With nature as your home, it's hard to get sick.

I've seen a lot of the environment this week. My fave journalism professor, Bill Allen (of Costa Rica and California fame), let me hop in on a Field Reporting Institute trip to the Pioneer Forest, a cotton field and gin, and various facets and points of the Birds Point Levee issue. My temporary classmates created a lovely mosaic of impressions at their online blog, MUddy Boots News. It was really refreshing to be outside in new places, learning learning learning. My own recorded impressions will come later, someday, perhaps.

And then there's the passing of the environmentalist Wangari Maathai. Jared Cole composed a beautiful reflection on her. If you read nothing else today, read that. I was surprised to learn that Maathai influenced the operation of Sustain Mizzou, the nonprofit I led last year. I'd been living off of our mission statement addressing "the interconnection of human welfare and the environment," without ever having known the inspiration behind it. Anyway, what Jared wrote was really touching. Hard to shake off.

Nick sent me this New York Times article titled "A Well-Regulated Wilderness," about how government mediates even the gnarliest, most hands-off areas. Interesting to think about.

Today I watched this microdocumentary about my friend Julie's slacklining hobby. I've only done slacklining once, but it was a blast.

Slacklining from Ellen Thommesen on Vimeo.

Finally, in case you're interested, I went for a bike ride this afternoon in the Grindstone Nature Area in Columbia, Mo. This is my favorite place around town to see indigo buntings. They must have migrated away this time of year, but in the spring, they're all over. We saw several other birds, but it's hard to identify them when you're biking.

photo by Gary Irwin