var switchTo5x=true;

Tag Archives: nature

New Fascinating Book “The Quotable Darwin” Is Out As Of November 15th, 2017

 

American Press Travel News-Nov 7th, -PSL, FL–Book Review by Bob Epstein for Princeton University Press’s “The Quotable Darwin.”  When Janet Browne decided to find out about all things, Charles Darwin she imagined that this man would have much to offer thinking men and women in contemporary times. Darwin was and is most remembered for his book: “On The Origin of Species.” 

She collected and edited every written word she could find. In 348-pages his actual quotes on all aspects of life and disciplines- a fascinating look and read into the mind of one the worlds great thinkers. Darwin was a botanist, a geologist and a caring husband and father. As an active correspondent, he once told his cousin that he liked to play billiards because “it drives the horrid species out of my head.” Browne’s book offers and intimate look at Darwin at work, at home, as a public figure, and on his world travels. Feel his humor, frustrations, exultation’s and “the mans special genius. His travels on the ship; the Beagle made history, and changed knowledge on all living things great and small, for all times!

The book offers a chronology of Darwin’s life by Browne’s, THE QUOTABLE DARWIN. It provides an engagingly new perspective on a remarkable man who thought heavily about the natural world. Natural Selection and Evolution became hot topics due to Darwin!

The author is the Aramont Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. Her books include the acclaimed two-volume biography of Darwin, Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place (both Princeton published) She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.    Again: The Quotable Darwin, Collected and edited by Janet Browne can be found at: ISBN; 9780691 the eBook/ 9781400888672 

Doubletree By Hilton, Our Host Hotel in Wilmington, Delaware

Looking back towards City of Wilmington from the Environmental Center.
Looking back towards City of Wilmington from the Environmental Center.
P1070329
A comfortable and easy place to let your hair down!

AmericanPressTravelNews-November 8th, Wilmington, DE.–Bob and Barb “On The Road Again” and “Stopping to Smell the Roses” in Beautiful Wilmington, DE.-As we travel all across America, xthere are a few stand-out locations that are full of great amenities and very special cultural adventures for travelers and locals alike. Wilmington is very high on this list. So many great museums, so many fine restaurants and accommodations, such as the one we are enjoying right now-the DoubleTree by Hilton. When we arrived yesterday, we dropped off our bags and headed for  DuPont Environmental Education Center  (check them out on all social sites Delaware Nature : delanature.org/DEEC)  a marsh and tidal paradise right under a major bird flyway.

Check-in to our comfortable and excellent hotel accomodations.
Check-in to our comfortable and excellent hotel accommodations.
P1070327
We love to keep as fit as possible! This hotel has got you covered.
P1070325
Indoors and able to accommodate and keep you from the cold lap after lap.
P1070323
Their restaurant and bar allows you to stay where you are and enjoy a decent meal from breakfast through dinner!
Wetlands protection and education teach about the life's blood of our world and our local environments.
Wetlands protection and education teach about the life’s blood of our world and our local environments.

 

Cataloochee Valley Tours-Heading to Elk Country!

Out the window photo of a young bull elk in the Cataloochie Valley!
Out the window photo of a young bull elk in the Cataloochie Valley!

DSCF4323

Out the window elk watching.
Out the window elk watching.
Elk calf at side of the road!
Elk calf at side of the road!
Side of the road in the Cataloochie Valley. Elk meander all around you!
Side of the road in the Cataloochie Valley. Elk meander all around you!

 

Bull Elk just after bugling setting up for mounting one of his cows!
Bull Elk just after bugling setting up for mounting one of his cows!

 

 

 

 

APtravelnews-September 10th, Maggie Valley, at Cataloochee Valley-We took part in visiting the Cataloochee Valley area full of transplanted elk. The bulls were bugling their dominance over their herd of cows-quite a display! The occasion for this trip was an Eco-Tour and Picnic lunch with Cataloochee Valley Tours, Inc. Esther, the owner and tour guide put us in touch with the history and actual animals (Elk) that had been reintroduced to the area known as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We took in the beauty and grandeur of a place in time and history that, although now having the protection of it being designated a National Park, put us in touch within a living history of the way this place once was, untold years in the past. The only obvious hint that this area has taken on the veil of modernity, was the 3-mile tar road area of the valley (most of the other roads are gravel) and the  (of a couple of hundred years of  human habitation now gone from the park except for a few buildings left as monuments of this habitation) signs of old foundations left after so many homes were burnt down, during the course of turning many private lands into a park designation, and takeover of the lands of the Cataloochee Valley by the US Government for future protection against the inroads of commercialization.

Viewing the elk and the big adult bulls, hearing their bugling gave me the feeling of a palpable tingling on the back of my neck, I realized that I was being witness to a tableau that has played itself out season after season for many, many millennium, and for a moment- a mere quadrillion of a second, on a million-year timeline, I was there touching the face of Gods handiwork “again!”

Esther, our Naturalist Guide was responsible for this opportunity! She is, and will be a teacher of visitors to this wild and natural area for a long time!

Esther Blakely – Certified Master Naturalist

(828) 450-7985 – cataloocheevalleytours.com