The Lone Wolf

Wolves get a bad rap. From Little Red Riding Hood to True Blood, there's a suspicious and sneaky aura surrounding wolves. In reality though wolves and other predators are an extremely important part of the ecosystem fabric. Despite this fact predators have been hunted for game and precautionary reasons for years and wolves have all but dissappeared from the northwest. But the fascinating creature is slowly repopulating its home. I heard on the radio this morning that a gray wolf, called OR7, in Oregon broke away from the Imnaha pack and has been on the move since September. Although it's not uncommon for wolves to break away this one's garnering national attention for his trek. He's travelled over 500 miles looking for a mate and a new place to roam. If you're interested in OR7's journey you can find out more info from Oregon Wild here. You can even propose a name for him by e-mailing wolves@oregonwild.org!

I love the photos above of gray wolves (top photo is a Mexican gray wolf) from photographer Joel Sartore, they capture the mystique of the wolf created by folktales, but they seem so brave and curious, more king of the forest than grandma eater.

Map from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife of OR7's journey so far, even if his story comes to hault the smell he left on his path may send other wolves that way.

Nap Time: falling asleep.

Photo by Anne Hall

For this Nap Time post I'm going to share some ideas about falling asleep. But first! A little bit on dreams:

For some reason I have extremely vivid dreams, and tons of them. If I had to, for at least a few minutes after I wake up I could tell you every aspect of my dream in detail - the buttons on a shirt, the leaves in the trees, the strange buildings. Sometimes my dreams are so intense that when I wake up I feel like I just lived another day and never slept at all. I'm always so curious to know the meaning of my dreams, but usually they're incredibly weird and not easily deciphered. My roommate M gives me hints sometimes, and I've learned some very important things about the significance of teeth (appearance) and babies (worry).

Last night I dreamt I had a pet horse called Baranby to whom I was feeding peanut butter and carrots. He could jump so high and I kept thinking he was escaping but he would always come running back when I called, "Barrrrrnaby!". Magical.

But back to falling asleep. People have all different ways of falling asleep (my friend D does a head stand before going to bed) but we'll focus on the classics: PJs, tea and music.

I think if you're really getting in the sleeping mood go all out. This is particularly important for naps. If you want the ultimate nap experience, don't lie down in your work clothes, get in your nap clothes! Everyone should have a special nap outfit. Mine is a long-sleeved yellow nightie, but I think these would do the trick.

If I'm worried about falling asleep I'll make myself a big mug of this. Even though it's marketed for when you have a cold I think it's delicious when you're healthy too.

Now for music, I like something classical if I'm on a bus or train ride, and this never fails:

The Ever Evolving Intelligence of the Sea

I've always had a serious fascination with marine life, especially the octopus. They are strange and stretchy and can be tiny or huge. Because of my love for aquatic creatures and swimming I decided to take scuba diving lessons in college. It was probably one of the most fun and rewarding experiences ever. Completing the course and getting my license actually felt like receiving an invitation to another planet. Although most of the time we sat on the bottom of the SC pool trying to make our ears pop we did get to take a few trips into the sea for our final test. We went to Rockport, Mass (where Mermaids was filmed. No big deal.) at the end of November, and jumped into the water in the middle of a blizzard. You could only see about a foot in front of you and we had to hold on to each others fins, but we still managed to find grouper, lobster and flounder. Once we were out of the water and warming up our instructor, Day, told us an amazing story about an octopus that made friends with a scuba diver. The diver would frequent the octopus' hang out and one day when the diver came to visit the octopus wrapped her tentacle around her arm and pulled her along the ocean floor. They finally stopped at a long pipe and the octopus released her; the diver looked inside the pipe and there was another octopus tangled in some plastic. The diver helped him out of the snarl and the two octopuses went about their business! How's that.

I read this article  by Sy Mongomery in Orion magazine recently which reminded me of that story. The article talks about how incredibly smart octopuses are and the ways in which scientists measure their intelligence. I love this part about an octopus' neurons:

The common octopus has about 130 million of them in its brain. A human has 100 billion. But this is where things get weird. Three-fifths of an octopus’s neurons are not in the brain; they’re in its arms.“It is as if each arm has a mind of its own,” says Peter Godfrey-Smith, a diver, professor of philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and an admirer of octopuses. For example, researchers who cut off an octopus’s arm (which the octopus can regrow) discovered that not only does the arm crawl away on its own, but if the arm meets a food item, it seizes it—and tries to pass it to where the mouth would be if the arm were still connected to its body. 

wild in the wild.

If you are now insanely curious about octopuses I encourage you to read the whole article above and to check out this whacky video of an octopus "walking" on land!

In celebration of the octopus and to serve as a constant reminder of their intelligence I'm on the hunt for a beautiful octopus print, I quittte like this one from etsy.

