The weekend before last, Walt and I were up at Cape Cod celebrating my birthday and our anniversary. We biked the very scenic Shining Sea Bike Trail from Falmouth to Woods Hole, passing cranberry bogs and ocean views. While we were at Woods Hole we stopped in the Woods Hole Science Aquarium where I took a few photographs which I've posted. I was disappointed some of the other science facilities in the area were not open. Next time.

I've been working steady revising throughout this week despite numerous social activities. The article is in pretty good shape, but still needs more work.

McLean Game Refuge - Simsbury/Granby

Saturday, I hiked at the McLean Game Refuge in Granby, Connecticut. It was my first time exploring the place. I was hoping to see a black bear, but a flock of geese was all that I spotted. There were some interesting little cabins, a vista and lots of fall foliage.

Currently, I'm back working on this chemistry article, trying to get revisions into a version that I no longer recognize.

The bottom photograph is a very interesting looking creature called a leafy sea dragon (excellent photo). It looks like it has seaweed hanging off of it that must certainly help camouflage it in the ocean. The top photograph is also a sea dragon.

Yesterday, I finally received the edits for my article. Hoo boy. It was not a pretty sight.

I skipped off to the Vernon Arts Commission meeting this evening and I'm very glad I went.

I posted a few more photographs of poor Myrtle the green (in the gills) turtle. They measured her carapace (a fancy word for shell). They took an ultrasound of her heart. I'm not sure where the heart is in the turtle, but I can imagine it might be difficult to view it through a thick shell.

Currently, I'm working on three different projects, all different. Two are nearly complete as far as the writing goes. The presentation is still in its infancy, but I have a solid list of creative ideas.

Today, I posted photographs of Myrtle, a green turtle at the New England Aquarium. Like Ari, she also had a health check-up, but she was small enough for them to pull out of the water and examine up close and personal. They drew blood and tested it for disease. The Aquarium website says this turtle is at least seventy years old!

I'm still working on this same piece of writing that is maybe 90% complete. It may be done by our email swap date this week, but it certainly won't be verified for accuracy so, unfortunately, I will not make my own too tight deadline.

I have a new plan for a hands-on science presentation that I think will be exciting. Hopefully, I can get moving on this real fast.

I wish I could keep the photographs I really love up here forever, ahh, but that would be boring. Today, I'm posting more photographs from a visit to the New England Aquarium. I was fortunate enough to be there the day they did health check ups on two large turtles. These photographs were taken of Ari, a Kemp's Ridley turtle. They weighed the turtle, took blood from it and did an ultrasound of its heart (bottom photo). To accurately weigh it they subtracted the weight of the box it was lifted in. Ari weighed 583 pounds! The video on the Aquarium's website (bottom left) reminded me so much of snorkeling off St. John.

Saturday morning I will be heading down to the CT short to Uconn's Avery Point Campus. I will be driving some students from the high school to a CT Envirothon workshop. They plan to visit Bluff Point State Park (8/28, I wrote about Bluff Point) to sample water, study marine creatures in tanks and do other assorted environmental things.

I write like the tide coming in. The first page is excellent, the second page is pretty good, the third page is not that great and the ending isn't there. I keep washing over it from the start.

Flower garden and rose

Many years ago, I visited the FDR house, but I don't remember this rose garden where Franklin and Eleanor were buried. "Roosevelt," by the way, means field of roses.

I'm hunkering down in the library today in hopes of getting a lot of revising done. I have a really tight critique deadline next week and I'd love to have this ready by then, even if it hardly seems possible at this time. Translation: I can not be reached.

Yesterday, was National Public Lands Day. Admission to the nation's National Parks was free! We toured Franklin Roosevelt's house in Hyde Park, New York. The first thing I took a picture of was not history, but wildlife, of course. The little pamphlet mentioned that FDR planted over half a million trees on his property between 1912 and 1945. Wow!

I've been slowly chiseling away at this piece of writing, one chip at a time. I'm about 2/3 of the way through the revisions.

The skate in the bottom photograph looked so much like a ghost clinging to the aquarium glass. Its mouth was moving as if it were communicating, attracting quite the crowd of curiosity seekers (and also impairing my ability to take a better shot!). I got quite a kick out of the little critter. In fact, I was so close to the glass when I took the first picture, the photograph was completely white, a ghost indeed! The top photograph was taken of a really striking flower hat jellyfish. Believe me, it was not a hat I'd ever want to wear.

