Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

In the beginning

“We must tackle and grasp the larger, encompassing themes of our universe, but we make our best approach through small curiosities that rivet our attention — all those pretty pebbles on the shoreline of knowledge.”  — Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life.

Chrysemys picta

18 responses to “In the beginning”

  1. Did you take this photo of this little turtle? If so, was it here in New York City? It’s a wonderful picture.

  2. Thank you. I took this photo on Nantucket Island, on the Sanford Farm property of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. It was in May 09, which meant this baby painted turtle had been laid as an egg the previous summer and had spent the winter underground.

  3. Oooh, WordPress! Nice setup, Matthew. I’ll be following.
    LGG

  4. Hurrah! I’m delighted you will be focusing on natural history & look forward to reading more posts. Please add “Out walking the dog” to your blogroll. (I’ll add your new site as soon as I finish here.) I second your comment on my site:

    Urban naturalists unite!

  5. […] in all, an excellent organism to celebrate the one-year anniversary of this blog (and how apropos the Gould […]

  6. […] this spring. That’s the way they do it in the northern states. (Two years ago, I found a live baby painted about the same time of year) This one, alas, never made it to […]

  7. […] blog was launched on this day in 2010. To celebrate, I thought I would revisit two of the most wildly popular posts of the last two […]

  8. […] long, instinctive journey towards water. Other species follow the same strategy: remember the baby Painted Turtle I found one early spring on Nantucket?The Snapper’s common and species name serpentina both […]

  9. […] years ago, I started Backyard and Beyond. Here’s my very first post, with picture of a recently hatched Painted Turtle, no bigger than a silver […]

  10. […] started this blog in 2010: here’s my very first post from March […]

  11. Reblogged this on Backyard and Beyond and commented:

    This blog launched in 2010 on this date with this tiny Painted Turtle and quote from S.J. Gould.

  12. […] On this date in 2010, I launched this blog with this post. […]

  13. […] launched this blog on this day in 2010. Good gravy, has it been this long? That was such a red-letter day, I posted […]

  14. […] The very first post here. […]

  15. 3/3/19: I see I was still original linking to the Amazon Octopus back then. Fixed that.

    (Please support independent bookstores and other retailers, public libraries, and democracy instead of a monstrous corporation empowered by consumers to attack all of the aforementioned.)

  16. […] that time blogs have come and gone and maybe come back again. Here is my first post. Could that Painted Turtle I found on Nantucket still be around now, ten years on? I hope so. […]

  17. […] started this blog on March 3, 2010 with a picture of a baby Painted Turtle. It was simple, a picture and quote by Stephen Jay Gould: […]

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