Common Nature things -for all places where you lived

[Trek-chick]

What I miss about where I have lived

CALIFORNIA-The mountains and ocean, weather, dry air. I wish I were more into cycling at that time in my life too.

VERMONT- The slower paced lifestyle and country living. Maple syrup MMmmmmmmm I ONLY use real maple syrup now, since living here.

MASSASSACHUSETS- ??

OHIO- Yellow Springs--very nice area with good bike paths

MICHIGAN- (what I would miss if I left) I LOVE Michigan--it is my home state. The Great Lakes are amazing!! The U.P. and most of all --Mackinac Island

[Owlie]

Uh, I've spent most of life in various parts of Ohio, but it's funny how different northern Ohio is from down here.

There was a lot more red in northern Ohio in the fall. Here it's mostly yellow, brown and orange.

Crankin, DBF keeps telling me I need to visit AZ (he's in Mesa) in spring. Perhaps I can persuade him to make a trip down to that arboretum owned (partially?) by UA or the Sonoran Desert Museum...quite a drive, I know, but still.

[bmccasland]

Uh, I've spent most of life in various parts of Ohio, but it's funny how different northern Ohio is from down here.

There was a lot more red in northern Ohio in the fall. Here it's mostly yellow, brown and orange.

Crankin, DBF keeps telling me I need to visit AZ (he's in Mesa) in spring. Perhaps I can persuade him to make a trip down to that arboretum owned (partially?) by UA or the Sonoran Desert Museum...quite a drive, I know, but still.

THe Boyce-Thompson Arboretum near Globe, and is interesting, especially with the near-by mining history. But the AZ-Sonora Desert museum is a must see as far as I'm concerned. And if you're into westerns, the "Old Tuscon" movie set next door is interesting, although some of the historic building burned in a massive fire about 15 years ago.

[Jolt]

I've lived most of my life in New England, and some of the things I appreciate are:
-the variety of seasons
-fall foliage colors (and the nice weather that time of year)
-snowstorms in winter that allow for some good snowshoeing
-lots of trees--when I go somewhere (like visiting my relatives in Montana) that doesn't have as many it feels weird!
-nice outdoor swimming in the summer--especially here 15 miles from the ocean--I can have my pick of going to the beach or one of the local lakes
-the fact that the hot summer weather doesn't go on for TOO long...
-having some hills rather than just boring flatness
-hiking/camping in the White Mountains

What I like better about Maine then Massachusetts:
-closer to good hiking/outdoor activities
-not really a nature thing, but LESS TRAFFIC and better drivers!!! Less crowded in general.

[Jolt]

Except for time away for college, I've lived in central KY since I was 5. I love the black walnut trees and the mulberry trees flourishing in the city, and the nuts and berries free for the taking.

You just reminded me of something else I like here: lots of wild blueberries and blackberries growing in various places, free for the picking. I found some wild grapes along the side of a road the other day too.

[Owlie]

THe Boyce-Thompson Arboretum near Globe, and is interesting, especially with the near-by mining history. But the AZ-Sonora Desert museum is a must see as far as I'm concerned. And if you're into westerns, the "Old Tuscon" movie set next door is interesting, although some of the historic building burned in a massive fire about 15 years ago.

I have been to both, though we went to the arboretum in AUGUST--terrible idea, but it was pretty even then. I went to the Sonoran Desert museum back in February, and didn't get as much time there as I wanted (grad school interview). I'm pretty much an all-around biology geek (both small- and large-scale) so I really wanted to go run around both places a lot more than I got to.

[shootingstar]

Love some of your descriptions of various places across North America.

(Am I the only foreigner outside of U.S. to give of "places in past, present"?)

[AppleTree]

After growing up in Florida and living for six years in California, I do quite often compare where we are now - the Pacific Northwest - to places we've been. I still sometimes wonder how I ended up in this beautiful place, with the mountains and water and beautiful tall trees. When I visit family down south, I can't wait to come home. I used to dream that the tall thunderclouds were distant mountains, and now I can look out my window and see real mountains!

Palm trees aren't real trees in my book.

California was beautiful in it's own way, we lived on the central coast north of Santa Barbara (Lompoc) known for it's flower fields. Up here we do have the tulip fields in Mt. Vernon.

