Tidbits from mom

 Dad has been great about posting lately and I am so grateful. I'd like to add a pic from our hike of tired alder snuggled up me. 

Despite his sour mood that day I love him so much and dread the day when he doesn't want to do this anymore.

And this is Heath this morning making prime bites out of his favorite breakfast. Everything bagel with butter and nutritional yeast.

I didn't know bagels had crust...

New park

After over a day of delicious rain, and humidity and heat, we had a crispy (for Summer) cool, low humidity, breezy morning. We went to a new state park.  Lots of downed trees as this area took a beating from the recent strong storms.  And lots of fruiting fungus.  We all had a nice time finding an array of mushrooms and jelly fungus.

We also came upon an old cabin.  We have done this before and like talking about the lives that lived there in another time, why it was positioned where it was, what it was like back then, what the house looked like, where the door was, where the rooms were,  and weren't (i.e. no bathrooms and bedrooms)… I like to point out to the boys, that just like they like to do, there were undoubtedly kids who would huddle in close to the fireplace after their baths - this very hearth right here.  

We talked about the foundation that is still there, that it will be there for many many years to come and we wonder what happened to the rest of the house.

I love how these look overexposed, but they were truly glowing like this against the forest floor.

Gorgeous day...

Last day of climbing camp

These boys have loved getting completely exhausted climbing massive trees and playing in the river every day this week. 

Wreck Island Natural Area Preserve

I (dad) got to go out to Wreck Island last week, one of the Preserves managed by the program I work for.  An involved long day trip to get there early, via car and boat travel, but so worth it.  This place is completely void of any infrastructure.  You look to the horizon and see nothing but water.  And you look around and see…

scrapes (nests are just scrapes in the sand) where Black Simmers lay their eggs

See them there again?

Greater black-backed gull nests

Herring gull nests

Fellow staff...

We have been developing some data collection apps for mobile devices.  Here we are collecting data for Piping Plover, a federally threatened species that breeds on Wreck.

vastness.  mmmmm...

aaahhhhhh...

A shell that was a fish in its past life.

Black skimmer colony waiting for us to leave their nesting area.  Our boat in the background.

Skimmers returning to nests (scrapes).

mmmmmmm… more vastness.

One of our biologists looking out over hundreds of nesting pair of brown pelican.  And the next several shots are of them.  We were literally walking amidst these massive throne-like nests as if in a gallery...

We were there to census nesting pairs of various shorebirds and gulls, test out the mobile data collection and just take in a beautiful intact coastal ecosystem.  And if you ever want to see some sea level rise evidence, go to a remote barrier island.  At one point we stopped at a buoy that in 1990 was at the north end of the island.  Today, 25 years later, that bouy is a quarter mile from the sand, out in the middle of the channel.


Very fortunate to have been able to do this...

Swim Meet #2

Just look at this gang. 

The pre-meet cheer round up.  Coaches Katie and Peter in white shirts.

Alder stepping up for a freestyle swim.  

Actually he's about to come out of his skin to shred down the pool. That stance is a bluff for the other swimmers. 

Heath swam freestyle this meet. Alder, freestyle, breast stroke and backstroke. 

Camp-out on the River

The night after Alder's birthday sleepover (Memorial Day weekend), we went out to the Rice Center on the James River.  Mommy's grad students had a talk to give Saturday night, to a class doing a Summer course where they float the James River (headwaters to mouth) and learn about the historic intersections of the ecology, human settlement and culture along the James River.  Then Mommy had a field lecture to give that Memorial Day morning.  The Saturday afternoon we got there, we romped around by the river and in the woods, finding all sorts of fun stuff.

A gar skeleton on the shore.

A colony of digger bees.  (Okay, so we thought this was exciting.)

The boys love being around college students and they have quite a bit now, come to think of it.  They look up to them, and the boys get some unique attention.  We got to eat dinner out on the river and then camp out.  There were at least 6 species of frogs calling from the gray water basins at the Rice Center and we got to watch with flashlight and handle them all as desired.  We were immersed in a cacaphony of frog calls all night.  Think of being at a party when you have to yell to talk to each other.  So awesome.

The boys slept unbelievably late the next morning, albeit in an oven of a tent, which was sweet for us.  We go to get up early, set up bird nets, hang out and drink coffee on a perfectly beautiful Spring morning, out remote on the River.  Lesley was wanting to capture (via mist nets) a Prothonotary Warbler to talk to the class there about her research with that species.  We did catch one, and this is a good shot of the set up: bird in net, iPhone playing Prothonotary song to lure male in, male… lured in... and waiting to be extracted from net, banded, and made the center of attention for a few minuites.

Lesley talking to class.

Alder and Heath getting in the mix.

And then starting their day with a primo breakfast spot.  

Who knows if experiences like this will provide some reference point later in their lives?  Its fun to think about.  Either way, this is what we do, so this is what they do.  Whether or not their paths start from this, their paths will include it.   That can't hurt.  It really can only be positive, no matter what they "do" with their lives, right?

Birthday Weekend

A quick update on ALOT thats being going on.  Heath's school field trip, which I chaperoned (dad) was to the zoo.  Here are the monkeys...

These boys were a total mess.  They love each other and loved turning the zoo inside out.

And, we have an eight year old now!  How did this happen??  Alder wanted a sleepover with a few friends, sleeping outside (tent), and with lots and lots of time playing together on screens.  So we let them gorge themselves on minecraft cake...

and minecraft, via mobile devices owned, brought and borrowed…

They so fully enjoyed each other.  Only one, plus Dad made it through the night sleeping out side; frield in tent, dad on deflated bouncy house, which was a wonderful place to sleep.

Altogether, we are feeling so fortunate.  These boys are growing so fast, learning so much about life and are happy in this world, happy together.  So fortunate.  We have a big Summer ahead.  So, more to come.