The Mobile Symphony Orchestra show was really enjoyable. There were visuals on a screen behind the orchestra and 3 men, along with the conductor on occasion, narrated the lesson. One man read from “Song of Hiawatha” emphasizing the rhythm of the poem followed by the orchestra playing a section of the work. A fourth person, a woman on stage, sang “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”; again followed by a section of Dvorak’s work to emphasize the influence it had on his composition.

I checked out the “New World Symphony” on the Internet and followed the site of the Carnegie Symphony Hall. There is a visual attached to each section, which is very repetitive but shows the repetitive nature of the symphony as Dvorak links each section together. It also gives a brief description of each section and what Dvorak may have been or was thinking when he wrote the piece. I recommend you listing to it. Close your eyes for a while and let your mind show you what images the songs evoke: Westerns? Literature? Gospel songs? Here’s the link: http://listeningadventures.carnegiehall.org/nws/splash.html

I think Dvorak was a genius. He not only combined his Czech influence in his works but also, from looking at America at the time and hearing the American sounds, he found something else to incorporate in his music: poetry, spirituals, sounds of the industrial revolution, and the energy of the city. Additionally, there are parallels to Beethoven’s music in Dvorak’s composition, in particular some key movements and chords from Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony.

Dvorak’s music is engraved in my mind. Can’t get it from playing in my head so I’m thankful it’s enjoyable.

One, I’ve been following and love to update, is the story of Lego Man washing up on the beach at Siesta Key, FL (my former hometown). The story is that he was released from jail today is in now living with a new owner. That story can be found here: http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/offbeat/giant-lego-man-ego-leonard-siesta-key-new-journey-012712  I’m looking forward to more stories about Lego Man and what the owner (founder of the downtown Sarasota Chalk Festival) will do with the 6 foot tall Lego Man.

The other story is about some Canadian students who sent their Lego Man into space. Two students launched their Lego Man, holding a Canadian flag via weather balloon with a camera. The story and video are at this link: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/brainiac/2012/01/putting_a_lego.html

Meanwhile, here at home in Fairhope, we haven’t done any Lego creations for some time, though we should. Perhaps we will try our own Lego Man project or experiment. So far, Lego Man has floated unknown miles to wash up on shore (actually several have been found around the world) and Lego Man has soared above the earth.

What’s next for Lego Man?

Each morning these furry creatures run across my roof (single story over my bedroom) and wake me up.  They attack my bird feeder daily, eating most of the food I leave for the birds.  I did find an alternate food the birds like and squirrels are supposed to hate but squirrels adapt.  Squirrels dig in my yard.  They put little holes in the grass and garden when they hide or dig up acorns and other things.  They make a horrible screeching noise from high a-top the trees in my neighborhood.  They taunt my dog (a lab with a genetic disposition to hate squirrels), forcing her to bark at them from inside the house and chase after them in the back yard.  Then, safe in a tree the squirrels chatter at her.  If I ever plant seeds straight in the garden (as opposed to starting in the house), the neighborhood squirrels dig them out. 

All of this aside I will say that squirrels are fascinating.  There are over 200 species in the world.  One, the Eastern Grey Squirrel, resides in a nest high in tree next to my house.  I’ve had a lot of time to watch this little family sharing my yard.  I am in awe over how they climb just about anything and jump the distances from one item to another.  They hang from the bird feeder for extended periods…way too long but somehow they don’t feel dizzy from the blood rushing to their heads as I would.  If so they wouldn’t hang so long.

I keep a low bird bath near my bird feeder among the trees and love to see the squirrel visit it.  No I’ve never seen it take a bath as the birds will often do, but the squirrel approaches so hesitantly, crawls close to the ground almost underneath it, then pops it’s head over the rim and takes a drink. 

I’ve had plenty of opportunities to sketch them.  My nature journal is filled with squirrel drawings.  When I lived in Florida we had a squirrel without a tail.  It was quite agile and balanced itself as well as any other squirrel.  I have a drawing of that squirrel. 

They really are cute animals.  They’ve got big eyes and curly tails. They’re fluffy.

If you’d like to celebrate the squirrel today here are several things you can do:

Sketch one in your own backyard for your nature journal or turn it into a painting.  For smaller children there are plenty of free coloring pages on line to print out, color and hang on the refrigerator.

Put a squirrel feeder in your yard.  There are several kinds and the ones I’ve seen are mostly corn cob holders.  I’ve purchased “squirrel food” from the local pecan farmer.  That’s a bag of broken pecans, not suitable for human consumption.  The squirrels in my yard loved them.

Visit your local nature center and learn about the squirrel species in your part of the country.  There are also great DVDs and VHS shows that you can check out from the library to watch at home.  Make some popcorn for yourself and the squirrels.

Take photos of the furry friend.  The Huffington Post is having a PhotoShop Squirrel Picture Competition.  Couldn’t find out what the prize is but check it out and enter your photo.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/21/squirrel-appreciation-day-2012_n_1220089.html

Check out the Squirrel Appreciation Day 2012 Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/203979402982102/.  The date of their day of appreciation  is in July but there are still plenty of cute pictures.

Make a squirrel craft:

http://www.yourobserver.com/news/siesta-key/Front-Page/1209201115976/Giant-Legoman-No-2-in-Time-magazines-Odd-ball-News

Then…

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101344_2100552_2100569,00.html

Lego Man on Siesta Key Beach

Sadly, though, Lego Man is in police custody and will be awarded to a local man who first reported Lego Man in the surf, unless the real owner shows up before January. I do hope Lego Man will be on display somewhere on Siesta Key. It would be a shame to hold him hostage in a garage or backyard somewhere when he was once a free spirit, travelling around the ocean currents. I hope to see Lego Man one day.

