around here ...

suffering from an Earth Day hangover! As an environmental educator, April and May are popular months for learning, so my calendar has been filled with events and school visits.

working on wrapping up the school year and the Everglades Eyes children's art exhibit at Old Davie School.







admiring all the new dolls revealed by Integrity Toys last weekend and wishing for some play time.

shopping for 1:6 scale white lace fabric for a wedding dress for my Jacey Birch Barbie doll, and, I'm here to tell you, it's easier said than done.

realizing what a remarkable young woman my granddaughter has become after witnessing her speech to a crowd of attorneys and judges at the Coral Ridge Yacht club recently.







ordering a new Danbo, two new Poppy Parker dolls from the 2015 collection, and Vanessa and Veronique from the Fashion Royalty line of dolls.

discovering that the new bathing suit I ordered from a catalog fits. Lookout, beach!

marveling at the Royal Poincianas that have begun blooming this week.






worrying about the planet. There are so many things we could be doing better if we could just get everyone to do what's right instead of what's profitable.

thinking about my dad this Memorial Day weekend.

Happy Earth Day!

Since I took up photography, I have had some lucky accidents with my camera. I'm always impressed when the really good pictures are shots of plants, birds and flowers. We live in paradise here, and I'm just so tickled I have these images to remind me where I am! (As if I could forget!) The kingfisher catching a fish and the 'gator pics are two of my all time favorites!

Happy Earth Day, friends! Enjoy the ride!

 flowers and bees

 water lilies

 Everglades flowers

 a moseying  'gator

 kingfisher's lunch

 flowering trees

Around here? Earth Day hangover approaching ...

Around here, it's the "busy" season. As an environmental educator, the months of March and April are filled with requests for presentations on water pollution and events focused on conservation. It is, after all, south Florida and we do, after all, live in the Everglades!

visited over 400 fifth grade students at three different schools, one classroom at a time and talked about water pollution

served as the outreach connection at Water Matters Day at Tree Tops Park for more than 500 folks who care about things like saving water ~ the kids love the Enviroscape model and they don't realize that they're learning something important while they play with the little cars

challenged the local politicians about the significance of teaching school children about the Everglades (they don't seem to find it important enough to fund)

photographed our mascot, Teddy the Turtle, with a lot of the local environmental 'celebrities' at the Waterway Cleanup along the C-11 Canal

clipped news articles about the next steps in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, a 30 year plan to restore the flow of water to Florida Bay at the southern tip of the Florida peninsula

organized the 8th Annual Children's Art Competition, "Everglades Eyes: What Children See," and accepted 119 entries from five different schools in Celebration of Earth Day on April 22 ~ the artists are fourth and fifth grade students that I've visited with my Enviroscape model and my pep talk about the Everglades and they totally "get it!"

planted a tree in honor of Arbor Day on April 25, a dahoon holly, a Florida native tree that has red berries that the birds love to eat

shopped for a bottle of wine with which to nurse my "Earth Day hangover!"

And, what have you been up to this month?