Wednesday, November 27, 2013

More Mommy than Science Teacher

Last Thursday, Jedi Knight and Plantboy went on a school field trip to watch the salmon spawn. They enjoyed their trip so much (and the sun finally came out) that on Saturday we did a repeat with the family. We got to hike a little, and Plantboy gave me an early Christmas present in the form of a very cool coat I've had my eye on for some months.

They really do die after they spawn. I've heard this so many times before, but until I saw the stream littered with their half decomposing carcasses I just didn't really believe it, you know. My mind for all things evolution was spinning like crazy during our trip.

I had two distinct impression in this regard on Saturday. The first is that it is a cruel thing that makes these fish starve and fight their way upstream for months in their old age, only to pass on what they can to the next generation and die. It is easier for me to put my faith in an evolutionary system than to believe that my benevolent Father in Heaven designed a system so cruel. My second impression was a bit more sacrilege. It was that when the God of the Universe observed the way the salmon were evolving He said something like, "Well, how odd. Let's just see where these tenacious creatures will go with this."

It is hard to get pictures of them in the water, but much of what they do is just tread against the current and try not to get pushed back. Every several minutes, in a herculean effort of will and muscle and drive, they will jump and splash and push through very shallow water, sometimes gaining as much as ten or twenty feet of river. Only to rest and rest and tread water and try not to get pushed back. No doubt there is a metaphor there for human life too.


These next shots are of a very large female surrounded by 3-4 males. Every few minutes, we would see her white underbelly as she flipped and struggled to dig her nest. Near her, the males kept fighting each other (and the current) in order to prove that they were the fish for the job at hand.

 Here we are hiking and enjoying the sunshine. Don't let that bright ray fool you . . . it probably wasn't even forty degrees! We also passed areas where the sun hadn't hit in a few days and the ground underfoot was white and crunchy and covered with a thousand leaves that will be food for the forest next spring. There are supposed to be some old growth forests near where we were, but I think we went the wrong direction. In the spring we hope to go back and find the really big trees with the rhododendrons and ferns in the understory.











Saturday, November 23, 2013

Running Behind

These pictures are from Veteran's Day. Our weather has been pretty bad this month. October was beautiful and then the rain settled in for about three weeks starting on Halloween. Thursday this week it finally cleared up . . . but hasn't really been about 40 degrees since and nights are freezing! Yes, yes, I'm sure the weather where you are is worse (unless it is Southern California or Houston where you still have 90% humidity), but this has been an unusually bad spell for us. Usually the fall is long and slow, drifting lazily into winter-like conditions. Our rainy season is usually in the spring.

Still we have tried to find ways to keep each other from going crazy. The little boys' after school club is good to send them out unless it is just pouring, so they get quite a lot of physical activity still. Jedi Knight has karate a couple of afternoons each week. Still, opportunities like the one below are great because we get to be together and outside. My middle boy was working on a little nature journal for school; they were supposed to find animals in your urban area. Because we have a lot of green space in our city, this is actually not that difficult. Padawan is also working on an animal report and chose the Blue Heron. So we went to find some.













Thursday, November 21, 2013

Talk To Me! Tell Me All Your Problems!

It is just possible that there is a sign around my neck this week or above my door that reads like this because it sure seems that I've had a lot of confidences shared this week. At home. School. Friends. It is both satisfying and exhausting and worrisome. I'm looking forward to a whole week off at Thanksgiving. And I will try very hard to have at least a few days where I don't work at all!

Thursday, November 07, 2013

Guest Post

I'm at Aspiring Mormon Women today. Thanks for dropping by. Politics on the menu here tomorrow.