Since I haven't heard from my editor at ChemMatters, I've been moving forward on the proposal I've been working on and I also started making revisions to last year's attempt at a grant. Hope springs eternal.

At the New England Aquarium, I took the top photograph of a sparkly piranha. It does look kind of mad, doesn't it? Every other time I've seen an octopus at an aquarium, it's a view of the tentacles on the underside of one arm. While listening to one of the employees tell tales of marine life, the octopus moved. I grabbed the camera real fast. Unfortunately, I wish I was a little steadier. I wish I had taken another photograph. Anyhow, I was delighted to get the body of the octopus even if it's a little blurry. I had no idea it was orange until I saw the picture.

Two days ago, I submitted a proposal to teach an adult class because I felt I had something to offer. Yesterday, I dropped an 800 word article in the mail. I'm expecting to get edits for the chemistry magazine any day now, but in the meantime, I will keep working on the proposal I've spent the summer refining.

Both the diver and the shark were in the large circular tank at the New England Aquarium. I highly doubt they were both in there at the same time.

Today, I submitted my final version of the chemistry article!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Since I had quite a bit of noteworthy quotes, I deleted a bunch of stuff that actually made the article clearer. I'm real happy with it, but I know it still needs some editing because it's 500 words over the limit, which this editor actually prefers.

Have you ever tried to take a picture and have someone step right in your way as you're ready to hit the button? That happened to me at the New England Aquarium. I clicked the shutter to take a photograph of Kathleen, the anaconda, as a woman stepped in front of me. I turned thinking forget this photo and because of the momentary shutter delay ended up with this really decent unintentional photograph of the turtle. Amazing!

I've finally interviewed the scientist for the article I'm writing for ChemMatters. Thank you Earle! I have to transcribe that interview and add the quotes. I've also been adjusting and improving some wording in that article that seemed perfectly fine the last time I looked at it, but not so clear as of late. I'm realizing that letting a piece of writing sit for a few weeks or even months is a really helpful thing to do. I've been viewing the painting with a microscope and now I feel I've stepped back to look at the whole composition.

Last week, I spent three days in Boston. One afternoon I skipped off to the New England Aquarium with my camera and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I absolutely loved this colorful fish exhibit.

The other two afternoons, I brought my notecards and headed to the Boston Public Gardens to accomplish something. I found that park benches are only comfortable for so long before your back starts bothering you. I wondered if they were designed that way so people wouldn't sit on them for hours like I did.

I have changed my attitude about the "people" section of the SCBWI Bulletin. For the longest time, I considered this area of the newsletter up there with bragging and not really something I was interested in doing. Now, I think of it as free advertising and I certainly do need to advertise. My advertisements appear in this month's Bulletin!

There is still a lot of silence out there, silence from editors, silence from scientists, silence. Thus, I'm using this silence to slowly push forward with the next chapter.

Although I have little to show for myself, I have spent a lot of time pouring over videos, reviewing photographs, bookmarking sites and organizing what I'm writing next. Today, I noticed a public conference that sounds very interesting and is certainly pertinent. It isn't that far away. Maybe it's doable. Hm. On Saturday, it was almost a relief to mail out a thick package and be done with the thing.......for a little bit at least.

I took these photographs the same day I was out at Bluff Point State Park. I stopped to investigate the Stonington Lighthouse in Stonington CT. Although it's a small lighthouse, there were plenty of exhibits stuffed inside the first floor. At one time, the baleen plates in the bottom photograph hung from the mouth of a whale to filter its food. The black thing to the left is a seven foot long piece of baleen. I placed my sunglasses next to the whale vertebrate for a more impressive look at how big this piece of whale backbone really was.

I've made a decision that this proposal will be mailed no later than August 31st.

Bluff Point State Park, Groton

This past Saturday, I did some coastal hiking at Bluff Point State Park in Groton. It was a nice level wooded hike to the shore. While walking along the sand I found a number of these jellyfish splattered like painted flowers on the beach. They were striking in shades of coffee brown and bubblegum pink.

Harkness Memorial State Park, Waterford - part 2

Here's a photograph of the great egrets at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford.

