Nature

Nature, outdoors, adventure. Those sort of things.

Confluence of sunset clouds, rainbow, and full moon over a small Spanish revival neighborhood.

The Excesses of God

Is it not by his high superfluousness we know Our God? For to equal a need Is natural, animal, mineral: but to fling Rainbows over the rain And beauty above the moon, and secret rainbows On the domes of deep sea-shells, And make the necessary embrace of breeding Beautiful also as fire, Not even the…

Cubist painting depicting a small group of musicians outdoors, with music stands the dominant feature.

Art Transforms Chaos into Life

In the final act of Picasso at Lapin Agile, a mysterious visitor from the future, wearing blue suede shoes, enters the bar and makes a striking pronouncement. VISITOR: ‘Cause this century, the accomplishments of artists and scientists outshone the accomplishments of politicians and governments. The rest of ensemble, including Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and a…

Making Sense in Incoherent Times

When a system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence have the capacity to shift the entire system. This quotation, attributed to the Belgian physical chemist Ilya Prigogine, gives me hope that small groups of people working together may be able to shift our chaotic politics into something better. But is it realistic, or…

A man and two women backpacking in Sespe Creek where there is no trail

Adventure

Wild Rye has gone through a couple of phases, including a stint as a sort of adventure blog. There were trail notes, gear reviews, and survival tips. Well, Wild Rye isn’t really an adventure blog now. But some of these posts are still informative and if you’ve gotten this far, by all means take a…

Greener Does Not Mean Safer: Poison Oak

 I’ve blogged about poison oak before but there is something I’d like to mention while it’s still fresh on my mind. So to speak. POISON OAK IS NOT HARMLESS DURING GREEN PHASE Some people are under the mistaken notion that you won’t get a rash from poison oak until the leaves have turned red. Let…