If you know me at all, you know that my standard line has always been “I hate the desert.” And yet, here we are, volunteering at Kartchner Caverns State Park in the high desert of southern Arizona for the next four months. We are surrounded by mesquite trees and century plants and prickly pear cactus, and I am truly and deeply loving the landscape. ...
Read MoreGratitudes From Paradise
It’s been a lovely two months of leisure and travel as we’ve slowly made our way south from our plover job in central Oregon. We traveled north up the Oregon coast with stops in Tillamook and Nehalem Beach State Park, enjoying the windy beaches and small artsy towns. Then we finally left the coast and drove inland to Sauvie Island, just north of Portland....
Read MoreTillicum: Full Circle
Twenty one years ago, Marika, our eleven-year old lab mix, Zasu, and I were on our longest RV trip in our 24 foot motorhome – six weeks along the Oregon coast. We had come for a birding festival in Charleston, near Coos Bay, at the beginning of September, and then we spent the next five weeks inching our way up the map. We spent time in Florence...
Read MoreThe Central Oregon Coast
All is well here on the Oregon coast. We are so grateful to be in this cool climate, with clean air, the forest and the ocean, and lots of fresh seafood. We are enjoying our snowy plover docent job, though, after 9 weeks, it’s a bit repetitive telling people the same information about the plovers. But we’ve also had some delightful conversations with...
Read MoreThe Snowy Plover Song
We spent a gorgeous summer on the central coast of Oregon volunteering with Fish and Game as snowy plover docents. Our job was to walk along the beach! and share information with visitors about the snowy plover, a threatened shorebird that nests in the soft sand during the summer. I am delighted to share my Snowy Plover song with you. I loved writing,...
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