Nature Kingdom | Carol Chapman

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! Here’s a photo showing the giant sunflowers that grew the year I was writing When We Were Gods. The nature god, Pan, Lord of the Wilderness, had appeared while I was writing the book and asked me to include a chapter about nature and nature spirits in the book, which I did. Pan wanted readers to know that nature could clean up the earth if we would just show more appreciation for the natural world.

Sunflowers grew over 14 feet tall–I’m 5 feet, 3 inches tall–after I included Pan’s message in When We Were Gods.

After I included the chapter in the book, I had a phenomenal garden. I felt that Pan was showing me and the world an example of what nature could do when appreciated.
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Nature Spirits, Druids and Cymatics

With spring officially here, you might find this video entitled, “Nature Spirits and Spring,” by David Griffiths interesting and somewhat appropriate. I initially became interested in it, because of the reference to nature spirits, but I didn’t find anything in this video about fairies and the devas expounded in the books of northern Scotland’s spiritual community Findhorn. However, I kept watching this rather long 15-minute video because it mentioned the Druids, the classical priesthood of the British Isles, who some say are responsible for the mystical stone circle of Stonehenge.

To tell you the truth, I was also intrigued because of the accent of the narrator of the video, who I assume is its director/cameraman/editor, and also his reference to strange-sounding places. As the credits rolled by, I discovered acknowledgements to instructors at Coleg Harlech, which is an educational institution for mature adults in Wales. Well, that’ s interesting! So, here is a video made by David Griffiths, who I assume made the video to fulfill an assignment at Coleg Harlech.

I like that by watching the video, I am connected with sincere people of a little-known British culture from across the ocean. The only other experience I’ve had with Wales and Welsh people was during a visit to London when it began to rain and my husband and I ducked into a nearby pub. A couple of young women joined us at our table. They said they were from Wales. I asked them what was Wales like. They replied, “A lot of sheep crossing the road.”

As it turned out, the most interesting part of the video for me, was the hill that reminded me of Silbury Hill, which is close to Stonehenge. Unfortunately, I could not understand the name of this, this video hill, which, I suspect, has a Welsh name. In any case, the most intriguing image is that this hill is hollow inside and has a stone doorway as an entrance.

You might be wondering what “Cymatics” is, since the word is in the title of this blog post. The video also refers to and has video snippets illustrating Cymatics which is the study of the affect of visible sound on objects. Mr. Griffiths has used some delightful music in the background from some familiar groups of the 70s and 80s plus “Y Tylwyth Teg of Gwynedd” who, I guess, is a friend at the college.

The Rutting Season

Last night, while driving home in the dark, a buck leaped across the road in front of my car. Fortunately, my “hockey reflexes” kicked in. I quickly but lightly braked so the SUV behind me didn’t ram into my vehicle. The deer was a formidable specimen with at least six points to his antlers and could have significantly damaged the car, its occupants, and himself.

This incident reminded me of a story a friend told me, in which a buck had rammed into the side of her vehicle catching his antlers in her rear view mirror. Not having much experience with deer, she felt devastated that a beautiful creature such as this buck would have attacked her car in this manner or, alternately, that she had in some way been at fault to cause the buck this accident. Why did he do this?

I asked her if the experience occurred in the autumn. She replied, “Yes,” surprised that I had guessed. I explained to her that during the autumn, the female deer come into season, creating a strong alluring body scent that is very enticing to male deer. The bucks, who are normally extremely reclusive, hiding deep in the forest, become semi-brainless as the follow the scent of a doe … sometime right across a highway through traffic. She had done nothing wrong.

As the I Ching says, “No blame.”

Migration Time

This beautiful nature photograph of swans reminds me that this time of year is the time of the waterfowl migrations. I took this digital photograph in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and used as an inspirational photograph for the month of September in the 2009 Edgar Cayce Calendar. You may not know it but swans migrate.
A gorgeous mature swan and two “ugly duckling” immature swans.
Copyright (c) 2007 Carol Chapman

A Beautiful Sunrise

Even though the weather gets colder, a beautiful sunrise can always lift the spirits.

This lovely nature photograph was taken with a cute little SD 1000 canon.

Beautiful Fall Foliage

It’s that beautiful fall foliage time of year again. Here’s the nature photograph I used for the October page of the Edgar Cayce Calendar.

Beautiful Fall Foliage Colors in Virginia photographed at Miles Creek in Mathews County

I used a Nikon D50 normal lens for this photo.

Another Full Moon Photo

This digital photograph was taken shortly after the moon rose above the horizon. Although I tried hand-holding the camera, it was obvious that at such a long exposure, I’d need a tripod. But, because the moon and earth are moving, not too long an exposure, which meant that the well-focused image was underexposed and needed some “massaging” in PhotoShop.

It is amazing that the moon is really not that light. Of course, compared to the darkness all around the full moon, it looks very bright. But, it is not compared to daylight.

I love the yellow color of this nature photograph which resulted from the moon being close to the horizon. The color is not altered.

I also love the very distinct images of the moon features which seem to be green. Maybe that’s where they got that saying, “the moon is made of green cheese.” So, maybe it is!

Full Moon September 23, 2010

Moose at Speaking Event in Anchorage

A Mother Moose and her Calf frolic past the door of the ATOM Center in Anchorage, Alaska

I have been trying to get a photograph of a moose since my honeymoon 15 years ago. We went to Newfoundland where it was cool in July compared to the steamy summer weather in the South.

The whole time we were in Newfoundland, I drove with the camera on my knee hoping to get a great nature photograph of a moose.

On the highway, we saw one far in the distance munching on water plants in a swamp. However, we sped by it in the car too quickly to take a photo.

As a result, we decided to ply the many secondary by-ways, and even ventured on a few gravel roads, always searching for that elusive moose.

Now, 15 years later, this mother moose and her youngster appeared at my doorstep 15 minutes before my speaking event, “Everyone Has a Book in Them,” a two-day workshop program in the ATOM Center in Anchorage, Alaska. The Alaskans, who had arrived for the program early, thought that likely the mother and her baby were on their way to a nearby lake. It seems that moose events are rather common in Anchorage.

The ATOM Center is in town at 4025 Raspberry Road, kiddie-corner and behind the Tastee Freeze. And here they were – mama and baby! Definitely an auspicious event just as the program was about to begin!

At it turned out, it was a wonderful weekend where I met creative, energetic people who are excited about getting their ideas out of their heads and onto the pages of a book.

Carol Chapman

Photo of Black-tailed Buck with Antlers

Remember I said I became so excited that, when I tried to take the photograph of the deer in the woods, I did something wrong with the settings on my camera with the result that only a black image came up on the digital feedback screen of my camera?

Well, it turned out that I was able to get an image by using the photo processing software on my home computer.

Here it is. Isn’t he magnificent!

By the way, although it looks as if he might be a metaphysical deer because his eyes are glowing, the glow is actually caused by the flash from my camera.

Black-tailed Deer in the woods on the side of Highway 113, the road between Terrace and New Aiyansh, British Columbia, Canada.

Carol Chapman —

Silver Fox Pups Photo

Here’s a photograph of the silver fox pups on the side of the road.

Actually, I do not really know if their are specifically “silver” foxes. I called them silver foxes in my last post because their mother, who is not in the photo, has long silver fur on her body.

Note the white tip on the end of the tail.

Two fox pups we encountered on the road between Kinkolith and New Aiyansh in northern British Columbia, Canada. This is an area that is as far north as the Alaska panhandle and very worth visiting for the magnificent mountain and river scenery, wildlife and, this time of year, salmon fishing.

Carol Chapman —

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