Mary Richmond Design

Look Who's Hatching!

I saw my first ones last week. It's been a warm and dry summer which should be good for hatching lots of turtle eggs and sure enough, here they come!

The first babies I saw were tiny diamondback terrapins that my boss had cupped in his hand as he was walking into the wet lab to find a safe place for them just a few days ago. There were 4 or 5 and they had just been hatched. They were checking out the neighborhood and I'm sure they were happy to be put down in a warm safe place where they'll stay for a week or so to get their strength up before being released.

This little guy is a much more common painted turtle. I have no clue as to whether it's a guy or a gal by the way. That will have to wait until it gets bigger.

Only a few hours old and this little turtle was alert, strong and ready for action. You can see that it is still dusty and dry from its sandy spot in the ground. When these little guys hatch they have to dig their way up through the sand to reach the place they want to be. Left to their own devices they would then skedaddle down to the water where they would hide in the mud. They would remain there through the warmer parts of the fall if they didn't get eaten first.

Where I work we have two endangered turtles nesting. One is the diamondback terrapin, which is a listed endangered species and the other is the eastern box turtle, which is listed as threatened to become endangered. Both have some of their strongest populations in the state within the sanctuary borders and we get to see a lot of activity around both nesting and hatching times.

These babies are often brought back to the building to be documented and 'head started'. They are kept warm and dry, hydrated and given the opportunity to strengthen before being released. The painted turtle is not endangered and is in fact quite common. It will still be given a chance to have a bit of a head start and will also be used to help educate the public about what to do and not do if they find a hatchling turtle.

In the meantime it is just fun to be around these little guys as they take their first steps. It always amazes me how ready they are for life. They;re born ready. Most baby turtles end up as someone's dinner yet every one I've ever seen seems to have the attitude, "Well heck, it's sure not going to be me!" And y'know, I just can't help but admire that kind of self confidence and faith. And if they're going to survive, they're going to need a lot of both. Sounds sort of familiar, doesn't it?

Thanks to Studio 259

Special thanks to Michelle VerBeeck over at Studio 259 for linking to my children's art lesson blog. You can check out her work and ideas for kids here.

How We Spend Our Time Matters

A few years ago a friend of mine told me I had a weird job. They couldn't understand how I went into classrooms every day with animals, animal skins, skulls, shells and feathers and talked about nature. They thought it must be boring. Actually, it's anything but boring.

I left that particular job for a number of different reasons but none of those reasons had anything to do with the kids or what I was teaching them.

I went on to open an art gallery/shop and if you've been reading here you know I closed it after 2 years. Not only was it financially unsuccessful but it was lacking in meaning for me as well. I love doing my art but running a store was never a dream of mine. I would rather be outside. I would rather be with kids or grown ups, talking about nature or art, or best, nature AND art....

I love being back with kids and talking about our connections to the world, to nature with them every day. It's important. So many kids are growing up indoors. So many kids are growing up thinking that the TV, video games and the computer are real. They are growing up confusing entertainment for relating, watching for doing. They are growing up passive. It's actually sort of scary in a really big way.

What I do gets kids outside. It gets kids dirty, wet, cold, hot, sticky, muddy and excited. Nature is always humming along right outside our doors and kids love it. They love bugs and birds, bunnies and frogs. They love butterflies and fish, frogs and slugs. Snails, crabs, clams and worms have special appeal as well. They love dirt and water and mud and....and did I mention dirt? They study stones and flowers, rings on fallen trees and what lives under logs. They swoon at the mention of death angel mushrooms and love to scare themselves silly with great big daddy long legs.

Today my co-teacher (that's her peeking around this young man's shoulder) and I brought in another teacher to give a morning lesson on snakes and to join us on our foray into the nearby swamp.

He brought his pet snake and had the kids enraptured with his humor and his knowledge. This young man would some day like to have his own show on Animal Planet and I, for one, think he has what it takes. The kids love him. We love him. Even his snake seems to love him.