This week, I'm working on a presentation and a proposal to do a presentation.

Harkness Memorial State Park, Waterford - part 1

Today, I spent the day with my mother on the coast of Connecticut. We stopped at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford. Although I've been there before, I've never really explored the place.  I never walked the trails or toured the mansion. The top photograph was taken at the start of the Dr. William Niering Nature Preserve. As I strolled along the path, I spotted tiny piping plovers and least terns ambling along a sandbar.  Great egrets were fishing in knee-deep water. An osprey nest looked like a mess plopped on a pole. One of these days, I will return and explore what I missed.

I'm looking forward to putting the proposal in the mail soon. Also, I hope in the near future, I can polish off the last piece of the article that I've been working on. Fingers crossed.

Mount Washington, New Hampshire - part 3

We hiked down Mount Washington via the Gulfside/Jewell Trail through the bonsai pine trees. This ridge top trail ended near the start of the Cog Railway. I've never taken it before, but it was quite nice. I was sorry to see the view disappear as the trees slowly grew with our descent. Hiking down was a challenge as usual, but the trekking poles I picked up the night before we left were a HUGE help. My legs recovered much faster.

I'm eagerly looking forward to meeting with my writing friends on Wed. morning. Today I leafed through my proposal book and formatted a number of pages the way they are supposed to be formatted even if it irked me to waste paper. I've been thinking about presentations lately so hopefully I'll have some time to move forward on those.

Mount Washington, New Hampshire - part 2

Although I didn't see much in the way of wildlife on the Presidential range in New Hampshire, I did find signs of science. At the hut, there was a citizen science project and a climate change project that guests could partake in. I must admit I looked over the climate change project that centered around alpine flowers, but put it back knowing that we had a long hike and no time for it (we hiked from 7:30AM to 6PM with few breaks). These photographs were taken near Lakes of the Clouds hut below the summit of Mount Washington. The top photograph is climate and air experiments that were scattered on the rocks overlooking the hut. I spotted two of these plant cams on Crawford's Path. The AMC White Mountain Guide book that we have mentions an extremely rare Robbin's cinquefoil (Potentilla robbinsiaina). I'm not sure if this cam is pointed at one or not?

Mount Washington, New Hampshire - part 1

Walt and I hiked up Mount Washington this past weekend and what a hike it was. We slept in the clouds and walked on the mountaintops. The first day we did an easy six miles and slept at the Mizpah Hut at 3,800 feet. I found out Mizpah means pillar in the clouds, a watch tower, a look out, a fitting name. The second day we hiked 11 miles up and down the Presidential range. We scaled the summits of Mount Jackson, Mount Pierce, Mount Eisenhower, Mount Franklin, Mount Monroe and Mount Washington. By the time we headed down I was Mount Exhaustion. The scenery on top was spectacular in every direction.

The first photograph is the trail we took. Crawford's Path, the oldest mountain trail in the United States, snakes along the mountaintops. Although we didn't see much in the way of wildlife, we did see this gray jay begging for food on Mount Jackson (it even ate out of people's hands!). Mount Washington (the high mountain in the photo) looks incredibly far away.

Tomorrow I'm emailing the full 10 pages to my writing buddies for review. We'll meet a week from tomorrow. Sometime after the 22nd, a second scientist will review the material. Then it will finally be ready for mailing. Hallelujah!

I watched these two butterflies for a little bit before my cat scared them off. One was on the grass while the other did what looked like a courtship dance, fluttering in the air above it.

Currently, I'm integrating comments from a scientist. I am quite grateful he reviewed the entire proposal and had many helpful suggestions. Today, I should finish up those changes.

While I was on the computer today, a little songbird was singing its heart out. It sounded like it was in the house. Instead, it was flitting in the bush outside the open window. Being the birder that I am not, I guessed it was a little sparrow.

I have rekindled an interest in getting my school program going. Earlier this year, I was all set to launch it and then the roof caved in around here so it was all but forgotten.

I spent the day in a marathon fact-checking session that didn't end until 7:30PM. I'm done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Next up, it needs to be reviewed and reviewed.

Dahlia

I'm pretty sure this glowing flower is a dahlia.

