our greatest fear

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
...
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously
give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

- Marianne Williamson in A Return to Love

Two things happened yesterday that really helped center me, which came at a good a time since I've been fairly stressed. First, I watched the movie Akeelah and the Bee with Matt and the kids. What an inspiring movie. It included the above quote, which I'd heard before. I love it though, and it really speaks to me, as I often struggle with alternating feelings of insecurity and powerlessness with feelings of being "too much" and and do not want to convey that to others. How can I be proud of my accomplishments, and the knowledge of how far I've come in my life, without it coming across as if I am haughty, especially when I do not feel that way in my heart?

I am my own fiercest critic, both professionally and personally. That said, it is incredibly common for me to internalize the perceived (and real) negative messages and vibes that come across from others, and allow that negativity to rule my thoughts rather than the more loving truth of grace - that I am ok exactly as I am on this lifelong journey toward becoming more whole, more real, more loving, more kind, more forgiving, more gentle - with myself and others. And it helped remind me that it is ok to admit my strengths and not be ashamed, as if acknowledging my strengths somehow makes me un-humble.

The other thing is a moment I will treasure in my heart for years to come. Around 10pm I picked up my best friend Daline from her sister's wedding - and back at my house, she sang me a song she had written and it was one of those moments that filled me with a truly centering uplifting grace. She has spent the last 9 mo or so in a Buddhist monastery, and when we left Peru there were some tensions, but we'd gotten past them before she got here though we talk less because of her schedule. But she was in such a beautiful gentle place, and when she sang this song, it brought tears to my eyes, and as she sang it she was smiling the whole time. You could feel the presence of God. It was very moving and powerful. I recorded it on my phone, and she has a beautiful voice (I've never heard her sing!) and an incredibly moving spirit. I am so blessed to have shared her genuine friendship for the past 15 years.

This to me is what life is all about, and I want to surround myself with people like her, people that forgive, and that strive to accept and to love even when we have bumps in the relationship. Here are some of the lyrics though it is most powerful radiating from her voice...

here are a few verses, starting about halfway through:

When I see we all do the best we can
When I seek first to understand
When what I have is more than plenty
When I reach out to lend a hand
When I can see you in every bird and bee
Every river every tree
When I’m connected to that place inside
When I can see you in all of humankind
I know I’ll never be alone

You’re in my heart, You’re in my touch
You’re in my laugh, You’re in my eyes
You’re in my words, You’re in my silence
You’re in my joyful cries
Your warmth within me radiates
A smile is on my lips
Your energy it fills my sail
I have the strength to steer my ship

Sometimes I can’t hear you
My thoughts they drown you out
I get overwhelmed and fearful
I want to cry and scream and shout

(silent pause)

But when I stop when I listen
I can hear you loud and clear
When I stop when I quiet
I can feel you oh so near

- (c) Daline Limbaugh

back from the east

i just got in a bit ago from vermont and the society of environmental journalists (SEJ) conference. it snowed on the field trip day to camel's hump (a mountain with two humps...) and it was so neat. the field excursion was on acid rain, which you never hear about in the media but apparently it is still a problem though more nitric acids than sulfuric acids. and i asked why do we not have this in houston, where we have lots of air pollution? the answer is that our soils are limestone and basic so they neutralize the acidic rain. the question i still would like to answer is whether the rain itself is more acidic because of pollutants, whether or not it causes death of trees etc. it seems it could lend itself to a quick and easy analysis with some ph paper if one had some historic data, or looked at different regions like up or downwind of some of the plants (need knowledge of how the winds go).

anyway just some food for thought. i asked the guy leading one of the talks if it was ok for me to eat the snow, because after all, you can't go see snow and not eat it (as long as it is not yellow). :) and he said yes, his kids eat the icicles all the time, but if you were to test the snow it would probably show elevated mercury levels. mmm, just a little madness with your snow, no worries. so i ate some snow. then i asked him, would you get mad if i pegged you with a snowball? lol. and he said no, so i did. that made the trip. my kids are jealous... they told me before i left i had to bring them some snow back. i was like, how exactly do you expect me to do that?!

anyway, my highlight was hearing ben cohen talk, the founder of ben & jerry's ice cream (http://www.benjerry.com) and it was very interesting indeed. he discussed how our government is spending their money using plastic oreo cookies... he runs a nonprofit group 'true majority' http://www.truemajority.com which i was unaware of before. he also told about the company history, and some of the interesting concepts about running a business in a way that helps rather than detracts from the community and the environment, and how he made positive change in vermont and in business due to this. i had no idea!