This is not a great picture but it does tell the story. He let each and every child hold the snake. Some were ecstatic, others not so sure but by the time he finished each and every child had held the snake and was beaming with pride.

After the snake lesson we headed to the swamp where the ground was literally hopping with toads and tiny spring peepers. We captured a few to bring back to the classroom to watch for awhile before we release them tomorrow morning. The kids were totally enchanted.

Later we drew close ups of the various environments we've been looking at and some of the animals we've been finding. It was a busy and productive day.

No, it's not big, important work like keeping nations out of war, feeding the hungry or clothing the homeless after a catastrophe but it is important in other ways, in ways that quietly affect individual lives and the larger community.

Each child that holds a tiny spring peeper or looks into the eyes of a toad is learning that we are not all that matters. Every child that learns to respect bugs and worms, plants and ponds is learning that the ecology of a place is dependent on diversity and respect. Every child that gets over its fear to hold a snake is learning that fear is within us and is something we can deal with, that often what we fear is the feeling of fear itself, that the unknown can become known and the fear will subside.

And it all matters. It's all important. And the best part is it's fun, too.....

I think how we decide to spend our own time sets an example for the children around us. We are teaching them what we think is important with every action. They notice how we spend our time, even if we don't.

Kids and Art

I LOVE kid's art. I love their freedom, their effort and their lack of pretense. I love that they work so hard to translate what they know of the world with this non verbal language and if you watch little kids draw it's all about learning a language.

It's a language of symbols and lines, stories and continuity. And a lot of it is just good sense. Kids are very concrete, especially the young ones and their drawings are, too. Every line stands for something. The older they get the more frustrated they get with the discordance between what they know and how they think that's appearing on paper and that's the time I love their work the most, that time of not knowing, of working it out, of sharing their struggle.

This was a very casual assignment with 7 and 8 year olds. I asked them to draw some simple shapes. We are studying animals and plants that live in the ocean so we worked with those.

The shapes were drawn in colored pencil and I invited the kids to overlap figures and stretch them off the paper so we had lots of juicy shapes to fill in with color.

I love to watch kids paint because I love to see their minds in action. I can see their thought process unwind as they make decisions. I can see where their attention is and I can see where their frustrations are and I can see when the frustration wins and the fun ends. I can also see when the absorption is total and the end result is not at all important, when process has become the zen moment and the kid is totally lost to it and in love with the whole experience.

These finished pieces tell the stories of their little makers in a beautiful and honest way. Some surprised themselves, some were disappointed by a lack of control and some absolutely loved their results. For me the stories happened in the doing and the watching, not in the ways the paintings looked in the end. You may think you know which are which by looking at the pictures but I think you might be surprised.

Any thoughts?

More paintings and a lesson plan over here.

Odds and Ends

For my friends off Cape, here are some shots of lobsters being prepared for the feast. In my family we have always used my summer birthday as an excuse to all get together and have lobsters and steamers. For years my mom hosted the event but since she died we have done it either at my house or at my daughter's. This year my daughter and her husband graciously hosted.

We put newspapers down on the table, use nutcrackers and melt butter in cups and we always make sure there are plenty of napkins. Some people fancy it up and have champagne with their lobster but we locals know it's a down and dirty meal so we roll up our sleeves, have a beer and dig in.

Here they are, ready to be eaten. It's sort of a rite of passage in my family to get over putting the lobsters in the pot. We give them a little thank you before putting them in and truthfully, it's probably the most honest eating we do in this pre-packaged sterile food world we're living in. My grandmother killed her own chicken dinners, something I've always been grateful I didn't have to do, but I do think it's at least honest.

I don't usually include family pictures but this shot of one of my daughter's teaching her son how to clean the steamer clams was too cute to leave out.

This isn't even his first time! He's growing up to be a true Cape Codder. He goes "surfing" with his dad (well, in his mind anyway), goes beaching with his mom and collects shells and nets minnows every chance he gets. You could say he definitely has sand in his shoes just like his mom and aunt before him.

