Reconnecting With Nature

"Most of us lead far more meaningful lives than we know. Often finding meaning is not about doing things differently; it is about seeing familiar things in new ways." Rachel Naomi Remen

Chrisy from living the good north coast life has an inspiring weekly challenge of getting out and connecting with nature. What could be better for the soul and easier thing to do, we all have an outdoors of some kind. For me the favourite kind of getting outdoors is to the beach.
  Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party
Expat Blogging Challenge

Salty Breezes

Blog linking to a few parties this week and think my expat friends will like this quote attributed to Christopher Columbus. "You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” 

For those of us who travel, it is big leap of faith and you never know where you will end up but always an adventure.  The theme for this expat blog challenge was tastes like home, for me that had to be the beach.

For Chrisy’s reconnecting with nature party, I can share this photo of nature playing a decorative arranger with these shells forming a perfect heart shape. Beach living is all about being outdoors and embracing the many moods of nature. 

Sky Watch Friday fans know most of my favourite photos are from the beach, this one is a fun shot that included all manner of flying things, folks in paragliders and birds coasting on the breezes running up the cliffs.   How is that for getting up close with nature?

Tastes of home for me will always be seafood and find it interesting that what is a tasty treat in some places is not considered suitable for humans in other places.  In the North Atlantic Sea Moss or Irish Moss and Dulse are hugely popular. 

Sea moss is harvested and sold for processing into gelatin based products including pudding. It is great to see that it is now considered a environmentally friendly sustainable crop.   

 
Dulse is a bit more flavoursome, in the Maritimes and Maine, people will chew it like tobacco, or chop it up as a spice.    Dulse is making a comeback as hip new super food and people like the Maine Seaweed Man are posting recipes to show how to sneak a bit of salty spice into your cooking.

Lots more natural and salty recipes to be found on my pinterest page and a few creative craft projects too.

Visit Catherine Scanlon’s blog to check out her give away of this very pretty stamp set.   Having a lot of fun with her floral themes. Catherine is from Maine where they are waiting patiently for the arrival of spring and inviting everyone to share cheery words about spring flowers.



Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party
Expat Blogging Challenge

Sunny Days on the Koala Coast

G'day from the Australia's koala coast.  These are the cute images that the world has of life down under, sunshine on a tropical afternoon and getting up close with nature.

Sharing this photo with Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party , seeing koalas can't help but make you smile.  Koalas always look so peaceful and relaxed.  Kind of hard to pull off when their species is under huge stress.  In a couple of remote protected islands koalas are getting a bit inbreed and over supply but for the most part their numbers are in steep decline including here on the Koala Coast. Predictions are that Koalas can be extinct in our life time.  That is a sad statement but too common when our community does not protect habitat and when choosing to live close to nature not being respectful in the little things we can do to share the space, like keeping an eye out for them on the road at night and keeping dogs locked up at night. 

 

The beach photo is Currumbin next door to a wildlife sanctuary, tucked away in the hustle of a busy city working with injured wildlife and sharing the experience of getting up close with nature.

 

For my friends with the Expat Blogging Challenge I could say that palm trees and poisonous snakes  are a big change for the foggy shores of North Atlantic, but sure are an experience to enjoy and all the more fun when sharing our adventures down under. 

Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party
Expat Blogging Challenge

 

Not all that wander are lost

"Not all that wander are lost" T.R. Tolkien

In January I travelled to California to participate in the Craft and Hobby Association international event to meet up with a activite community of crafters from all points of the globe.  It is great fun to catch up with old friends and new friends and work on collaborative projects.  I love that in this new internet era provides so many options for expats to stay connected while on the road but all the same being together is a great place to be.

Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature link party is close to my heart. Growing up my family moved around to a lot of different places but something that was always part of our world was spending time outdoors, connecting with nature in different ways.  My mother started rescuing pets and wildlife as a child so my childhood was full of little foundlings like this little sparrow. 

They call them common but their personalities are anything but.  While out enjoying the sunshine of California it was fun to watch the little sparrows darting about, some nimble and bold and others shy and careful.  In some parts of the world sparrows are very common because of their ability to adapt their diet to what ever is available.  Sadly that ability is not enough save them when some environments are so choked with pesticides or us well meaning tourists filling them up with french-fries.

The CHA mega show is a trade show event where all the new tools and products are released for the season.  This year did not disappoint with really ingenious new twists and fun new tools that inspired me to add a few new pages to my Paris creative journal.  To read more about altered books and mixed media, check this post.  I love to travel and document adventures in creative ways, sharing photos on the blog, sending altered postcards in the mail and collecting ephemera for visual diaries.

 
Joining Linky Parties:
Sky Watch Friday
Chrisy's Reconnecting With Nature party
Expat Blogging Challenge