Art In The Garden. . .Kid Style

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden never ceases to amaze me.  I tell visitors on my tram guides that we entertain over 150,000 school children every year, but in truth, I rarely have anything to do with them.  Today was quite different.

My friend Sheila and I spent the morning at the Garden, volunteering as art mentors for school kids participating in this year's renowned Fairchild Challenge. This morning's session was the start of the Annual Art Workshop for Elementary Schools, kindergarten through 6th grade, with approximately 180 kids, from many different schools, gathered under the Garden's Gala Tent on a rainy Wednesday morning to learn about, and then draw, indigenous plants from the Florida Everglades.

Our group of youngsters were students from "The Growing Place",  a  unique kindergarten school run by First United Methodist Church of Coral Gables. They were led by Mari and Gaby, two remarkably kind and patient teachers, who introduced us to all the kids and helped us get them seated out in the Garden with their sketch books and colored pencils.  Because it was drizzling intermittently, we chose to seat the kids by a nearby lake, close to a stand of Florida mangroves.  My job was to explain about mangroves to the kids and suggest they draw the tangle of roots emerging from the water. Enough said!  They immediately went to work.

Big excitement!  A snapping turtle suddenly appeared in the lake, creating a momentary stopping of work.  An anhinga bird, drying his wings on a branch across the lake, was another nature moment for the kids.  Sheila and I had our work cut out for us, commenting on each kids drawing, suggesting, encouraging and applauding.  Amazingly, for 5 and 6 year olds, some were definitely budding artists.  Others did a lot of scribbling, but everyone did their best.

It was a wonderful morning.  Exhausting, but inspiring. After two hours, we said goodbye to our group as they headed off to the Butterfly Garden before returning to school. Below are some of the photos I took of our group.
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Our budding artists! That's Sheila and me in the back.





Sheila working with the youngsters



Explaining about mangroves to the kids and teacher Mary




Birthdays can be beautiful. .

Hard to believe it's a year since I wrote about my "big 85th", but October 19th came and went yesterday, so a year it is. Thanks to my special friend Paul, it was three days of celebration, starting with Saturday night and ending last night with a fabulous stone crab dinner, a frosty apple martini, and a "Happy Birthday" surprise dessert.

When I started this blog 6 1/2 years ago (doesn't that number blow your mind??  It does mine.) I titled it, Age Is Just A Number.  The card on the beautiful bouquet of flowers that arrived at my apartment yesterday read just that. . .plus the sentence. .Yours is unlisted. 

That about sums up how I feel these days.  Lucky, actually blessed, to be healthy, active and still having fun.  I've decided not to think about the actual number. Consider it unlisted. (You may remember my daughter calls me the Queen of Denial.)

Thanks to each of you for reading my blog these many years. It continues to fascinate me how the various subjects I write about often resonate differently amongst the 200+ people who currently receive it.  Some of you I hear from often. Some once in a while.  Some never, but that's fine also.   Some of you I've actually never met.  You've been added on to my blog list by those that I do know, but I'm truly glad you are all out there in my personal cyber-world. By this time you've guessed that writing is my thing.

So if it's ok with you guys, I'm going to keep on blogging.
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My favorite birthday card from my great-grandson Grayson



I'm rethinking my love of art. . . .

I seem to have acquired an expensive new "object d'art" for my home.  I have no idea when I purchased it, or who decided the shelf on which it would be displayed. (Not my decision, I can assure you.)   It just showed up the other morning, and something told me. .. better still, warned me. . .not to mess with the placement.

Yeah, it's Ginger.  My girl cat, aka the "Terror of The Western World".  And that's the shelf area on the wall in back of my sit-down bar, where I usually display some of my most treasured art objects, none of which are known to breathe, purr, or move stealthily around on four legs.

The shelf of choice on this particular morning is shared with a very breakable raku sculpture of an Indian squaw purchased in Aspen, and an elegant silver framed photo of my immediate family (Andrea, Adam, Amy and me), taken on my 80th birthday.  At the moment, it is totally obscured by a ball of fur.  On the shelf below are more breakable objects, plus a metal sculpture titled "Lion In Wait", that is either imitating Ginger, or Ginger's trying to upstage it.  I think she's winning. 

Any one in the market for a 7 lb. kitty who is capable of breaking everything in sight?  If she comes down off the shelf without doing too much damage, she's all yours!
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