Wow!



















Berkeley Sculptor Aimee Baldwin's 'Vegan Taxidermy'

Although what Baldwin creates isn't technically taxidermy, it is vegan because her creations - shorebirds, corvids, owls, raptors and extinct birds, as well as plants - are made entirely without animal parts. Instead, she uses crepe paper, glue, found objects and wire in the meticulous creation of birds so lifelike, they look poised to hop off their perches and flutter away.

Any notions associated with the term 'vegan' aside, Baldwin's birds are both incredibly realistic and breathtakingly gorgeous, and you can really see the love and care she puts into them. I also love to see someone so talented making a living doing what they love.

To see more of Aimee Baldwin's work, check out her website or her Etsy site.

Happy Halloween!















A closer view. Spooky...

Living in an urban area, most natural experiences tend to be orchestrated (drive to the hills), rodent-based (rats surprising you in the ivy), or surrounded by asphalt and people (go to the zoo, go to the park built at the junction of two expressways). We're lucky to have the Bay so close, but most folks still gotta pile into a car or crowd onto a bus to get to it.

Well, the asphalt was still there today, but I took a long walk with my sugarlump around our neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods and we witnessed:

1) two crows chase a peregrine falcon away from their nest
2) 16 honking geese flying really low (luckily not over our heads!)
3) a tiny, cobalt hummingbird with a scarlet throat take leisurely dips into every single flower on a bush in our apartment building's backyard, when we went outside to sip punch while the sun went down

I regularly see families of fat, impassive raccoons (squee! -- not impassive, me) and creepy possums lurking in the shadows when I ride my bike or walk in the evening, and both my hubby and I saw a baby skunk squeeze through the chain-link last night.

I'm lucky I walk and ride my bike most places and don't iPod or yak on a mobile when I'm out and about, because I think these animal activities are things you totally miss out on when you drive and/or zone. I really miss living in the backwoods sometimes, so it's these little bits that keep me going.