Enjoy the Outdoors. Love the Planet.
All about Nature, about the outdoors<>I love it, photograph it and protect it.
The 3rd is not too late to…
Today is the 3rd of January and that is not too late to send along New Year’s wishes to my friends here on da bulldog blog!
There’s no doubt that 2019 is going to be a very significant year. Although I don’t have a crystal ball, I think this nascent year is going to be a mixed bag, so to speak, but a year of great consequence.
I’m expecting some good things. Some really, really good things, in fact. I’m certain that the United States will have a new President in 2019. And well before year’s end.
And I’m quite sure we’re going to see some seriously bad events in the next 12 months. Many economists and pundits who cover that facet of human activity are saying that all the signs of a serious impending recession are right there for us to see.
I hasten to add that I’m hoping the economists and prognosticators are wrong about that. But the signs are not good.
Now let me get back to my original purpose for this post: I wish all my friends and folks who follow this humble blog a most happy, safe and prosperous New Year!
We will see a lot of change. I’m persuaded that a lot of those changes will be wonderfully, amazingly good.
I’m concerned that many will fall all the way on the other end of the spectrum.
But regardless of exactly how the year unfolds, I wish with all my heart that you’ll be smiling 50 weeks from now as 2019 draws to a close.
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Ben is not the owner of the banner photo and believes it to be covered by Fair Use.
This Christmas is not the same
It’s Christmas Eve as I write this and I’m in an unusual frame of mind. I can best describe my mood as peaceful and grateful but with an undercurrent of unease permeating my emotional landscape.
I’m not a traditional kind of Christian. Over the last 20 years or so, I’ve morphed into what might be best described as an ethical Christian. Don’t buy into the heaven and hell stuff but believe strongly that the teachings and life of Jesus are a shining and unique example of how people should live.
The meaning of Christmas and the feelings it brings for many of us are still a very big deal for me. It gives me a real feeling of hope for weeks leading up the Christmas Day itself. I typically walk around feeling that peace-and-goodwill-to-men sentiment pretty strongly, with carols playing in my head all the while.
But this year, it’s different.
This year, there is a dark, ominous cloud hanging over those tidings of great joy.
It seems so foreboding that as we celebrate the coming of God’s divine life living among us, our National life is being sullied and our collective peace has been torn apart by a hateful and dangerous demagogue.
The peace and goodwill part of the Christmas message rings hollow with a hateful and ego-driven man whose creed in life is to hit back ten times harder if offended or slighted purporting to lead our country.
A man who lashes out with fury and vitriol at any perceived offense or even when someone simply fails to sufficiently stoke his ego or sing his praises.
Reading of daily outbursts of that sort at this formerly-glorious time of year does tend to spoil the happy remembrances of the angels’ song. I’m not hearing that hope-filled message of the Christ-child coming to earth, being born of a simple, humble maiden.
The angels, shepherds, oxen and lamb keep the sacred, awe-filled vigil as… as the rage-filled, spiteful, revenge-obsessed man-baby plots to sew more chaos throughout his kingdom and to silence and humiliate the critics, the non-believers who recoil from his twisted message or dare to resist his reign of vitriol and hate.
The story of the divine child in the manger is crowded out by the advent of this modern-day Herod who forces the infant to prematurely flee to Egypt, with Mary and Joseph cutting short their sojourn in the sacred stable, riding away on the ox that witnessed the Holy Nativity.
In my heart-of-hearts, I can’t see the Divine One swaddled and laying peacefully in that humble altar of wood and straw; I can’t hear the Christmas message of the word-made-flesh; I cannot feel the dawning of a new era of peace, hope and reconciliation.
I can only feel the hot breath of hate, the elevation of cruelty to the highest stratum of heaven and the gathering of the sinister storm which will pull the curtains from the temple, exile the children of promise and sully every teaching, every precept of goodwill, righteousness and reconciliation.
This Christmas is different. This Christmas is filled with a sense of fear and foreboding. This Christmas is sullied by selfishness and scorn; despoiled by a new advent of greed and cruelty.
This year the hopeful message of Christmas is drowned out by the droning of a baleful message of division, heartlessness and hate.
Child of the manger, deliver us from this darkness and despair! Grant a new dawn of hope among all people of goodwill, all who still listen to hear the angels’ song!
Ben Lawrence Basile
© 2018 Benjamin Basile
Featured artwork by Dona Gelsinger.
Make ’em, don’t bake ’em!
You may not have realized that today is a very special day, but it is!
It’s National Cookie Day! Yes, I do keep my eye on such things!
Yes, you’re very welcome!
I made cookies in honor of N.C.D., and they’re my total favorites. They’re a chocolate, peanut butter and oatmeal cookie!
And it’s a no-bake recipe!
I know that some of you may not have realized that there are ways to make cookies–and very good ones, at that–without firing up the oven at all.
But there are ways! And I’m quite serious when I say that this is my fav cookie recipe, bar none!
I hope you’ve done something special for this celebration! You might be like me and enjoy home baking.
If that’s not the way to go today, why not stop by your favorite bakery and come back with a dozen delights of your choosing?
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a celebration to get to! I just need to pour a glass of milk and I’ll be good to go!
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Ben Lawrence Basile
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Today is the day! And I certainly do want to wish one and all a most happy Thanksgiving Day!
As I write this, I’m reminded that I do have much for which to be grateful. It’s a pretty long list, but suffice to say life has treated me pretty well.
I’m so aware today that many folks have not had fortune smile on them much; my thoughts go out to them today.
I’m thinking that most of you will, at some time today, reflect on your blessings. That’s a good thing. And not only on this day that invites us, so to speak, to do that.
