My neighbor called me on Monday and said to my answering machine: “Hi Loree. I’m thumbing through the new issue of Ranger Rick and found an article called ‘Trash Tracker’ by a Loree Griffin Burns. Is that you?”
Tee hee. Can you imagine another Loree Griffin Burns out there writing about trash for young people?!
Anyway, if you have the October issue handy, check out the feature article on page 31. It’s me!
© Loree Griffin Burns
I took this image a couple weeks ago at Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary in Princeton, Massachusetts. It strikes me now as the perfect illustration of my writing life these days: tagged butterflies on one side, honey bees on the other, succulent goodness in between.
Up until recently, I have always worked on one project at a time. This month, however, I have been working to finish the manuscript of THE HIVE DETECTIVES, which is due later in the fall, at the same time that I begin working in earnest on the CITIZEN SCIENTISTS book. There are moments of panic, of course. In those moments I look at the calendar and see its pages flipping fasterFasterFASTER and my deadlines comingComingCOMING.
But there are moments when the dichotomy is invigorating, too, when the two projects play off eachother in my brain and I feel as if each will be better because of what I am learning and putting into the other. Today I am celebrating these moments.
So here’s to monarchs winging toward Mexico, honey bees storing up for winter, and writers working on a deadline. Go! Go! Go!
© Gerry Burns
That’s a photo of the gaggle of ten-year-olds that came with me to the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) on Saturday. The boys chose to clean the rocks under the breakwall and I am happy to report that none of them got stuck … though there were a few close calls. In our two hours of cleaning we collected bottles, cans, bits of fishing line, pieces of styrofoam, food wrappers, toys, and a whole lot of bottle caps. Trumping all of these things, however, were the 237 cigarette butts we cleaned up. Gross.
Our scariest find was a knife. It was old and rusty and looked as if it should be shipped directly to the nearest CSI unit for closer study. Event organizers took photos of it and will be entering it in the ICC Weirdest Find contest, which made our boys very happy. (They are still talking about this find and wondering if their prize, should they win the contest, might be the knife itself. Boys!)
ICC events will continue in Massachusetts until the end of October; you can find more details here.
this is one of the things I would buy.
Be sure to click on the “View Image” link to see the work in all its glory. Next week I’ll tell you what this painting moves me so. For now I must prepare for the Big Double Ten Year Old Birthday Bash…
Happy Friday, one and all!
(Posted with permission)
It’s a derivative of Murphy’s Law that if two very important events are scheduled for the same month, they will fall on the same day. For example, this Saturday is both International Coastal Cleanup day (see this earlier post for details) and West Boylston Arts Festival Day.
Ack!
What’s a girl to do?
My only choice is to make the best of it.
So, after a morning of collecting and counting trash at Salisbury Beach State Reservation, I’ll be heading to West Boylston for an afternoon of celebrating the arts. The Arts Festival will be jam-packed with artsy fun for the entire family, and entrance is only five bucks. The forecast looks stupendous and this event is Truly. Going. To. Rock.
Oh, and did I mention that all proceeds will benefit music and art programs in West Boylston public schools? Here’s a link to an article about the festival and its mission from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
Here’s the full festival schedule. (Can you say WOW?!)
And here’s the lineup for the Children’s Story Tent, where I’ll be later in the day:
10am Katie Green
11am Jennifer Morris
12pm Sarah Lamstein
1pm Dot Johnson
2pm Ellen Dolan
3pm Loree Burns
Come celebrate with us!
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I don’t know where Leo will be cleaning beaches this Saturday, but I’ll be at Salisbury Beach State Reservation. And I’ll be sporting this cool T-shirt:
© Benjamin Griffin Burns
In case you can’t read it, the fine print says:
Since 1987, COASTSWEEP volunteers have been helping to clean the beaches in Massachusetts. Barcaloungers, rubber boots, pieces of fishing net, truck tires, industrial tubing, milk crates, vinyl siding, garden hoses, food wrappers, rusty bottle tops, garbage bags, plastic grocery bags, sandwich bags, soft drink bottles, water bottles, beer bottles, beer cans, soda cans, ice tea cans, odd bits of rope (that were probably not odd to the person using them at one time), straws, tampon applicators, syrofoam cups, nurdles (a real word!), plastic knives, forks, spoons, and sporks, syringes, toilet bowls, unidentifiable bits of rubber, plastic coffee stirrers, and ciragette butts—are some of the things the collect. In past years, more than 80% of the debris collected came from land-based sources—where litter blown and washed from the streets, parking lots, and ball fields ends up in the water. In addition to the litter that’s just plain ugly to look at, every year, these bits of marine debris and stray trash kill thousands of marine animals that swallow or become entangled in them. And that’s why I’m a COASTSWEEP volunteer.
