Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Book Review: The Young Birder’s Guide, Plus Interview with Bill Thompson III
As I posted awhile back, I recently received a package of books from a publisher to review. One of these books was The Young Birder’s Guide to Birds of North America by Bill Thompson III. We have several birding guides on our bookshelves, but we could see right away that this book is different. It…
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Esmerelda Basin Hike – 7/21/12
Last week I sent out a big email to every parent with kids I could think of who might possibly consider hiking with us. I had planned to take the kids to Boardman Lake on Friday, but the morning thunderstorms caused me to cancel our hike. We went to the zoo instead. All was not…
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Tips for Staying Safe in Thunderstorms
When I was a young adult, I got caught in a thunderstorm in the wilderness with a friend. We had hiked all day, the two of us, my first hike without any other adults (I was probably in high school or just in college). We had several mishaps that day, and were exhausted in the…
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Guest Post with Julie Zickefoose: “Asking More of Kids”
Some parents I’ve talked to since I’ve been blogging and hiking have confided in me some of the difficulties they face in working toward the goal of getting their kids out in nature more often. Some moms want to hike with their kids, but haven’t done it before, and need reassurance and guidance. I admit…
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Book Review: The Bluebird Effect, and Interview with Julie Zickefoose
I was recently approached by the publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to review a new book by Julie Zickefoose – The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds. When we opened the package, we all gasped at the beauty of the illustrations. The first thing that struck me was the heft of the book – the…
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Stonerose Fossil Hunting and Camping at Klipchuck
Recently we went on a wonderful weekend road trip together as a family. Last year we had heard about a little museum and fossil digging site over in eastern Washington, and we looked forward all winter to this summer, when we could get over there and try our hand at digging for fossils. We started…
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Busy living the adventure…
There’s a blogging mama I follow who talks about being so busy living the adventure that it’s hard to have time to write about the adventure. (Her name is Renee Tougas of FIMBY and she is fabulous.) That’s how I’ve felt the past week as we’ve done some fun things and have barely had time…
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Nature Rocks Summer Activity Guide
Summer is finally getting under way here in our neck of the woods (though we’ve had one of the coldest Junes on record…again…) and we are thinking of how to fill the longer days. Of course we go out hiking a lot, but sometimes we need a little boost of ideas to help us connect…
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Seattle By Foot Kid’s Tour – An Urban Adventure
Normally this blog is about getting kids out into nature, but on Thursday we had the chance for a different kind of hike. The good folks at ParentMap asked me to review the brand new kid’s walking tour of Seattle put on by the company Seattle by Foot. We began our adventure by taking the…
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Metolius River Camping Trip
As a child growing up in Oregon, we had a tradition of camping every year on Mother’s Day weekend with my extended family. The campground of choice was on the Metolius River in the Camp Sherman area near Sisters. I have many fond memories from those years, such as running all over the campground with…
Got any book recommendations?