To Grandmother’s House We go

Was it only a week ago Abby spent all day–literally all day–in Goose Creek terrorizing the poor minnows? Some of the were captured and released a half dozen times or more, I’m certain.

I needed a few more pictures to finish out my Powerpoint words-and-images presentation I’ll be doing several times later this summer. This scene above will weave into the narrative, ending with several more shots of Abby and Tsuga together–not a difficult twosome to find in the same frame last week:

In his book, Last Child in the Wood, journalist and author, Richard Louv, calls this condition “nature deficit disorder”. He describes the costs of our de-natured existence and also offers encouragement that we can do better for our children.

The “Leave No Child Inside” campaign that has come from his work is just one possible path to give back to children the sounds, sensations and sensibilities that are lacking when they are not participants in the rhythms and cycles of the natural world.

But then, in our small corner of the globe, the task of immersion in nature is not that hard. And when Abby visits Granny and Dumpa on Goose Creek, they just give her a bucket, a small minnow net, a big yellow dog, and an afternoon outside. The rest, she makes up as she loses herself in play.