Top photo from National Geographic

Nap Time

I really, really love to sleep. In my ideal world I go to bed early and wake up early and take a nap, much to the chagrin of my night owl friends. It has always really bothered me when people say things like "You'll sleep when you're dead", nah uh, I'll sleep right now thank-you-very-much. In the joyous spirit of the holidays' demanding post-fancy dinner catnaps I'm starting a recurring post dedicated to sleeping. Check back weekly for all things snoozin.

I'm on the hunt for a delicious duvet cover and these remind me of sleeping through a thunderstorm.

I used to have a big orange cat called Scamper that would sit on my face while I was trying to sleep. Sadly, that's probably the closest I'll come to being like Audrey Hepburn.

True, true.

Top photo of the moon by Vivienne Beck, still from Breakfast at Tiffany's, poster by Sova



Cher.

Do you want to know a secret? Cher stars in three of my favorite movies of all time. That's right baby, THREE. The Witches of Eastwick, Moonstruck and Mermaids. And she's fabulous in each and every one. I've loved these movies since I was little and highly recommend them for any night you're having trouble deciding on a flick. All are particularly good picks for autumn in New England and Moonstruck may just be the ultimate winter in New York film. 

Witches in trouble, Jack Nicholson to the rescue (sort of).

Ahhh, Nicolas Cage in your Ronny Cammareri golden days. I don't know if it's the wooden hand or the bread baking but you get me everytime.

"I love him because he wears moccasins in the winter even though his feet must feel like blocks of ice."

- Charlotte Flax

And if you thought Mermaids couldn't get anymore awesome, the film also ends with mother and daughters dancing to this fantastic song:

Top photo via TOMBOY Style.

 

Delicatessen

W A T C H. Although I'm none too happy with Netflix for raising prices I derive a secret happiness from their suggestion genres. Currently they are pushing Scary Foreign Movies Featuring a Strong Female Lead. Bring it on, Netflix, bring it on. And so it was by wandering through my personalized suggestions that I found Delicatessen a silly-creepy French film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and  Marc Caro. It was completely hilarious, scary and foreign with a couple feisty females. The film follows the tenants of an apartment in a post apocalyptic France, a place where people have been driven to extremes to stay alive. While the story pays close attention to two characters - the landlord's daughter and a newly arrived out of work clown, I found the vignettes about the other tenants to be the most fun. They play out like wacky short stories with incredible visuals and without giving too much away here's a sneak peek at two of my favorite dwellers:

This man lives amongst snails and frogs. Wouldn't this be a genius costume?! He made a frog tongue by applying sticky paper to one of those birthday party whistles. Ribbit. 

I don't want to say what goes on with this lady, except that she's chic, creative and crazy.

I'm super excited to see the next pick Netflix throws at me, so while I've been debating keeping my account it looks like I'll be staying for now. What can I say Netflix you really pulled through.

If you're loving the colors, wardrobe and set from the movie check this out!

The Weekenders

When fall hits New England I get a serious hankering for long walks in the woods, coffee, maple goodies and friends. All of which can be found in abundance in Northampton, Mass where I went to college. A best friend still calls Noho home along with the kiddos I babysat for so I try to make the trip as often as I can. This past weekend M, K and I headed up for loads of everything mentioned above and a good weekend away from the city. The Northeast is one of the perfect areas for day/weekend jaunts. It's small so you can get to an exciting new town, city or state in just a couple hours and in the fall the drive can even be the most enjoyable part of the trip. I can't wait for our next adventure, I want to go here, here and I need to be here. Sometimes I get super frustrated in the car and I have to practice yogi-patience when there is traffic and really get in to the road trip mindset (the trip up alone involved lots of Michael Jackson and the trip back with M included lots of mozarella sandwiches). If you ever find yourself in Northampton there are a couple important things that should not be missed:

A delicious coffee from one of the many awesome cafes, a personal favorite is The Woodstar - because my friend works there and because their ginger molasses cookies and tummy tea are the bomb diggity.

With your coffee in hand you should head to Paradise Pond on the Smith College campus. This is easily one of my all time favorite walks in the world. It's super short only taking about 45 minutes round-trip and that's if you're walking liesurely. I was lucky enough to take a walk here almost every week for four years. The pond is also wonderful for canoeing, swimming, ice skating, beaver watching and frog catching, but I'd still rank the walk along side of it as the most awesome. You'll start out at the top of the hill where the first photo was taken and when you get about half way through you can take a nap on a large rock or look for red efts.

After that kind of stressful day you're going to need a nap and some tasty red. Lucky for you weekend trips allow for that sort of behavior. Have fun!



Thomas Cole painting of the Oxbow; Oliver Scott  Woodstar coffee photo; Paradise Pond  by Marina Zaiats; LIFE archival and still from Sideways.