i also really enjoyed the blog session by amy gahran and adam glenn (http://www.ireporter.org). i'm going to try some of their techniques and see how it goes... one of the things mentioned was to comment on other people's blogs which i rarely do because of time constraints -- too busy. but i'm going to see how it goes, and try to. i also enjoyed catching up with many friends and got to give a 60-second pitch to a panel of 6 editors - from smithsonian, audubon, sierra, national geographic, scientific american and orion. i was so nervous (which i normally am not when giving a talk, but as one editor rightly said it was like the christians in the coloseum with the lions! lol). fortunately they were all very respectful and kind in their feedback to all. i got one editor who told me right away there to send it in (the query) so that was great. lots and lots of writers came up to me and told me I did really well and they liked my pitch, and more than anything that made me feel good about that session.


A creek at Camel's Hump, Vermont

the free agent

I love this... this is me!

"The Organization Man is history. Taking his place is America's new economic icon: the Free Agent: the job-hopping, tech-savvy, fulfillment-seeking, self-reliant, independent worker. Already 30 million strong, these new "dis-organization" men & women are transforming America in ways both profound & exhilarating."

--Daniel H. Pink

exhaustion

i haven't posted because i've been just utterly swamped. life isn't meant to be this way, but i'm scrambling to make ends meet a bit, and trying to finish some major projects. i have one article on top of another due, plus one trip after another. i love to travel but i'm honestly ready to slow down for a while. trying to figure out a way to make that happen a bit better.

so, just to update - i finished a website i'm very proud of - the spring creek greenway - www.springcreekgreenway.org - (screen shot to right of the main page, and below of the subpages - the fawn photo and the lizardtail are my images and some others on the site). i helped montgomery county get a grant from the texas forest service earlier and then got the gig to create the website, a brochure and - get this - a video! i wrote the script and produced my first video.

i really enjoyed doing it. i put on the site a 1974 booklet called Papa Stahl's Wild Stuff Cookbook there (go to The Creek tab, then you'll see the link) and it has recipes for all these native edible plants, most are found throughout the nation.

i really respect and like the author Carmine Stahl - you'll see his photo there with his wife of 56 years!!!! he is 80 i think and is sharp as a tack and so kind and i really appreciate his life experiences. at around age 56, i think, he retired as a methodist minister, and then worked for another 20-some years as a naturalist at our local harris county jesse jones park - a beautiful forested preserve along spring creek (hence the website). however i had done some biological surveys with him before, and recently completed an article profiling him as a conservation legend for texas parks & wildlife magazine. he said recently i must get exhuasted with all i do, and i was like, uh huh, yep that is exactly the word!! absolutely buggered, as they say in australia. so i'm trying to just slog through a bit and hopefully i'll get to a bright spot again.

wednesday i fly to burlington, vt for the society of environmental journalists (sej) conference, and i'm really excited about that. i made some good friends last year and it will be good to see them, and also to network with some editors from magazines i write for, and want to write for like national geographic!! it is also my first ever trip to the NE, and i hope there is some remnant fall color.

when i get back, two days later i jet off to west texas with my girlfriends. i'm so excited! i'm writing an article and will need to climb the tallest peak in texas, guadalupe peak! we'll also get out to see the mcdonald observatory in the davis mountains. i've never been to either of these places. should be very cool. but i'm really excited that my dear friends paige (who i just visited in LA) and laurie who i roomed with for a 3-week program at texas a&m a few years back (and who makes me laugh so much) are probably flying out to go on the trip with me!! good friends close by make so much difference. i need my girls right now, been soooo stressed. i hate stress!

i'll post some more later. gotta get back to work!

big thicket

A lake at Chain O'Lakes Resort in the Big Thicket outside of Romayor, TX.

I'm heading to the Big Thicket today for a couple stories I'm working on, which is a National Preserve about 2 hours east of Houston - the "biological crossroads" of North America where southwest deserts, southeastern swamps, northeast forests and western plains meet. It has a very diverse flora. I don't have time to write, but wanted to post a brief update! Will be back with photos next week!

