Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Don’t Hurt the Toad
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident This is a Fowler’s Toad. We know it is a toad and not a frog, because it has short, thick legs that seem to squat, and warts, while frogs’ legs are longer, thinner and smooth.…
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A Part of the Silence
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident The previous photos for this blog have been literal. If I wrote about a bug, the photograph was of the bug. This week is different. The photo is intended to be representative of “peace and…
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Blow Away Dandelion
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident This aging dandelion head at the edge of the forest gleamed like a thousand points of light. The dandelion is everybody’s first flower. Is there anybody in America who had a mother that didn’t give…
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The First Big Spider
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident The first robin of spring and the first flower are not spring’s only harbingers. There is also the first mosquito, the first tic, the first big spider. This one was about three inches from end…
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The First Big Spider
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident The first robin of spring and the first flower are not spring’s only harbingers. There is also the first mosquito, the first tic, the first big spider. This one was about three inches from end…
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Excelsior Mollusk
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident I think this is the most artistic photograph of a slug I have ever seen, if I do say so myself. This one was found on the second step of our deck, shimmering in contrast…
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Location, Location, Location
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident My wife brought home a huge hanging Oxalis to replace our winter bird feeder. It attracted a couple of robins. “What are they so interested in?” I asked. “There must be some insects on the…
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This Bud’s for You
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident I ask too much of spring. “Please, no more snow,” I ask in March. After this is granted, there are always a couple of final, last, heavy, wet flakes that barely survive their landings. Then…
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The Ring of Aldyth
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident On the way to the Tumbling Waters and Fossil trails at the Pocono Environmental Education Center are two stone seats with a ring of stone between them. A monument identifies it as The Ring of…
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One Step at a Time
A Naif in the Forest by Darrell Berger Wing Tips to Hiking Boots: Musings of a New, Full-Time Poconos Resident Spring hiking season is upon us. My first experience with real hiking came in 1996 when I trekked the base of Annapurna in Nepal. My prime motivation for this was to be able to say,…
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