Mr. Nature here again–to whisk you off to the Cincinnati Zoo to meet any animal that most of you, probably, have never heard of: the potto.
The potto comes from Central Africa. It may remind you of a sloth, but it’s actually a primate, related to apes and monkeys. I can’t think of many things that would be more pleasant than to hold one of these babies in your arms.
Anyhow, we thought we’d give you this to start off the morning, rather than any of the “hard news”–hard news for hard hearts–of Democrats making as much trouble as they can before leaving office next month, purposely leaving messes that will have to be cleaned up.
To think that we ever allowed ourselves to be ruled by such people…
When the rain stopped this morning, I went for a hike up the hill to see the deer.
It always amazes me that these large wild animals can make a living in this thoroughly suburbanized town. Usually, but not always, I see them in a little two or three-acre park atop a steep hill in a posh neighborhood full of big houses that would do very nicely for hotels. Sometimes they come out of the park and hang out on people’s front lawns.
How do they do it? True, when they’re in the little wooded park and they’re not moving, they’re almost impossible to see. But they’re surrounded by a residential neighborhood full of cars, guys on riding mowers, etc. Somehow God provides for them.
You’ll notice, in this video, that someone is tossing little apples to the deer, which is probably why they’re in his back yard. It’s nice, to feed the deer, but it isn’t wise. Get them too used to interacting with people, and it will abate their natural caution which they need to survive.
I love to see the deer that somehow manage to live in the middle of Suburbia. I pray there will always be a place for them, and am surprised that there still is. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof… (Psalm 24:1)
My neighbor’s son is home from college on Winter Solstice/Kwanzaaa Break; and because it has snowed this morning, the poor guy is hiding down the cellar, behind the oil burner.
“He doesn’t want the snow wraiths to get him,” the father explained. “What the heck are snow wraiths, anyway? You’re Mr. Nature, you tell me.”
Well, I’ll try.
See that picture up there, with the spooky faces in it? Those are snow wraiths–evil spirits that come out when it snows. Sometimes they take human form, sometimes they don’t: but always they are on the lookout for someone’s essential life force to consume. They suck it right out like an Electrolux.
“He’s afraid the snow wraiths are gonna get him because he’s not inclusive or diverse enough,” my neighbor says.
It would not comfort him if I told him that, according to tradition, snow wraiths are especially attracted to out-and-out idiocy. But then I don’t believe in snow wraiths, and I don’t know anyone else who believes in them, either–except for a few individuals who learned about snow wraiths in college and haven’t outgrown it yet.
As for the spooky faces in the sky–well, I’ve never seen ’em. Have you?
I can always tell, well before I ever see him, when a hawk is visiting our neighborhood. We have a lot of squirrels here, and they all disappear, suddenly, as if by magic–all of them. How do they do that?
So I was watching a hawk today, patrolling the sky, probably on the hunt for squirrels: no such luck, I couldn’t find them, either. But I was struck by how slowly the hawk could fly, knowing that at any moment he could generate a burst of speed that would amaze me. I don’t think we have any aircraft that can do that.
Which reminds me, oddly enough, of the great big scarab beetles that we have here in the summer. They fly slowly, too, and they look clumsy. But one of them can fly into the wall of the house–you can actually hear the “thump!”–again and again, and never fall down. We certainly don’t have any aircraft that can come even close to doing that.
Hi, Mr. Nature here–with some fond memories of salamanders.
Take a look at that Red Salamander (P. ruber ruber)–isn’t he gorgeous? When my friends and I used to go out catching salamanders, this was the grand prize. They were never very common–but just look at that color.
The video shows the Red Salamander entering water, but none of the ones I ever caught were in the water, although they were never very far away from it.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen one of these. As a rule, salamanders are pretty good at adapting to humans in their environment; but we’ve reached a point beyond which salamanders cannot go. Even the little redbacks, who used to be ubiquitous (gee, I don’t get to use that word too often!) around here are getting hard to find.
It would be a poorer world without them: and it doesn’t strike me as wise to squander even the smallest of God’s blessings.
Hi, Mr. Nature here–and today in New Jersey it’s as cold as a brass monkey.
Have you ever wondered what it’s like inside a squirrel’s nest? Well, here’s a nest that a squirrel built up against somebody’s window, probably because that was a really clever way of heating it. And what we have inside are baby squirrels.
As usual, there’s always somebody who just can’t keep still and sleep, and must always be crawling around and bumping into others. Our cat Robbie does that when she comes to bed–parades around and around my wife until she finally settles down on top of Patty’s book, after maybe stepping on her hair a few times.
So there’s hope this baby squirrel will never grow out of this habit of restlessness…
Hi, Mr. Nature here. I’ve just been watching that Mosasaurus scene from Jurassic World, and it has me in stitches.
Mosasaurs were lizards, related to monitor lizards, that lived in the sea long ago. There were many species of them, found here and there and everywhere. I once dug up a nice Mosasaur tooth right here in New Jersey.
The premise of this movie is that people even get bored with live dinosaurs, after a while, so Science has to somehow give them bigger and better dinosaurs. By “better” they mean scarier and more dangerous. So they use cloning and genetic engineering to create this terrible monster…
Well, fry my hide, they’ve already got this Mosasaurus! Here they are, feeding it a great white shark. Might as well give it something that’s not at all easy to come by. An adult great white shark is anywhere from 12 to 20 feet long, but it looks like a sardine compared to the Mosasaur. That would make the Mosasaur… oh, better than 100 feet long. Bigger than a blue whale. And they’ve got it in an aquarium.
I’m sorry, but that’s funny! I mean, it’s a fun movie, I enjoyed it no end–but reality it’s not.
Christians, never forget, never forget, that in our popular culture, that we live in, science and fantasy and pure humbug are tangled together worse than the hideous snarl of wires behind my computer. Feel free to enjoy the entertainment value–but make very sure you’re never taken in by it. If you want absolute truth, you have to go to God’s word for that.
Don’t let your fun be the enemy of your integrity.
Hi, Mr. Nature here! Allow me to introduce you to Peripatus, a neat little critter which I call “the walking worm.” It’s sort of like an earthworm, sort of like a caterpillar, but not really like either one. I would like to have some in an aquarium but Mrs. Nature won’t let me.
These walking worms live in warm climates around the world, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. They eat small insects, which they capture by spraying stuff at them which hardens on contact, immobilizing the prey. These animals would be great for law enforcement if they were the size of German shepherds. You’d just have to train them not to eat the suspects.
I can’t help thinking God must have smiled when He created these. I’m sure I would’ve.
Our cat Henry was crazy about catnip and always reacted very strongly to it. My father, who pretended not to like cats (even while Henry sat on his lap and purred), didn’t approve of catnip. “What are you trying to do to him?” he once asked.
But catnip is harmless to cats. Our cats Robbie and Peep don’t react to it at all, but most cats do–as you can see in this video.
Mr. Nature adds: “Lacewings are attracted to catnip just as most cats are; and the lacewings eat the mites and aphids that trouble the catnip plant. As Rev. D. James Kennedy used to say, ‘Ain’t chance grand?'”
Hi, Mr. Nature here. And if you’ve ever wondered where snakes go for the winter, this is where: they get together in a big mob and wait out the cold in a hole. This is because they’re cold-blooded and if they jam themselves together, they can keep each other warm. It’s not that they’re compulsively sociable or anything.
Many kinds of snakes spend the winter in dens. On rare occasions, they may decide that someone’s house would make a really comfy den, and in they go.
It’s fall now, so they’re going to be heading for their dens. And you are soooo in trouble if you step into such a hole! So don’t.
