Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Nature Buffers Effects of Stressful Life Events for Children
I’ve had a lot of thoughts swirling through my head lately. Wondering if it’s good to take so much time away from home responsibilities and travel around to find cool hikes to do. Wondering about myself and my drive to get out into nature. Wondering about my kids and their education, and what do they…
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Sugarloaf Mountain
Gabriel has had it in his mind for a few weeks now that he wanted to climb Mt. Erie near Anacortes. We’ve driven up it several times, and we can see it from many of the places we like to go on a whim. Because he kept mentioning it (and saying that he’d like to…
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Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge
Grandma and Daddy joined us recently for a trip to the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. On the drive down, it was pouring rain, but when we got there the showers let up and we were mostly dry. We started out looking through the Visitor Center, enjoying the displays about the estuary. They have some models…
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Mercer Slough Nature Walk
We’ve been stuck inside a lot this winter, with yucky weather and yucky colds. My kids have both been begging to go hiking, and once they were starting to feel better we took a little walk down at Mercer Slough. We parked on the east side at the Environmental Learning Center, a newer building that…
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State Parks Free This Weekend
Residents of Washington State will be able to visit state parks without purchasing a Discover Pass on Sunday and Monday, March 18 and 19. These free days are two of the days mandated by the Legislature to offer to the public. They are in celebration of the State Park System’s Birthday. What is your favorite…
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Flower and Garden Show
(Note: This post is heavy on photos. The lighting there played tricks with my camera, so the quality is not what I would like on many of them. I did want to try to convey the breadth and depth of what we saw, so I hope you bear with me on this one!) Each February,…
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Padilla Bay Shore Trail
We went up to Anacortes 2 weeks ago to check out the Padilla Bay Shore Trail. We had been having our normal February week of sunshine in the middle of our gloomy winter. We were also recovering from colds, and wanted an easy, gentle outing. This trail fit the bill. We stopped first at Bayview…
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Narbeck Wetland Sanctuary
At the end of the day today we finally got enough things done that we were able to sneak out of the house to enjoy the last of the light. We went up to Everett, right next to the Boeing factory, and visited a neat wetland there. It’s a good place to go to…
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Urban Walk: The Arboretum
Though I had great ideas of where to go hiking for Winter Break, it turned out we didn’t have a full day to devote to getting out of town. We were sorely in need of an outing, though, so we invited some friends along for a walk at the Arboretum in Seattle. We met K…
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The Nature Exploration Bag
Before Christmas I found a pattern to sew some special bags to fill with goodies for exploring nature. The designer of the pattern, Holly at Chez Beeper Baby, put out a free tutorial and pattern that is thorough and easy to follow. It took me several hours to finish each bag, but I was able…
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