These 3 photos I took on this trip to the Big Thicket. I stayed at Chain O'Lakes Resort and the owners Jimmy and Helena showed me around and were so gracious. Jimmy showed me one of the lakes by boat, and we drove around to the various parts of the resort. I was impressed by his love of the forest and land, and how much conservation ethic he has. When Hurricane Rita downed a bunch of old trees, he and his son salvaged them and created beautiful tables and slabs to help build walls in some new lodges, rather than let them go to waste.

the carrot tip of texas

I spent last weekend in the carrot tip of deep south Texas visiting the new Estero Llano Grande State Park and Resaca de la Palma State Park for an article- and here are a couple photos from the trip - both actually were taken at nearby Laguna Atascosa NWR. I have been so busy, no time to ramble on in my blog! I'm trying to do my writing in my backyard during these nice fall days, because my office is not a very inspirational place to write.

This is a Texas tortoise, a state threatened species, due to the pet trade. They are so adorable! We actually saw this at Laguna Atascosa NWR which I also visited, home of Texas' ocelot population (though I did not see any of those).

A Sabal Palm and I believe that us purple sage in the foreground - overlooking Laguna Madre.

This was actually taken in DC at the National Zoo but it's so cute I had to put it on here!

washington dc

Savannah (right) and some classmates at the Arlington National Cemetery.

The amazingly powerful FDR memorial which we saw on a night tour of the memorials. this is the "I HATE WAR" wall. Quoting from his 1936 speech in Chataqua NY (I would love to have time to just sit and listen to the waterfalls and think and pray here).

I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen two hundred limping exhausted men come out of line-the survivors of a regiment of one thousand that went forward forty-eight hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives.

I HATE WAR.

This is a photo of the Vietnam Wall Memorial -- notice the name MICHAEL H BAIRD. This was the brother of someone very dear to me, who was like a 2nd mom, Celeta Baird. It's a tragic story really, her mom and dad had both died previously, and with her brother's death she lost what she told me, when I was a child, her last family member. There is an award-winning photo where she is crying over his grave - I saw it when i was a kid, i think i recall an American flag and her long 60s hair.

Lest anyone think i am the only nutty one in the family... savie and i about to go to the 3-d IMAX on landing on the moon at the air & space museum, the 3d imax was soooo cool!!!


Savie Rules! (as she would say). This is outside Union Station.


Panda at the National Zoo in DC. They sure are cute!

busy busy busy

So I was in DC quietly watching the changing of the guard ceremony at the Arlington national cemetery - supposed to be absolute silence - i was there in DC with my daughter and her teachers and class, and we're quietly watching when, like the movie cingular ad, my cell phone rings... oopsies. anyway it was good news i found out later when I called my editor back - I had won a 1st place/gold IRMA award (International Regional Magazine Association) for Best Nature Feature for my article I wrote in April 2006 issue of TX Parks & Wildlife mag on freshwater mussels "Save the Monkeyface." Cool beans. My first "award" for writing :) Well second actually but anyway, but I didn't apply for it but was nominated by someone else.

So we had a great trip and I especially loved the night tour of the monuments. I loved the FDR monument -- it is huge and has all these waterfalls and a section on "I Hate War" (one of his quotes) and I really loved it. It is a place I would love to go and just sit and reflect.

I am about sick of traveling though. I actually would not like to travel anywhere for some time! However I have 2 trips coming up. It's getting to be a bit much, and I'm feeling stressed and like I can't get caught up. I go to south TX this weekend, to Estero Llano Grande State Park and then have tons of deadlines. I can't complain, I am blessed with tons of work, but it does take a toll when it's hard to find relaxation time and the burnout is starting to creep in. well i'll try to get caught up now. I also lost my cell in DC but I am LOVING my new Smartphone that has just about everything but the kitchen sink. It has an ipod, Palm Pilot with color screen and Windows-based email and Calendar, camera/video, address book. Oh and it's a phone! :) ha ha!

live your life!

the death of steve irwin just makes all the more poignant something i've often said and try to live by - you never know when your time is up, or your loved ones may die. it sounds morbid, but it's really not, it's just reality. and so it's up to you, me, each person to live while we can. to LIVE! not just exist.

i love life, and wake up each morning and dedicate that day to God. i express my gratitude for another day, and vow to enjoy it, and to love those around me. i don't always succeed. stress can be a constant companion. but i do tell my kids i love them often, hug them all the time, and connect with friends on a regular basis. i am still working on the real enjoyment during the work-days. i can be happy and excited when traveling or even getting out of the house with the kids. but as much as i love my writing career it can be drudgery with deadlines looming. i need to work on that, on enjoying the process more.