At camp we've been doing lots of drawing and creating. These drawings are by 8 year olds and were done of predators we'd been studying. I let the kids look up their chosen animal in a book or look at pictures on the wall as guides. Kids this age like to draw as realistically as they can so looking at a real animal or a picture helps them with that goal.

In our study of predators we also built this spider web. There are bells hung on it here and there which makes getting through it harder and more interesting. Usually kids love this game though the group we had last week was very argumentative and didn't work together very well.

These two were the most cooperative with each other and were among the first teams to get both through without ringing a bell.

One of the things about working with kids, you never know for sure what will grab their interest and when. This is a great challenge and game for most kids, is easy to set up and take down but must be supervised so kids don't get tangled up or caught in it.

We're studying insects as part of our lesson this week and we set up a small aquarium to observe some of yesterday's finds. Among them were this praying mantis and a large golden garden spider. We filled the tank with smaller bugs and grasshoppers, figuring we'd put in plenty of food for both predators.

Not quite that simple.....it took about 5 minutes for the mantis to grab the spider, bite its head off and proceed to suck out its innards....not exactly what we had expected! The kids were totally mesmerized even while being grossed out. Did you know mantis's lick their little feet daintily after they eat? They preen themselves just like a cat. Then this one went after the biggest grasshopper in the tank.....by the time we left yesterday it was on snack number 3! Now that's a predator!

Sorry for this random post but it's what I've been doing as summer winds down.

When Busy Gets Too Busy

There are days I'd like to be more like this bunny. It is always aware, senses tuned to the possibility of danger but it is also very present in the moment. Now I eat, now I wash, now I run, now I poop, now I hang out and enjoy the sun.

We are so not like that. We are always worrying, wondering, planning, regretting, imagining and hoping. We are rarely just being. I realize I should speak for myself here but I can't help but notice I'm not alone in these behaviors.

This summer I thought I'd have some time to myself. After all, I closed my shop. That had been all consuming so I was under the mistaken impression life would become quieter, simpler. Instead I've been working full time at a summer camp, have been writing two columns a week as well as two or three other free lance assignments and have been constantly working on tile orders as well. In the midst of all this my home is still stacked with boxes of things and I still have no idea where to put them. I feel like I am just working every waking moment. I am. And I'm tired. And I'm barely making ends meet. Part of that is the enormous debt I racked up as I slowly failed in my business but much of it is just the daily, weekly and monthly expenses of living adding up.

I talked to my sister this weekend. She had been to a play and gone out after with friends the other night. She had slept in and was preparing to meet other friends for a late afternoon drink and boat watching on the harbor and was generally enjoying her weekend. I found myself asking what did I do wrong? I also had the weekend "off" from my week day job. I worked cleaning and organizing the basement, painted a tile mural, did research on an article, went through stacks of boxes and did some long overdue pruning in my yard.

I find myself longing for some free time, time to just lie around reading a book, watching the wind blow and maybe even taking a nap without guilt. It is time to realign my work and my play time. I love the summer and the summer has flown right by me as I plodded through one work related task after another. It's a bad thing, perhaps, to be looking forward to Labor Day when my schedule slows down a bit. It will be good to slow down but it will also mean summer has gone once again. Life is short and precious. I don't want to be wishing it away.....

Balance is always an interesting thing, for me anyway. I seem to have difficulty achieving it for more than a day or two.

How do you stay balanced?

Strange Anniversary

A year ago today I had the surgery that made me cancer free....or at least as cancer free as could be known at that time. I will never know what else might be lurking until I do. But for now I seem to be cancer free.

See, that's the thing. Once you've been diagnosed with cancer you realize that it could be lurking just about anywhere at any time. We don't really have a lot of say in the matter. Either we have the sort of cells that can and will respond to certain stimuli and mutate into cancer cells or we don't. Some people live a life filled with known carcinogens and never have cancer. Others live what we think to be healthy and clean lives and become ridden with cancer. There are lots of theories, facts, ideas and myths around cancer and as someone diagnosed with it, you'll hear them all. The truth seems to be that for all we do know, there is little we know that applies to everybody.