Festivities begin at 10am. Do join us if you can. If you need tips on getting involved in coastal cleanups at other locales, check out this earlier post.
© Loree Griffin Burns
That’s photographer Ellen Harasimowicz at work in a milkweed meadow. Ellen joined me at two monarch butterfly tagging events this past week to record on film the wonder of citizen scientists at work.
Unlike my last tagging event, this weekend I was strictly an observer. I watched kids and adults—hip deep in goldenrod and with butterfly nets poised overhead—tiptoe toward nectaring butterflies. There were gasps of amazement (“Look at it eating!”), delight (“I got one!”), and awe (“Safe travels, butterfly!”). What a joy to sit back and watch these moments unfurl, to witness people connecting with nature in such a respectful way. These are the moments that excite me about citizen science and that inspired me to write this new book.
Oh, and then there are moments like this:
© Ellen Harasimowicz
That’s me, feeling pretty joyful.
Last month I went to a birthday party for the greatest nephews on the planet. Liam and Aidan’s mom gave me the job of photographer, and while I was chasing around after perfect birthday images, I came across a … a … thing. It was a flying thing, an insect of some sort, and it was flitting around the flower garden. The way it moved reminded me of a hummingbird, but it was much, much too small. For a time I completely lost my head and traipsed around the flowers with it, trying to take a picture. Eventually the Scooby Doo pinata was strung up, though, and I had to give up the chase.
When I got home, I did a little poking around. I scoured my butterfly guides for one that looked like what I had seen. Nothing.
I looked in my bird guide, thinking perhaps there was a teeny, tiny North American hummingbird species that I didn’t know about. Nope.
Then I got busy and forgot about the mystery entirely. Until this weekend, when I was loafing around the butterfly bushes looking for, well, you know, butterflies … and found this:
© Loree Griffin Burns
It is a hummingbird moth (I finally thought to check the insect guide), and it is gorgeous. How I managed forty years without ever seeing one before, I don’t know. But now that I am acquainted, it is hard to resist loafing at the butterfly bush full-time. How is a girl supposed to focus on her work with creatures like this flitting around the back yard? I ask you.
Hey! Guess what I did this weekend? Would you like a clue? It happened in this meadow …
© 2008 Loree Griffin Burns
Another clue? My assistant and I were armed …
© 2008 Catherine Griffin Burns
© 2008 Loree Griffin Burns
Have you guessed? We were tagging monarch butterflies!
© 2008 Catherine Griffin Burns
My daughter and I netted this lovely male monarch and affixed a small, round sticker to the “mitten cell” of his hind wing. The tag weighs next to nothing and is printed with a serial number. If our guy survives his upcoming migration, he and his tag may be recognized by tag-watchers at the monarch roosting sites in Mexico. The tagging program has been underway for sixteen years and is helping scientists understand monarch behavior and migration. You can learn more about the program at the MonarchWatch website.
As for me, I will be learning lots more at the three additional tagging adventures I have lined up this fall. Why so much tagging? Because I’m writing about monarchs and the citizen scientists who study them in a new book. Details soon!
QUAKING
By Kathryn Erskine
Philomel, 2007
Category: Young adult fiction
I met Kathryn Erskine this summer at a retreat, and we traded copies of our respective books. I finally found time to read hers, and the experience was so powerful and so timely that I want to tell the world about it. Or, at least tell the part of the world that happens across my blog now and again.
QUAKING is the story of fourteen-year old Matt (not Mattie, and definitely not Matilda), who has lost both parents to domestic violence and who seems, when we first meet her, as if she might never recover. She is a bitter and closed off young woman, she is mean to the people around her—especially the Quaker parents who take her in—and for a few chapters I didn’t like her at all. But Erskine pulled me in slowly, revealing pieces of Matt at just the right moments, and in just the right doses. By the end of the book, when Matt has to choose between remaining invisible (and safe) and standing up for what she truly believes in, I was completely won over.
The timeliness of the book is tied up in its backdrop: the state of our national psyche in the days, weeks, and months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Matt’s story will make you remember those times, and it will make you think hard about war and peace and what being patriotic means to you. These questions are woven into Matt’s story, and the result is the best kind of novel: one that makes you think.
Thank you for writing this book, Kathy, and for sharing it with me.
