wednesday morning

This is a short week. This is a short post.
I'm sorry about the short post, but I love short weeks.
The geese are in flight. A friend of mine reported a hummingbird at her feeders this weekend, a full month before expected. Migration has begun. Get ready, all you yankees and midwesterners out there - they are on their way.

--Laura

Read this.

I don't live in California, but a friend of mine does. She needs your help. She needs hits on a website she set up to draw attention to a negative situation taking place between the school teaching her step-son and the mental health contractor providing services to the school.

It's simple. Go to the website. There is a link to the YouTube video there.

Moms and dads, unite for kiddos. Thanks.

---Laura

Happy Accidents

Just after the New Year, 2009, I was home alone. I had spent Christmas with family and friends, and was now on my own.

Getting out of the house, I decided to take a picture stroll somewhere new, so I chose to find Mansfield, Georgia, a city my parents and I had lived in briefly between leaving Missouri and returning to the Low Country of South Carolina.

The area around Mansfield is a scattering of rural communities connected by 2-lane side roads off the interstate. Unless you want to travel the interstate, which I should say is exactly the wrong way to view places like Madison, Rutledge and Social Circle. At any rate, I didn't do that. And as it was past the Christmas season, the height of small-town-Georgia-welcomes-all-tourists-to-our-quaintness-please-buy-something madness, most towns were quiet and empty.

On that trip, I took several snapshots, including the one you see here. About a week ago, I was contacted by someone who wanted to use it for an article she was writing about a Brenau University Alumn. Turns out, this alum, who grew up to head a major cancer research lab, had once climbed this water tower (or not, rumors have never been confirmed), in the sixth grade.

So, I now have a picture in a magazine. My first paid byline. For a fairly boring picture of water tower, which was made into a pretty nice opener to an article, and was even the literary hook in the written piece.

Happy Accidents. Good things can come from them.

--Laura

Trees for the 21st Century

In the interest of No Child Left Inside, here's a resource you may find helpful. Being a role model for a kid who needs more opportunity to explore nature can make a huge difference to that kid, one that can last decades.
The National Wildlife Federation has put together a bunch of kits which can be used with groups of all sizes to plant trees. Kits include:

• Trees for the 21st Century patches and DVD
• Activity Guide for Facilitators(by grade level)
• Tree Planting & Stewardship Guide
• Seedling trees (native to region and approximately 6"–12" tall)

Order kits for your kids or friends of your kids here.