The outside is calling you.

Not to get all Jack London on you, but this is a great time of year to listen to the call of the wild and shun one of humanity’s greatest inventions, the roof. In celebration of both spring and Earth Month (here are a few reading suggestions for the latter), let’s take a stroll into the EcoSalon archives in search of anything that might pry us off our computers and gadgets – just for a while.

Think Facebook isn’t a big time-sink in your life? Try adding it up. The average U.S. Facebook user logged a rather horrifying seven hours and 46 minutes per month as of August 2011, and that figure has probably risen since then. Imagine if you spent all of that time on something that makes you feel genuinely happy, grounded and relaxed. Here are 20 suggestions, from letter-writing to exploring your neighborhood.

20 Things To Do Instead Of Being On Facebook

The technology that so many people rely on to do their jobs has undoubtedly made us more efficient and, for that reason, it’s likely not going anywhere. That means many people will never have jobs that require using their hands for much more than typing and clicking. But that doesn’t change the fact that human beings were designed to create more than just tweets and word documents.

7 Ways T0 Get Your Hands Dirty

Take up urban foraging. Who doesn’t like free food? Learn about wild, regional edible plants or befriend a neighbor with an overloaded fruit tree going to waste. Augment your diet with fresh, free foods!

Broke? 20 Fun Things To Do Without Spending A Dime

Hundreds of sick pelicans have fallen to the ground from Mexico to Oregon, smashing into cars, boats and beaches, and experts are baffled. Authorities have ruled out domoic acid poisoning, which has affected wildlife before. It’s nothing short of a mystery. Surviving pelicans have been found in yards and on roads, disoriented and weak. So far, experts think the cause could be anything from unknown poison contamination to exposure to the toxic run-off from the recent Southern California fires to malnutrition due to evaporating fish stocks.

Though the exact cause is a mystery, it’s almost certainly due to human impact. And, it’s only the most recent case in a slew of disturbing mass animal deaths around the world.

Pelicans Are Falling Out The Sky (And Other Mysterious Mass Animal Deaths)

Gardening is hot, hot, hot. And why not? Planting a few seeds on your deck or in your backyard yields delicious, organic results – and money savings, too. Besides, April is National Gardening Month! You know the basics of how to start your own vegetable garden, but where do you go from here? Here are some crops that even the least green thumbed among you can tackle, and tips on how to make them flourish.

The 10 Easiest Vegetables To Grow At Home

If you’re taking a stroll through the English landscape…Andy Goldsworthy wants to stop you in your tracks.

He’s a British sculptor, photographer and committed environmentalist, and he likes arranging things. He turns random piles of stones into gravity-defying structures and scattered leaves into dazzling gradiated rainbows. He tracks lines and curves upon the ground where none should exist, stacks ice in the unlikeliest of places, and puts patterns and colors into the landscape that would make any onlooker rub their eyes. And the true magic of his work is that for a second – just for a second – you believe it’s the work of nature. What would your first thought be if you encountered these in the wild?

Andy Goldsworthy’s Amazing Works Of Art

Images: photosteve101, sir mervs, sun dazed, Ron Dressel and paolobrandao.

The post From the Vault: The Call of the Great Outdoors appeared first on EcoSalon.

Land artist Jim Denevan’s medium is sand.

From a single piece of driftwood, a low tide, endless grains of sand, and inspiration, art is born. Then, just a handful of hours later, the tide rises and the work blurs, finally melting away. Artist Jim Denevan repeats this transient artistry on beaches around the world.

The ephemeral beauty of Denevan has graced frozen lakes, dry lakes, and desert sands in addition to the sand that parallels our oceans.

Denevan’s fleeting artistic endeavors are the largest pieces of artwork ever created (some are several miles in diameter). The wonder of his artwork falls into the category of land art.

The brilliance of Denevan was wound into eloquence by the Anthropologist:

“Artist Jim Denevan is in pursuit of the impermanent. From the vanishing curl of a wave to sand briefly stilled between tides, nature’s fleeting moments are his stock-in-trade.”

Denevan also creates art with earth and ice. Outside the realm of art, Denevan founded Outstanding in the Field – a mobile feast aimed to, “re-connect diners to the land and the origins of their food, and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it.”

For more inspiring land art, explore Andy Goldsworthy’s land art.

The post Lines in the Sand appeared first on EcoSalon.

If you’re taking a stroll through the English landscape…Andy Goldsworthy wants to stop you in your tracks.

He’s a British sculptor, photographer and committed environmentalist, and he likes arranging things. He turns random piles of stones into gravity-defying structures and scattered leaves into dazzling gradiated rainbows. He tracks lines and curves upon the ground where none should exist, stacks ice in the unlikeliest of places, and puts patterns and colors into the landscape that would make any onlooker rub their eyes. And the true magic of his work is that for a second – just for a second – you believe it’s the work of Nature. What would your first thought be if you encountered these in the wild?

“Everything has the energy of its making inside it.”

– Interview, The Guardian, 2007.

Goldsworthy’s tools of choice? Anything to hand (including his hands). In recent years he’s used power-tools for his trickier creations – and employed the help of experts such as dry stone wallers. Primarily, though, his real tools are gravity, wind, rain and the beautiful detritus of the natural world. And patience – lots of it.

“I can’t edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole.”

– Interview, The Telegraph, 2007.

And if you’re wondering what Goldsworthy’s view of his natural medium is? In a word – ambivalent.

“The landscape is often perceived as pastoral, pretty, beautiful – something to be enjoyed as a backdrop to your weekend before going back to the nitty-gritty of urban life. But anybody who works the land knows it’s not like that. Nature can be harsh – difficult and brutal, as well as beautiful.”

– Interview, The Telegraph, 2007.

“A lot of my work is like picking potatoes…you have to get into the rhythm of it.”

– Interview, The Guardian, 2007.

Andy Goldsworthy‘s online catalogue preview , volume 1 (1976-1986).

See more natural and environmental art, fascinating earthworks, and additional Andy Goldsworthy art.

Images via: pixdaus; tintintin; nonpareil; barcar; dullhunk; Cass Sculpture Foundation; Chris Wright.

The post Andy Goldsworthy’s Amazing Works of Art appeared first on EcoSalon.