Mums of all different colors seem to be the annual flower of choice, placed prominantly in the annual garden or finding themselves in fancy planters around the house.  Camellias are starting to bloom, azaleas burst out in a variety of colors, and some late-blooming bottle brush trees are showing off.  A few crepe myrtles are still showing their flowers; mostly the white variety.  Landscapers dig up the old summer flowers, replacing them with pansies and violas.  They’ll stay there until spring. 

Bushes and hedges go from green to deep purple.  Ornamental grasses that were low, wispy and green all summer suddenly grow outward as they sprout purple feathery plumes.   Butterflies still flutter about with the abundance of flowers lingering from summer. And of course, with Fairhope’s flower budget, the downtown area always looks colorful with flowers of the season in bloom.

Farm fields are white with cotton, and there are some fields with crops turning red that I haven’t figured what they are yet, but it’s beautiful.  A farm not far from my neighborhood is a dazzling, fresh green with collards.  It looks out of place next to the harvested fields surrounding it but gives me a delight to see more of earth’s bounty as the season is heading toward winter.

I have some daffodill bulbs that I got from Fairhope when they were dumping the flowers to change over to something new.  I noticed this week that they are starting to grow.  A little early, but I’m ok with that.

If you get to the Gulf Coast in the Fall, bring your camera.  It’s beautiful here.

Lego Man washed ashore Siesta Key and I think that’s where he should stay; on Siesta Key.  There are plenty of places to display the statue.  The public beach area or the Village are probably the best two areas so everyone can visit him.  Otherwise, if Lego Man has to leave the Key, Sarasota has a wonderful section of town along the Bay at the Marina and the entrance to Bird Key and Lido Key where they display sculpture art. I think that would be a fun place to display Lego Man.  Hopefully, though, Lego Man will be left on Siesta Key and I will get to see it when I return to Sarasota for my next visit.

As the sun swings to a particular southern bend each Fall and Spring, the rays come dancing through the palladian window above my east-facing, dining room window and bounce off of the crystals hanging from my chandelier.  What abounds is a magical display of colored light only a Disney fairy cartoon could duplicate; but this is real.

Light scattering from my lamp crystals

My house has an open floorplan so the colorful display does not get trapped in one room.  Everyone in the house can enjoy the view together.  I’ve found these rainbows on the wall of my dining room, the lampshade in my living room, across the top of my sofa, centered on the fireplace screen, scattered through out our homeschool classroom and kitchen, and a stray streak brushed across my farthest bedroom wall. 

Rainbows on my back door

The house is so speckled with light and fantasy that one could only tryto wait patiently for the unicorns to start galloping happily throughout.  Well…we have a lively, black dog happily greeting us each morning, but she’s hardly the image of a unicorn.

Rainbows in my bedroom

The light show lasts for about an hour, slowly reaching the ultimate climax of full spectacle, then dimming slowly to an end.  Only to begin the same time the next morning.  I love having rainbows in my house.

In other nature notes, my science friends might also like that I found a fairy circle in the backyard.  If you don’t know,  fairy circle is a ring of mushrooms.  This was particularly interesting to us because Travis had recently studied fungus in his Biology class and now we could see what the book had talked about.  I have a brick patio and found a fairy circle in the patio as well.  That’s rather weird having mushrooms growing between the bricks.  The bricks are not mortared together so anything grows between them.  It’s always been a chore to weed the patio.  I’ve tried weed killer before but they just grow back. Now that I have a garden off the patio, weed killer is definitely not to be tried again.  The bricks are also mossy.  It’s rather pretty when the weeds are at bay.

I took down the hummingbird feeder.  They just disappeared as abruptly as they appeared.  I’m told a few linger here in the winter but I don’t want to feed them from a dirty feeder.  It’ll be clean for them in the spring.

Lastly, a ton of pine needles fell last week when the front came through.  Getting the boys to rake is difficult.  But I’m allergic to pine and I can’t handle it; they’ll have to…tomorrow.

cage cleaning

 I rounded up 4 other families to help out so we could take turns.  Every 5th week we would go clean the oyster cages, remove preditors such as crabs, worms, and oyster drills and scrub the crud off of the oysters and spat.  Spat is what the growing oysters are called from their larval stage.  They settle on a hard surface (in this case an old, full-sized oyster shell) and grow. When all were clean, we measured a sampling of the spat.  The measurements would be sent to the Auburn Shell Lab and they would keep a record of ours and other oyster garden statistics from around the Gulf for their research purposes.

We found this guy in the cage

We’ve had fun this summer and the oyster garden season is coming to a close.  They’ll be picked up by the Auburn researchers in a few weeks.  Shortly after they’ll be added to a reef in the Mobile Bay.

Cleaning crew takes a rest

Even the dads helped out. This is my husband, Gary

Oyster gardening was a fun homeschool science project for us.  Austin is studying Marine Biology this year and it just added to the education.  For Travis, well, he likes to do the scrubbing but he learned some things too.  Other families involved with our oysters used the time to learn and to enjoy the outdoors.  The Bay is really shallow and makes for a great place to kayak, canoe, fish or swim and some of the families took advantage of this.  Oyster gardening is a highly recommended activity.

For more information, and if you’d like to get involved next year check out www.oystergardening.org

Some of the neighboring piers were also oyster gardens