Isabella Bird | intrepid explorer

wonder | wander | world reserves our final post of the month for yet another incredible woman of history - Isabella Bird, intrepid explorer and unconventional world traveler. 

Isabella Bird (1831-1904) was an English explorer, writer, photographer, and naturalist who made a remarkable series of journeys at the end of the nineteenth century.

Isabella Lucy Bird - New York Public Library

She circled the globe, climbed the Rocky Mountains, scaled a Hawaiian volcano on horseback, and snapped pictures of Asia's remote and forbidden lands. Becoming one of the most iconic female explorers of the Victorian era.

Bird was a small and frail woman who had suffered from several ailments and a spinal defect during her childhood. In 1850 she had an operation to remove a tumor from her spine. The operation was only partially successful, and she suffered from insomnia and depression.

Map of places where Isabella Bird travelled.

Her doctor recommended that she travel, and in 1854 her father gave her 100 pounds and told her she was free to go wherever she wanted. She used it to travel to North America and stayed for several months in eastern Canada and the United States.

On her return she used the letters she had written to her sister, Hennie, as the basis for her first book, The Englishwoman in America. The rest is another iconic hero immortalized in world history.

Spring Equinox 2021

In the Northern Hemisphere, the March equinox (aka spring equinox or vernal equinox) occurs when the Sun crosses the equator line, heading north. This event marks the start of spring in the northern half of the globe. 

Credit: Getty

The Spring Equinox holds great importance for many reasons. It’s on the equinox that the sun transits exactly over the earth’s equator, making the hours of daylight and darkness equal almost everywhere on Earth, creating balance.

hold on to those dreams

Too occupied with celebrating Maha Shivaratri on March 11 and 12, our wonder | wander | world blog was not posted yesterday. Abject apologies! 

Here we go - Saturday, March 13:

William Wallace Denslow's rendition of the poem, 1901

Plant. Plant dreams, ideas, healthy political change, love. Plant seedlings, water and nourish the tenderness around. New growth of all types begin. Be very kind to the little seedlings shooting up, both in the woods and in our hearts.

Some people will respond to all this tenderness with anger because it’s scary to feel vulnerable, and a new shoot is vulnerable, but it’s their own tenderness they are denying. Compassionate action furthers. Get tangible seeds planted before 4:43 MST when the Moon enters more proactive, less fruitful Aries.

The energy grows, and a twinkle could enter our eyes as the evening progresses. We can believe romantic possibilities, have our heart touched, or be deeply affected by art as Venus conjuncts Neptune tonight.

*excerpted from Starcodes for the Week of March 13, 2021

Magallanes & Elcano expedition

It has been 500 years since the Spaniards landed on Philippine shores in Magellan’s Expedition and Elcano’s First Circumnavigation of the Globe. 

Commemoration begins in mid-March 2021, peaking April 2021 - though events will continue until October. 

Battle of Mactan with Lapu-Lapu & Magellan

What is revealed and recorded of this historical event is far from the reality of those who actually figured in the expedition as they groped and stumbled their way around the world in their time. 

the first circumnavigation of the globe