We spent two weeks in Arizona some years back and I would have dreams of being home and watching the ferry boats float across the deep blue water toward the white capped Olympic Mountains and the evergreen trees. I was homesick for green! Not much of that in Arizona.

The one thing I do miss about Florida is the heavenly smell of orange blossoms in the spring! Nothing else compares!

[Koronin]

shootingstar, it looks that way. Although I've visited Canada (mostly Ontario, but also Quebec) I haven't spent enough time there to really give any description. My husband could give a description of Spain as he spent Desert Shield/Desert Storm in Spain and really loved the area. He spent some of his free time cycling and although didn't know Spanish very well was accepted by a group of Spaniards who did a lot of cycling and joined them many times for several hours of riding the country side. (I didn't meet him until he was out of the Air Force.)

[shootingstar]

I do miss about Florida is the heavenly smell of orange blossoms in the spring! Nothing else compares!

Must be wonderful!
The only fruit in the fields I've smelled in the places where I've lived, are strawberry fields. (Ontario)

As a childhood memory, the best dream-like memory is during fall, the big maple tree in front of our house, also was in front of my bedroom window. The golden glow from autumn leaves would suffuse my room..and as the weeks drift by, the leaves would reveal the bright blue sky in between the soaring black branches.

And I remembered cycling Ontario rural back roads in spring, with a row of lilac bushes and trees.....

Yea, as a teen I wrote poetry.

Of course, I miss the B.C. lush temperate vegetation, mountains not far, etc. Hope to go back to visit next spring, cherry blossom time, when the city is abloomin'.

Here Calgarians with money, have to drive 120 kms. north to get to the Rocky mountains... but when you're there it's great. I just don't live that close to the towering giants.

[margo49]

Kingfishers - they are one of if not the internationally widespread-est species on the planet.
Also sparrows which get rounder and fatter as you move further from the Equator.

[Crankin]

We had that orange blossom smell in AZ, at least in the 70's and 80's. I remember being so overwhelmed by it, that it gave me an allergy attack!
I think you'd have to drive pretty far out of the city to smell it now, but I distinctly remember standing on the ramp of the ASU music building (the birthday cake building) and smelling the orange blossoms. Don't ask me what I was doing at the music building, though... I have no idea!

[Antaresia]

ah, I miss the autumn of the East coast of Canada. Here in Vancouver, the leaves just don't turn the same way. But I love the mountains here, and the cherry blossoms in the spring. The novelty of those never wears off.

I miss the red-brown crumbly shale of Nova Scotia.

I miss the sound of frogs, and taking walks through the swampy areas trying to catch them.

I don't miss the mosquitoes...

N.B. used to get wicked beautiful ice storms, everything would just be covered. Trees bowed, power lines about to snap. I can remember the way everything looked, so surreal. I'm happy for the memory, but I don't miss it, lol.

[spokewench]

You need to give hydrangeas something special to make the blooms blue - ask at the nursery! It is common, I just don't recall what it is. Tokie

I think you need to add an acid for the blue color, if they don't bloom that color in your soil. It is ph level that causes the color

[sfa]

I've pretty much lived most of my life along the east coast--Baltimore, DC, and North Carolina. What I notice from one place to the next is trees and hills. All of the locations where I've lived have been in the piedmont or along the fall line, and I really notice the difference in the types of trees and the relative flatness of the landscape when I head towards the coast. And I always found visiting my midwestern relatives disorienting--all that wide open flat space just feels wrong to me.

When I was in college I took a photography course and it happened that I was out in Illinois for a funeral that semester, so I took some pictures of the farms and fields there. I enlarged one photo for my class and my professor really panned it--hated the composition and how featureless it was. My mother adored it and had it framed because it captured her home landscape (which she misses a lot) so well.

And one final thought--I never realized how wonderful spring could be until I lived in North Carolina. Growing up in Maryland, spring was generally chilly and wet. Beautiful blossoming trees and flowers, but you wouldn't want to hang around outside admiring them too much, and spring came and went in about two weeks here. In North Carolina spring started in February and hung around until May and it was glorious. If I were independently wealthy, I'd spend my springs in North Carolina, my autumns in Maryland, and my summers and winters in the mountains somewhere.

Sarah