Getting kids close to nature, that's our goal.
As an educator, you hope to find something memorable. One recent morning it was kindergarten kids on a field trip from Amherst Elementary.
It was also rainy, damp. The young ones wore ponchos or, when the ponchos ran out, trash bags.
As we walked along the trail to the Homesite, cherub-faced Cameron in a yellow full-length poncho lifted her arms to soak in the morning dampness and said, "Oh, feel the nature!"
She was in the moment.
That was memorable, but the real highlight came on the Serendipity Trail. [Serendipity: noun: an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.] That morning the trail proved to be aptly named. We found a barred owl and were able to creep up to be only about seven feet away.
We were so close we could have asked for its autograph—Strix varia. But we let it alone to enjoy the "feel of nature."
- Text and photo by Stephen Lyn Bales
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