if stevo taught me anything it is his joyful exuberance and absolute dedication and passion to his work. years back, i bought sam a toy alligator (we'll just call it a crocodile) and it sat in his toybox. my dad had one when i was a kid, and he'd be silly with it around me so it has fond memories associated with it. it now sits on my desk. long live croc hunter! let's live with as much passion as he did!

tragic loss

at 130am last night i checked cnn.com as i often do, and i felt utter devastation and shock that someone who i truly, deeply admired - steve irwin "crocodile hunter" - had been killed by a stingray. i have not felt this much shock over the death of an individual celebrity since the death of john lennon, also one of my heroes. i was even surprised at the depth of my feelings of shock and sadness - maybe because we just visited his Australia zoo two weeks ago. maybe just because i - and maybe even the world - had not realized what a legend this man was. we all knew he entertained us and made us learn about wildlife. i don't think we all knew how deeply to the heart he had touched us all.

i truly do not know many people who are so genuinely compassionate about wildlife and conservation - god's world - and as passionate about life itself and his family as he was. criticism be damned (i consider it the tall poppy syndrome) i think he was just truly an amazing person, and i truly can not think of another human being on this planet who has achieved what he was achieved for conservation whose loss would be as deeply felt as his. my kids were in shock. savannah kept saying "it's not fair! i can't believe he is gone!" she adores bindi. i know good can come of this in the long run - not that a tragic death is ever a good thing - but in the grander perspective of life and conservation, people had started to criticize him and pick apart his actions and i think the outpouring of love and support from people worldwide will mean that more than ever, his legacy will truly live forever. it's just a horribly tragic shame for his adorable children. i can't even fathom.

i miss vacation!

i always find it amazing how you can spend 3 weeks away and not think a wink about all the articles and projects that need to be done, and have no stress at all, but as soon as you get back home it all lands, flop, right in your lap. Ugh stress. i hate it! i'm working on it; that is on reducing stress in general and the way i approach the whole to-do-list phenomenon.

so... a quick update - i wanted to finish my aussie adventures but just want to add a couple quick photos and say that our last day on moreton island, at tangalooma, was just absolutely brilliant. it is one of those days that will go down in my personal history as one of the best ever. we went on this amazing eco-cruise where a huge herd of dugongs (like manatees) surrounded our little boat and when they'd come up to breathe they sounded like they were breathing through a snorkel. you could hear the "huff" they made as they exhaled. the weather was drop dead gorgeous, the wind was super calm and hence you could see to the bottom of the ocean and all the amazing things swimming about - sea turtles, eagle rays that literally fly through the water, and jellyfish. dolphins came and played and swam in the front of the boat - the wave made from its movement. at the end of the day, we got to feed wild dolphins, and jenny and i just had a wonderful heart to heart on the way back to the mainland. i truly had a wonderful day.

the day before, friday, we also got to see my dear friend karine who i was worried i would not see - which would have been so disheartenening after keeping in touch over 15 years and i'd lost touch via email the past few months...but we got in touch - yea! and she drove hours to see me and i feel so blessed to have these wonderful friends. i am so blessed by these friendships and i just wish everyone could be in contact more easily, on person. if only flying were less expensive!

i'm working on some interesting projects and they are due very soon so i better get back to it!!!


This was the true color of the ocean the last day, when we were in Moreton Bay. It was amazing!!!!!!

One of the many dugong that surrounded our boat. We killed the motor and floated through the herd of them...Sooooo cool!!

aussie photos

Just a selection - more to come!

Savannah petting a wallaby at the Australia zoo, home of Steve Irwin "Croc Hunter."

I have to laugh when I look at this photo because Jenny said something like "Isn't that just like a typical Aussie bloke - just put a beer in between his hands! The attitude!" LOL. These are red kangaroos at the Australia zoo.

A "joey" poking out of its mom's pouch! This was at Something Wild Wildlife Park in Tasmania.

Sam and Savannah out on the marine eco-cruise at Tangalooma on Moreton Island/Moreton bay. This was absolutely a most amazing day!! The water was clear blue and gorgeous and we saw a huge herd of dugong (like manatees), dolphins playing in the boat's bow, eagle rays, sea turtles, jellyfish - it was sooooo cool. That was our last day in Australia!

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, merry merry king of the bush is he... laugh kookaburra laugh kookaburra, gay your life must be! This was outside of my friend Kelli's house - they sound like a bunch of howling jabbering monkeys! I love them!

