Hi!

I am Mark, a novice blogger, a clinical laboratory scientist, and an avid nature enthusiast. My goal in blogging is to exchange ideas about how we can create a "biophilist culture", live in closer and gentler contact with nature, and thus become happier and more human.

A big undertaking? Yes, and I am only a novice blogger, so I begin only with some photos and notes about a brief, heavenly vacation in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (Summer 2007).

Cheers!

Seney National Wildlife Refuge (UP Michigan)
A small mallow (hibiscus/hollyhock family) wildflower, near a pond.

Seney National Wildlife Refuge (UP Michigan)
Chipmunk (ground squirrel) closeup.

Seney National Wildlife Refuge (UP Michigan)
The Seney chipmunks are not very shy.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (UP Michigan)
The forests, rock cliffs and waterfalls we saw along the shore of Lake Superior were exquisitely beautiful. The tree on the right in the top photograph is completely dependent on the roots that span the eroded rock gap. Lake Superior is just that!

Porcupine Mountains State Park (UP Michigan)

This little fledgling seemed unable to move away while we were closely observing it. We could not identify such a young bird and waited awhile for one of its parents to come feed it, so that we would know its identity.

Then, it occurred to us that we might be keeping a parent away, by being so close, so we meandered onward.