It’s a good habit to cultivate throughout the year.
Feeling grateful today, I am,
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
The banner photo is not Ben’s. He believes it to be covered under Fair Use.
I did get back there and…
I enjoyed my camping trip to Tosohatchee WMA just beyond Christmas. That awesome but tiny little town is the last community before the Orange-Brevard line.
Had a good time but I did learn one unpleasant lesson: even in a Wildlife Management Area, where you can go days without seeing another human, you really should keep your car locked at all times.
Or, at the very least, you shouldn’t keep that hatch up while you’re doing stuff at your camp site!
My awesome camp coffee maker flew away! Bummed. But I have another. Just couldn’t get the juice of the sacred bean on this trip!
Still very glad I made the trip and got my outdoor fix for the next week or two.
Then I’ll have to have another, or I’ll start getting a little cross-eyed and stuff!
I did get some good pix. Including the banner photo at the top. That was on the extreme edge of Tosohatchee, where it dead ends into the St. Johns River.
Herons and thieves. What a combo! So glad to have gone. Planning the next excursion…
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Ben Lawrence Basile
Heading back to Tosohatchee!
Haven’t been camping in about three months or so and I’m going through withdrawals! No, that’s not a joke!
So I’ll get my next “nature hit” in about a week’s time and I’m all jacked up over it!
I like the Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area for camping. This will be my fifth trip out to this choice nature spot and my second camping outing there.
You may remember from a previous post that you need a hunting permit to hunt Florida’s WMA’s but not to camp. You just can’t camp in any hunting season.
It’s quite primitive. No hook-ups of any kind. Porta Johns and no showers. So it’s real camping. I’m one of those campers who carries a boat load of propane and every kind of battery powered device know to man, so I do just fine in these spots.
It’s also a time to take a jillion photos, so that’s a big part of the allure of camping for this puppy. I’ll have plenty pix to share on the other side of this very welcome outing!
If you love Nature like I do, make sure you get out there in the middle of it soon! Your Mother’s calling…
And you best answer!
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Ben Lawrence Basile
Let’s Celebrate! Catnip for everyone!
I’m happy to let you know that today is National Cat Day!
I’m a long-time admirer and lover of cats. And although I don’t have one sharing my life now, I’ve been exploring ways to get a cat back into the picture for some time.
The main reason this day was declared is to highlight the need to adopt cats all over our feline-loving nation. That job goes on every day of the year, of course, but focusing on that today would be a very good thing indeed.
If you’d like to visit a site that’s all about giving a forever home to one of our furry friends, here’s a link to adoptapet.com where you can learn more, see some very cute specimens of felinity and even get the wheels turning if you’re ready.
And if you’re not familiar with AdoptaPet.com, they are the largest non-profit agency in America devoted to adopting homeless cats and dogs.
Enjoy National Cat Day! And if you’re already sharing your life with Whiskers, Tigger or Smokey, give ’em an extra ear-scratchin’ for me, would you?
Cat-fancier “Bulldog Ben” Basile
Featured photo of Riley B. Kitty by Benjamin Basile
Sheldon is New at the Zoo!
There are three fine zoos within easy driving distance of my part of Florida. I love them all.
The Brevard Zoo in Melbourne is a real pleasure. I’ve spent many hours there checking out the wildlife and I’ve done the zip line, too. A fine facility from start to finish.
And now they have a new dragon! No, I’m completely serious!
His name is Sheldon, he’s an 11 year-old Komodo Dragon and you can find him in the Lands of Change exhibit!
If you’re anywhere around Central Florida, take a trip to Melbourne and pay a visit to Sheldon!
And tell him Bulldog sent you!
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Ben Lawrence Basile
Deer in the Enchanted Forest
That seemed like a catchy title, so I went with it!
Alas, there are no actual deer in this forest. Let me explain…
I did a photo feature in mid-September about a little oasis of tranquility close to my neighborhood and about 200 yards from one of Central Florida’s busiest highways.
It’s just a patch of serene and unspoiled nature, and it’s situated on the southern edge of a development known as “Deerfield”.
As I took a second look at the photos I shot on that lovely September afternoon, two more pix jumped out at me faster than a frolicking fawn on a frosty February morn!
The first is the lovely banner photo you saw when you clicked over just now.
And the second is the image of that beautiful and bucolic scene you see below.
I hope you find some beauty in your world today. Maybe in an unexpected place. Maybe even close to home.
I hope you take a second look at something familiar and see something of great value. Something, perhaps, that you’d passed over before.
“Bulldog Ben” Basile
Photo credit Ben Lawrence Basile
Don’t Worry, Bee Happy!
If you read much news and you’re pay attention to anything relating to ecology, no doubt you’ve heard that bees are not having such an easy time these days.
It’s not so easy to be a bee, trying to live, thrive and survive!
So much has been and is being written about it. I’m not going to try to add anything original to the discussion
I did, however, come across an interesting article recently which talks about one group in the Netherlands that is working towards making it easier for bees to work their magic.
I recommend the feature highly. It’s from NBC News and will only take about two minutes of your time today.
If you’re inclined to dig just a bit deeper and get some very good practical tips on how you can do your part, you’ll find some great info here.
I have read quite a bit on the subject and without “beeing” Debbie Downer, I will say that the outlook for bees and for anything related to protecting the natural world and our environment is not so good.
But having some practical tips at hand is a very good thing to help any of us who’re concerned and paying attention in our efforts to get things moving in a better direction.
“Beedog Ben” Basile
Ben is not the owner of this fine photo. He found it here.
Enjoy the Outdoors. Love the Planet. 
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