Sun setting over Shute Harbor, the Whitsunday islands.


Sam and Kai, Kelli's son.


Savannah and I in the Whitsundays.

Sam, Indie and Savannah holding Chloe at Tangalooma, our last day!


An Australian pelican at Tangalooma, Moreton Island.


Savannah petting a koala at Something Wild Wildlife Park, Tasmania

fraser island

After Tasmania we went next to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world, and it is a UN World Heritage Site. It is truly an amazing and diverse habitat. Riding over on the boat from Hervey Bay the kids snuggled next to me, the weather was perfect and the wind felt so good, and it just felt really peaceful. We got there and were greeted by two wild dingoes roaming the beach to forage. They are like wolves, but were introduced to Australia from Asia around 4,000 years ago so are pretty much considered part of the ecosystem now. They look totally different than wolves - they are tan and white. One climbed into someone's boat that was on the beach! LOL. Anyway that was pretty cool. The sunset was gorgeous! (photo on right, Lake McKenzie, a freshwater lake with clear water and white sand beaches)

The next day we got shown around the island by a Kingfisher Bay Resort Ranger/EcoGuide. There's no way to see it all but we saw a great cross-section! In the center, freshwater creeks run through primeval rainforest with tall palms and cycads and ferns. On each side of the island are Eucalyptus forest and huge sand blows which basically create massive sand dune complexes. We hiked across this yellow sand dune at Lake Wabby for an hour and it reminded me of scenes from Star Wars where R2D2 and C3PO are stuck on a desert with only sand. The way the sand blows the sand into rivulets is just beautiful. (photo to left, the kids climbing a giant "sandblow" or sand dune in the middle of Fraser Island)

The lakes are spring-fed and COLD so I let the kids swim but I stayed out and enjoyed the scenery. Colin, the EcoGuide who showed us around, was very knowledgeable and I learned a lot about the ecology of the island. We saw a lace monitor - a huge lizard - among other things. During our trip we also ate "Bush Tucker" at the resort's restaurant which is Aboriginal food sources - not just the various plants used but we also tried kangaroo, emu and crocodile meat and the kids loved all of them!

We stayed at Kingfisher Bay Resort which was one of the first-ever ecoresorts, truly designed with the environment in mind - from the architecture of the buildings and rooms to the food to the natural history tours - birdwatching to spotlighting to whale watching and island explorations - and everything in between. I was very impressed with the way they developed everything, preserving all the native vegetation, elevated walkways, energy conservation.

Last we went on the most AMAZING whale watching trip, which was almost surreal. The water was a deep but clear blue you could see the whales under the surface. Two subadults played near our boat for over an hour. They got SO close to the boat! They did all the behaviors from spy-hopping to pectoral fin flapping to tail slapping to breaching. They went back and forth under the boat and really just seemed to enjoy our attention (we made noise, and it draws them to the boat). They are amazingly beautiful animals.

A subadult humpback whale surfacing in Platypus Bay, near Fraser Island.

Sunset on Fraser Island.

The clear blue waters and white sand of Lake McKenzie.


The rivulets in the sand dunes on Fraser Island, near Lake Wabby.

tasmania

Australia's island state just blew me away. Hobart itself was a quaint little town with truly outstanding cuisine, but the scenery really didn't blow my socks off until we got out of the city and into the national parks. We first went to Mount Field National Park and this was, I think, the kids first truly "wow" experience in Australia. The rest had been cool (they'd loved Daydream Island and snorkeling) but this place was straight out of the primeval past! (photo to right is the view out our hotel window - the harbor at Hobart at night).

Huge tree ferns towered above, Eucalyptus trees grew to nearly the size of California's redwood giants (they are the 2nd tallest trees in the world here) and moss-covered logs were strewn about the forest. Drizzly rain and mist covered the day and it gave it a lush, cool, moist feel. It resembles the Pacific NW forests of the US quite a bit. But the coolest thing is that pademelons were everywhere!!! These are tiny kangaroo-like creatures - well not tiny but about 1.5 feet tall. It was the kids' first experience seeing the classic Australian wildlife in the wild as opposed to in a wildlife park. Sam dubbed it "dinosaur world." (view to left is a giant eucalyptus tree in Mount Field National Park. They are the 2nd tallest trees in the world after the giant redwoods in California).

