Update!

I realize it’s been awhile since I last updated. Nature Study is now halfway over, the Day Lilies have bloomed and are beginning to fade, and this morning the Phoebe bird’s nestlings hatched in their nest on top of our porch light. I’ve been working on our couch today and watching the parents swoop in and out to feed the little fuzzballs. I think it’s the first time I’ve really had a chance to observe what every child absorbs as one of their first nature lessons. The nestlings don’t even really look like birds yet, more like a strange craft project made from pom poms and little sharp paper beaks… or perhaps like tiny Jim Henson puppets. I rather expect them to start playing tiny little electric guitars at any moment, and am a bit appalled by this desire for commercial anthropomorphism. I have yet to succeed in photographing them, though they do not yet have their mother’s timidity. If I had a proper zoom I’m pretty sure I could get a good shot, since the nest is literally right outside our living room’s picture window. Oh the frustrations of a small budget!

Otherwise, most of what has happened of interest lately revolves around the researchers… the Science Symposium was last Saturday, for example, and a research intern (who shared my name if not it’s spelling) came and then left as three of the other interns also departed. After this weekend it will be only me and one other intern, though our resident scientist is moving back into Bullfrog Camp (and reclaiming her corner room- sad day for me!). A researcher from Colorado came for a few weeks and stayed in Birdhouse (the small red residence that stands as our neighbor). Her dogs were sweet and she was everything I admire in Coloradoans (also on her last day she bought us all pizza from a locally owned place). A couple from New Zealand are staying in Birdhouse now, just visiting the place where they were married and lived briefly. Oh, and at 10pm on Wednesday a group of German researchers showed up unexpectedly in our living room, and have now taken over Lincoln Cottage. I think that’s been most of the excitement.

Some days I still spend in the office, but I’m more often in the lab these days, prepping for Nature Study, teaching it, or cleaning up afterwards (amazing how long that takes). On those days I do computer work either gazing out over Lincoln pond or watching the antics of our blind garter snake (who seems to particularly love the music of the Mamas and the Papas, for whatever reason). Mosquitoes have invaded our living quarters, which makes our evening movie-watching rather more aerobic than usual, and out in the woods they’re fairly unbearable. Fortunately I’m not responsible for doing plot searches as the other interns are, and experienced this discomfort only minimally… and, well, I DID survive a summer in Alaska. The weather has finally gotten warm, and I actually wore a tank top outside for a couple of hours this week! Outside of the weather, most of my personal excitements revolve around reading (finally got my hands on Neil Gaimon’s Graveyard Book), wildlife sightings, and eating new types of cheese.

I have not been working as hard on my job search as I should be. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been here over a month already, and I’m still not sure what I want to do when I leave. As excited as I am at the prospect of getting more involved with All Souls and being around my friends again, I don’t know what I would do to support myself in DC that wouldn’t be mind bogglingly depressing. Just missed the deadlines to apply for some UU jobs that would have started too early anyway, and have to find something that includes insurance and covers the high cost of living there. I don’t want an entry-level office job! Or any office job, really. Wish I had skills beyond my liberal arts education- carpentry or baking or what have you.

But that’s letting too many of my personal worries into this blog. I’ll put in this random picture to distract you. It's a wasp gall one of my campers found.