by Elizabeth Pass, Cohort VI
for the July 2023 issue of Headwaters Highlights

July reminds many of lazy days sitting on porches, patios, and anywhere there’s shade and a breeze, drinking something cold while watching flora and fauna go about their industrious work. Some of you will gather with friends and/or family for the holiday. Some of you will take a vacation, and many will continue your explorations into our beautiful natural areas.

Whether you’re active or whiling away the days this month, I have a suggestion that may make your time more sense-sational.

As you gather with your friends and or family, or as you walk/hike, focus on your senses. Share with each other, or focus around you and answer/notice the following:

Visual: What’s an image from nature in your past that brings you joy? Or, as you are out and about in nature, what do you see that brings you joy?

Before I moved to Virginia, I had never seen a firefly. Imagine my surprise, confusion, and then delight when I went outside one night and saw fireflies for the first time! Fireflies are now one of my favorite parts of summertime—each night when I watch them, I feel that I’m witnessing a private magic show nature is giving just for me!

Scent: What’s a scent from nature in your past that brings you joy? Or, as you are out and about in nature, what do you smell that brings you joy?

My brother is a wonderful gardener, and when he moved to north Austin/Lake Travis, he set about landscaping his new home. Along his walkway to the front door, he planted lavender so that it eventually became a lavender hedge. When I visited him, I asked him about it and he said that he planted the lavender there so that as he or others came to or left the front door, they would brush against the lavender, releasing that beautiful lavender smell. He was so right! Every time we went anywhere during my visit, leaving or coming I got that wonderful lavender aroma. What a fabulous idea!

Photo by MireXa. Pixabay.com

Sound: What’s a sound from nature in your past that brings you joy? Or, as you are out and about in nature, what do you hear that brings you joy?

 A sound that brings me joy is one I get to hear most every day. For me, a silver lining of COVID and having to work from home much more is that now I listen to the trilling of the Northern Cardinal as I sit on the couch with my laptop and work. Next to the couch are large windows with trees outside, so all day birds flit in and out and squirrels run up and down them. But the sounds the Northern Cardinal makes are loud and distinctive and keep me happy as I plug away at my work. I’ve included a sound file to The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library so you can hear the sound if you’d like.

Texture: What’s a texture from nature in your past that brings you joy? Or, as you are out and about in nature, what do you feel that brings you joy?

A texture I’ll never forget is a once-in-a-lifetime moment when I was a young teenager. My family would spend several weeks at our cabin in northern New Mexico, and as I was passionate about all the animals there, I would spend hours on our porch getting the chipmunks, squirrels, and birds used to me until I could hand-feed the chipmunks and squirrels and get the hummingbirds to sit on my finger to drink from the feeder. Once, a female ruby-throated hummingbird was sitting on my index finger while she drank, and I reached up my thumb and pet her breast several times. Her feathers were so soft; I almost couldn’t feel them. What an amazing moment I’ll never forget!

Taste: What’s a taste from nature in your past that brings you joy? Or, as you are out and about in nature, is there a taste that brings you joy? Be careful with this one!

At my family home, there was a honeysuckle vine on the fence by the gate to the backyard (we had a Japanese honeysuckle vine (Lonicera japonica), one of the edible honeysuckle flowers). One of the best memories of summer was that vine blooming. My brother and I would each take a flower, hold the top of the flower with one hand, pinch the bottom of the flower with our other hand, and gently pull out the stamen so we could capture the sweetest nectar. We were firm believers that the yellow flowers were much sweeter than the white ones and were forever testing our theory!   

– Elizabeth Pass, Cohort VI, for the July 2023 edition of Headwaters Highlights