying warm.
* At her blog WoodSong, Cindy writes about her passion for moths and describes the project that she’s begun working on, and the reason that it is so important to her – and to all of us.
* The February 3rd edition of Good Planets is now up at Susannah’s blog, Wanderin’ Weeta. This week’s collection of beautiful photos are on the theme of Water.
* For the best in animal blogging, check out this week’s edition of the Friday Ark (#124) at the Modulator.
Okay, that’s all for now. Hope all the links work. If they don’t, someone let me know. I’ll try to put together some more interesting links sometime soon.
February 4th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Thanks for all the destinations, Bev. All will be worth a visit. Yesterday, your mention of Bill Mason’s Waterwalker intrigued me enough to seek it out for purchase. It sounds worth the price of US $39.95.
February 4th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
John – I hope you’ll enjoy it. I always feel a little nervous recommending movies as my taste in film is certainly not at all mainstream. However, as I posted to Cathy this morning, it’s an enjoyable movie to watch – the paddling sequences are wonderful. Bill Mason was a masterful solo paddler and it’s such a pleasure to watch him in his canoe. The scenery is terrific too. In addition to being a film-maker, Mason was also a painter, and there are a couple of parts in the movie where he is working on paintings while sitting at the edge of waterfalls. Interesting to hear him describing how he regards his art. As mentioned yesterday, at times, the film quality looks “older” but that’s a reflection of the time and type of camera equipment that could be used for that kind of work. However, that said, the footage and the soundtrack are quite unique (I love the theme song written and performed by Bruce Cockburn). A couple of things about the voice overs sound kind of folksy and a little corny at times, but again, I’d say that’s partly due to the film being over 20 years old, and because I think it was made with a certain kind of audience in mind – outdoorsy people who were on the same wavelength. Although this is probably unknown to those in the U.S., Mason is something of a legend up here – to paddlers and all outdoors people. Canoes are definitely part of our cultural history here, and Mason has become part of that history. Anyhow, I’ll look forward to hearing what you think of the movie – I do hope you like it.