Dinotopia nature icons!

[melannen]

I was looking through my collection of un-uploaded icons to see find one to use for nature posts, and I realized I had a whole stash of Dinotopia icons that I'd never posted anywhere. So I thought I'd share.

Dinotopia was a lavishly illustrated picture-book-for-adults set on an island where dinosaurs and people of all races and cultures live in peace together. The book itself, though, was written with the conceit that it's a reproduction of the journal of a Victorian naturalist who was marooned on the island in the late 19th century - he has a naturalist's interest in everything around him, but especially the natural world, and trained scientific perception. The illustrations in the book every so often go over to precise botanical watercolors (and if I ever get to where I can to botanical illustrations like that, I will be satisified with my skill as an artist.) And because the time and the place the book came out of, it has a very ecological sensibility overall.

The sequels to the book get increasingly steampunky, which is why I still love the first one best: I fell in love with it as a child, I think, not for the dinosaurs, but for the way it treats with nature, observation, and finding a balance between a scientific perspective and an organic one. (My favorite character of all was the young girl Melanie, who knew all the plants in the forest and would take the naturalist main character on walks to teach him about them. I still want to be her.)

Anyway, behind the cut are some with a natural history & ecology theme based on art in the first Dinotopia book. Free to use, share, and/or alter; credit James Gurney for the original artwork.

( 18 icons! )

Story from a recent road-trip...

[elke_tanzer]

I had to stop for gas along one of the highways in one of the agricultural areas outside of Los Angeles recently, and was sort of vaguely grumbling to myself about the poor choice of music being played near the gas pumps, but it wasn't really loud or painful or anything, it was just... un-enjoyable.

But then there was this soft, growing, steadily louder whooshing sound, which rose and rose and suddenly I realized it had eventually drowned out the music.

I looked up, and there were three huge flocks of small birds circling closely overhead. The sound of their wings was collectively loud enough to overcome the sound of the music, and the crescendo of the air moving around them was this completely amazing sound.

crawdad!

[loligo]

Cross-posted from my journal, an account of the crayfish in my driveway this morning.

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