Despite a host of things this week, I'm happy to report some great progress fact checking my current project. Everything is over 90% verified except one sidebar which is about 30% done. I've been pretty bent on finishing up by the 11th and it's looking good. Now I'm hoping there aren't 400 proposals on the same topic sitting on the editors desk while I work my buns off to complete these changes. That would be my luck.

Here's another photograph from Newport Rhode Island. I was surprised I captured it because the bunny ran off during the photo shoot. Maybe the scarecrow scared the crows, but it certainly didn't scare this little rabbit who feasted in that garden until I got too close. Oops.

I had an outstanding weekend of accomplishment where I finished writing and revising the last sidebar. Pant pant pant. Next is the arduous task of verifying the accuracy of one chapter and four sidebars. I'm in good shape to make my August 11th critique group deadline. Yeah!

This past week I was out at Newport Rhode Island for a bit and came across this enormous European Copper Beech tree. I think a wide angle lens was necessary to capture the girth of the foliage. As you can see from the photographs, there was no grass underneath and the temperature was much cooler in the shade of this tree. The gnarly roots grew like giant yams in the dirt.

I spoke with another scientist yesterday and today I'm integrating those quotes into a sidebar in chapter 1. For the most part, the only thing left to do is write up the one remaining sidebar. I did hear from my ChemMatters editor recently so I expect to find that edited article dropped on my doorstep some time soon.

Yesterday evening, after the thunder roared and the lightning cracked, a golden sun appeared with a rainbow streaking through it. It was a fitting end to a day of great accomplishment.

I had a marathon writing session yesterday from sunrise to sunset and got a tremendous amount written and revised. Chapter 2 has been completely redone after relocating a huge part of the contents into an action packed sidebar. It is a huge huge huge huge improvement. I am liking this!

I met with my writing friends two days ago. We're a colorful group. We reviewed each others work using different colored pens. There were scribbles in red, green, and cerulean blue (that would be me) . Since then I've made some minor changes to my chemistry article and now the only thing left to do is add the last group of quotes from a busy highly-respected scientist so I'm waiting patiently on those.

During that writer's meeting, we set a new email date for finished work of August 11th. That date now becomes my tight deadline to get all these changes done and verified and 4 sidebars written. One sidebar is not down on paper yet. The main reason for this is I've been tossing around what I want in it, where it will take place and how it will start. It's a choice between a highly significant field expedition or a recent more technologically advanced field expedition (that may or may not end up being significant) . I think I'm going to place it in the more recent trip, but incorporate both.

Daylillies, petunias, lobelia....

I finally put new batteries in the camera so the website should look a little brighter again. The potted flowers are on my deck. I spend a lot of time reading and revising out there.

I've been really driven to complete some sidebars and revamp an outline. Currently, three of four sidebars are complete, but not perfect. I set a deadline to have all these chapter changes polished by my next crit group email date which should be three weeks from this Wed. Then the following week we give each other a round of tough love. I also decided to join Toastmasters to become more comfortable at speaking and better equipped to answer questions on the fly. The first meeting I was the timer and I got an easy subject to talk about, what I did on the Fourth of July--beach party! I think it's going to be real helpful.

Today it was miserably hot and humid again. Instead of hanging around the house trying to work in a soggy bathing suit, I headed for the library. Little did I realize that the A/C would not be working when I got there. I quickly ditched that library and drove to another. This library was mobbed with people cooling off and immersed in work.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day spent holed up in the chilly quiet room. I was so absorbed in my work that the two hours passed by in the wink of an eye. I got kicked out of the room and later learned it was my friend from town that had reserved the room after me. If I had known I would have locked the door from the inside and made faces through the window. Too funny.

Anyhow, I leafed through a couple of books, did a lot of research and wrote up one sidebar so I was very happy with my accomplishment.

I'm currently writing about climate change and boy oh boy these scientists are certainly accurate about these heat waves--longer and more intense. I don't ever recall "cool spots" being set aside in major cities.

My outline revisions are done. I made some radical changes to chapter 2 by moving a huge chunk of the main text into a sidebar because it veered off track for too long. It simply was not working. I'm currently doing research for a few sidebars. As far as this chemistry article goes, it's good to go except for some quotes from a scientist that I'll be contacting soon.

Tomorrow, two irons are going in the fire. This is where I find out if the writing can stand alone.