The ipad Forest

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack....................

Been so busy! But let's get right to it. A couple months ago I finally broke down and bought the new iPad. And you say, who cares? I come to this blog to escape the modern world. Or more likely, what are you talking about, I only came here to lift an image and I'm confused by all this. Well bear (pun intended) with me, I will get to the forest part.

Other then driving through Flagstaff a few times in the past year, there have been no forests for me to return home to. I feel like a starving, lost orphan. And it gets even worse. Recently I've accepted a wonderful teaching position somewhere else and I will be moving....but even further away from the trees. I'm moving here....

Fascinating, yes.....but not a single tree can be seen for miles. If I'm really super lucky, there might be one toughing it out in the teacher housing parking lot. So I left an area of few trees-to none. At this rate, my next locale will be on the moon. But you know what, I will be okay with it and here is why. I may have talked in another post about how being in a forest for even a brief amount of time seems to suck the mundane thoughts out of your head and you can eventually enter into a meditative state. In environments like the one above you end up in an esoteric state. This is literally because there is nothing else to visually fixate on: Cashlands, Walmarts, or dollar stores. All there is, is you and the vast landscape. After looking out at this for awhile your throughts natuarally drift into concepts of timelessness, creation theories, and the ancients. You go deep, real deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep............like this deep:

The other thing that is going to get me through my forestlessness is my iPad. Why am I saying such things? Well for starters, my wallpaper is a deep forest scene with ferns all over it. I have every forest and nature app available. I have forest games, songs-you name it. With the new retina techonology, the visuals are like you could just reach your hand in and pick a wildflower. And my iPad goes with me everywhere! Not intending this to turn into a commercial for Apple, I love my iPad for the places it can virtually take me. At anytime I can touch the Netflix app and watch a documentary about forests or national parks with forests. I can get on a travel sight and book my next vacation to a forest- Sequoia National Forest (or park-whatever) this October via Amtrak- here I come! I can bid on forest books on ebay and Amazon, and I can watch videos about forests on YoutTube. I can pass on the wonder of nature to my friends on facebook with the amazing forest pics I post on there. I can draw nature scenes on drawing apps like ArtRage and post those too. A forest in one hand, in my purse, putting me to sleep at night with my campfire scene alarm clock with cricket sounds.   Seriously, it's like I carry a mini forest around me everywhere, as I'm always in a forest in my mind anyways....      sidenote- I hope I'm still kinda normal.

I guess living treeless, if nothing else, helps you revere all the trees even more. I can also look at it this way, I will totally be free from any danger trees can cause I guess, like these....

Because I've totally tried that make my apartment look like a forest thing. It just didn't cut it no matter how much I tried. In a real forest I wouldn't have to clean up my crap everywhere, or hear my neighbors pound up and down the steps all day. See what I mean below? Not that same nature-y feeling.

Of course people who are rolling in the money do a much better job of it....

They probably even have a buzzing bug sound from the speakers and mushrooms growing out of bear poop somewhere. Anyway, I've moved every year for the past six or seven years so and I'm sick of it so I've only kept what I absolutely need to survive. Actually by the time I move to the next apartment in August, it will decorated like this...

as long as I can get a projector that's hooked up to my forest-laden iPad, I will be okay.

Any nature parents out there? Hopefully, or your kid will turn out like this.

According to the 2005 book Last Child in the Woods: Saving our children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, kids are alarmingly disconnected from the natural world. Written by Richard Louv, the book discusses how kids are isolated and are more "plugged in" (technologically speaking) than ever, which might turn them into that remarkable child pictured above!

Some parents discussing this disorder mentioned how their own kids won't put their bare feet on the lawn! I have heard plenty of times when working with children about how they don't ever touch trees or dirt, and scream bloody murder if a bug enters the room. Some of you like me, who have seen a few decades, may remember making mud pies, playing tag in the woods at night, and running around all day outside without shoes on. So which kind of "nature parent" are you below? Written by yours truly!

The Nature is out to get you Parent: You take your kids on a nature walk in the "city park" once a year. On this excursion you pack: 1. sanitizer 2. sunscreen 3. bug spray 4. snake bite kit 5. emergency blanket 6. portable, solar-powered shower 7. toilet seat covers 8. bear repellent 9. poison arrow anti-venom

While on the nature walk, you warn your kids constantly ("Don't touch that fuzzy caterpillar, it might shoot deadly quills at you", or "Don't pick up that bird's nest, it could have the Ebola virus",  and "Don't get your new white outfit and white shoes we just bought and put on you before we came here dirty".  When you leave your nature walk location, you stop by the park suggestion box and leave comments like: "Please clear the rocks and tree roots off the nature path", or "There were several spider webs blocking our trail, please eradicate them", and "It would be nice if there were some pop and snack machines at the trail head".

The Nature Brand Name Acquirer Parent: You take your kids on a nature hike in a well-populated state park twice a year. But you do this only after your $4,876 trip to Cabela's or Bass Pro Shop. You equip yourself with an $86.00 water bladder that  keeps you water chilled for your hour and a half journey. You wear jackets that say The North Face on them even though you are hiking in Illinois. You check your $659.00 GPS every 14 1/2 steps to make sure you are still on the right trail. Your entire family has $140.00 high-tech footwear, and you all have coordinating safari shorts with 11 pockets. Throughout the hike you discuss with your kids what a wimp Bear Grylls is on Man vs.Wild for having a camera crew with him, unlike Les Stroud, who's on the Survivor Man show.

The Nature Homeschool Trip Parent: I see these parents in the woods all the time. Whenever it is time to learn about nature and stuff, or when they need a free field trip because their kids are driving them nuts at home, these parents drag their kids in the woods toting worksheets and notebooks. You hear the mom point out all kinds of stuff in the woods without having a clue of what it is. Yet their tone of voice resonates like they are seasoned naturalists. They say things like "Look at that bump on the leaf over there, Jimmy! Let's record that finding in your analysis log and classify our specimen back at the biology lab." The biology lab, of course, is a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers.

The Nature Hardcore Nurturer Parent: Spare the rugged, 22 mile totally uphill hike every saturday, and spoil the child. Not even a swinging 900 ft. rope bridge with missing planks will keep you from exposing your kids to the untamed wild. You don't even have to point out birdcalls to your kids, because they are already familiar with them from your hikes when they were in the womb. Even your toddlers can repel off a cliff right next to you, while you have a baby strapped to your back and holding the picnic basket with your "free arm". (The picnic basket is of course filled with only Cliff bars and eco-friendly water bottles.) You say things to you kids like: " Honeysuckle-moon Sequoia Forrester! How are you going to have the fortiude to succeed in life if you are whimpering about crossing that 13 ft. gap with your backpack as a counter-weight".

So which one are you? C-mon, fess up!

A forest product review...A game!

This game is called Aerie-Spirit of the Forest. It's a fun time management game where you go around and fix all nature's problems in Shangri-La. Beautiful graphics, and the game is addicting. Time management games are not my thing but I enjoyed the setting of this game. I know it is at least $9.99 at Gamehouse.com, but if you have a pass with them you won't have to worry about it. A good way to pass the time when stuck somewhere boring on that iPad of yours!