Cancer scares people. It creeps into our lives silently but it doesn't always stay silent. It can move through us and be preparing to kill us even while we go about our daily lives feeling strong and healthy. In many ways it is an unknown enemy. We know it's out there but we don't know where or when it will strike us. It allows us to feel well until it has taken over so much of us that we have little left with which to fight it. Today early tests and exams help us even up the odds but it can still surprise us.

In many ways I feel lucky. Obviously I feel lucky that I had an early grade cancer that could be taken care of easily. I had early stage breast cancer that showed up in multiple spots so a mastectomy was recommended. Once I had the surgery, I was cancer free and didn't need further treatment. I can't help feeling lucky that I was given an early warning. My body was willing and able to grow cancer. I need to take care of myself. I want to live each day fully for I don't know what will come down the line next or when. Maybe I'll live to be a hundred. That would be great. Maybe I'll live another year or two and that would be great, too, if I can live each day to the best of my ability, if I can live each moment as if it is the most special one I have.

Many people refer to cancer as a gift and many people who haven't had a cancer diagnosis can't imagine why or how that is. But I do. It is a gift of self, a gift of awareness, gratitude and immediacy. It is a gift of your own life in front of you every day and the appreciation that comes with thinking it could all be over any minute. Those of us with a diagnosis and the process we went through to get there have been to the grave and back, even if only in our minds. Once there, life seems a little brighter, a little more amazing and precious.

So today is an anniversary. It is an anniversary of fear, pain, disfigurement, adjustment, acceptance, strength, health, friendship, healing, love, gratitude and appreciation all rolled into one big ball.

Happy Anniversary to all the other cancer survivors out there!

Birthday Musings

For those of you who know it was my birthday yesterday, here's a picture of me with my little pirates.....

We've had a totally awesome week at camp with many adventures. My wonderful co-workers gave me cards with wonderful personal messages and amazingly yummy cupcakes. It was a perfect way to celebrate my birthday at work.

Life is busy so I am not posting as often as I might but I will catch up soon.

In the meantime, "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum" or whatever floats your boat.....

There are worse things than adding another year to the line up, especially when my life is filled with all these expressions of joy and faith.

Hot, hot, hot......

It's so hot that Zeke is lying in the window with his belly against the screen, hoping for a cool breeze. His roomate, Smudge just lies on his back in the middle of the floor letting it all hang out. They are just hot, hot, hot....as are we all.

I know there are places that are hotter than Cape Cod in the summer time but these last days have been killers with almost a hundred percent humidity and 90 degree afternoons. Whew!

Can you see the baby frogs in this picture? There are two of them, toward the bottom. They are newly minted, having been tadpoles just a few weeks ago. Some of the frogs we're seeing still have their tails but these fellows have absorbed theirs already. Even though it was hot these guys didn't seem to mind. It's all pretty new to them.

Interestingly we didn't see any larger frogs hanging out in the sun. They're too smart. They hang out in the shade on days like this.

This week we talked about geology with the kids. We looked at glaciers and earthquakes, volcanoes and rocks. We did experiments and lots of fun activities. Because of the heat we tried to stay cool in the shade and kept our walks in the brutal sun to a minimum.

Fortunately there are many activities one can do around geology that are fun as well as informative and by the time we ended the week with a rousing Jeopardy game the kids were well informed enough to be very competitive!

One of our activities at the end of the week was called Chocolate Chip Cookie Mining. The kids 'mined' the chips out of the cookie without breaking it, using only a plastic spoon. When they were done...they got to eat the cookie. You might say it was a very popular activity and a nice way to end the week.

A parting shot of a native plant and an invasive plant. The white flowering shrub is sweet pepper bush, which is just starting to come into bloom in our freshwater wetland areas. The other is loosestrife, a pretty but invasive plant that many people work hard at controlling. It doesn't have much of a stronghold in this location and I suspect it will soon be removed.

Stay cool!

Thanks to Wall Street Journal Online

How cool is this? The Wall Street Journal Online story about artists making a living and collectors finding work for less linked to my blog post yesterday! You can check it out here.