It was chilly but not freezing and our warm gear kept us cozy. Sam saw a platypus in the creek! I was so jealous. He yelled out "there's a platypus!" and that scared the little thing away. They are quite abundant in the area. We were sure we'd see one later in the day at the top of the mountain in a crater lake but the one thing they don't like is wind, and just at the time we got to the top a huge blustery gale came and it blew fiercely and we only got out of the car for a few minutes before heading back down the mountain. We then went down a bit and the winds calmed down and we walked around an Alpine herb field which was just STUNNINGLY gorgeous. Autumnal colors of rusts, reds, yellows and oranges covered the landscape, which had mostly shrubs, and huge boulders covered with colorful lichens. Tarns - small shallow wetland ponds - dotted the landscape. We all just kind of walked around looking for wombats, because their square poo was everywhere. :) I just loved it. We were literally in the clouds as we were high up the mountain and a cloud had descended on it. We could see, but there was an omnipresent mist. (above is the alpine herb field at Mt Field National Park)

We visited Something Wild Wildlife Park earlier in the day and got to pet and/or see wombats, koalas, Tasmanian devils, kangaroos, squirrel gliders, various Australian birds - budgies, cockatoos, rosellas - etc. The roos and wallabies had joeys in their pouches and I got some great photos. The next day we also visited the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park which was very cool too. It had a whole field full of kangaroos and wallabies that you could walk through, and the kids got to pet them! We also visited the Tasman peninsula which is connected to the mainland via a narrow isthmus and this is where the famous Port Arthur prison was, though we didn't visit it. We saw the coastal cliffs and walked along a very cool beach all in Tasman National Park. (photo to the left is a Tasmanian devil, a marsupial carnivore. They are declining rapidly due to a new disease - a fatal contagious cancer)

Oh and how can I forget, we got to see a little (fairy) penguin rookery. We hid in the cliffs until they came ashore which was not until it was quite past dusk, and I was very disappointed because I really couldn't see anything at all. Savannah wrote in her journal that she got so excited, then bored, then she cried with disappointment when she could not see anything but a dark blob emerge from the ocean (there were not a whole lot of them). However the story gets better! We finally climbed down and after the biologist was assured that all had safely climbed into their burrows he showed us the burrow of one in a rock crevice. To be honest it did not look very penguin-like and so I was a bit disappointed. But then we walked back toward the car and up stairs because this was a public beach but most people don't know it's a penguin rookery (it was actually devastated by dogs a couple years back) we saw a penguin ahead of us climbing the stairs!!!!! They actually make nests and burrows all along the area, not just right in the beach cliffs. So this little penguin, not much bigger than the stair itself, would scrunch its little booty up, wiggle and then jump like a piece of popping popcorn to the next stair! It looked very penguin-like at that point. We watched it do this for several steps in the light and it was just so adorable. Then it went to the side of the stairs and we went on our merry way. (view to the right is the rock formations on a popular surfing beach in Tasman National Park)

I think if I had to pick one single best moment of my trip so far that was it. I was just in love with this little penguin hopping up the stairs! It so exemplifies the state of wildlife in today's world. Here they wait until the night is dark because the full moon exposes them more to predators and this response has evolved over millions of years and it worked with their natural predators. But now we've introduced domesticated dogs and feral cats and even foxes to their world, and as hard as they may try to come ashore on some supposedly safe island, they end up completely vulnerable. We could have just scooped it right up. There's no way for them to escape something like a dog attack. They can't fly, they can't run. They don't bite. They are absolutely vulnerable. And here they are in our human world, climbing up stairs trying to get to a little burrow to make a home for a nest they'll lay in a month or so. Fortunately the biologists are working to create artificial burrows and protect the rookery from dog attacks etc.

And we had a truly great guide - Josh - who appreciated the kids zany sense of humor and more than anything just allowed them to be themselves and enjoy the world their way more than anywhere else. We all laughed a whole lot these days in Tasmania. The penguin day that included Mt Field NP was truly the best day of my whole trip so far. (View to the left, another view of the beach at Tasman National Park).

Oh and my laptop electrical cord died so I've been unable to recharge my laptop meaning I can't access anyone's email unless they email me!! I downloaded all my email Aug 10 so anything sent before then I can't access either... I need everyone's mailing address for postcards so Dad, Celeta, Holly, Daline, Lazer etc write me!! :)


Did I say it was a little chilly at the top of Mount Field??


Sam at the Tasman National Park beach.


Sunset shot through the car window!

The markets at Salamanca in Hobart.

The lush temperate rainforests of Mount Field National Park. This is the stream where Sam saw a platypus!