Celebrating the equinox

One of the themes in the books and articles about child-rearing has been how very removed from nature our kids are becoming. Between over-scheduling them and suburban sprawl, kids don't have a chance to connect to nature. One of Barb's favorite stories is about a kid she had in a class who thought that horses were carnivorous. (What are they doing out in the field, then? Hunting for mice, of course.)

It's the whole point of Last Child In the Woods, and I think it's also a root cause in a lot of the environmental problems we're suffering. I mean, if a child doesn't understand that the earth provide our food and air, if the child never experiences nature, then why would she fight to save it?

So Christopher and I have been thinking of ways to help May -- a city child, after all -- connect to nature. We celebrated the spring equinox this week with our friend Mary by having a nice dinner of seasonal foods. (Roasted chicken, asparagus, sweet pea soup, new potatoes, and, to get the whole re-birth-egg connection in, chocolate souffle.) Then we went to Mass Audubon's Drumlin Farm today. It was intended to be a trip to see maple sugaring, but apparently we're a little late. (Dang global warming.) But we did get to see sheep and very small baby lambs, and mules and ponies and goats and lots of chickens. Even a pair of small cows.

We bombed through the muck and the mud and saw birds (owls and falcons and hawks and a pheasant) and even a fox and a skunk. We visited the green houses and the garden. And we joined the Audubon Society as a family. Drumlin is only about 20 minutes away and we can drop by every few weeks and buy eggs and go for a walk through the woods.

I know that May is a little young yet to understand all this. But the other day, a squirrel ran in front of us and she pointed and said "kitty!" and I realized that she's never really seen any animals but doggies and kitties. So I'm making a point to stop and point out the crocuses that are blooming in the bike path garden and we're going to a sheep shearing festival next week.

I'm trying, damnit.

May checks out the view of the farm from Daddy's shoulders.

Goats are funny. There were kids, too, but the pictures of them didn't come out so well.

This is a free-range rooster. Really free range. It just hung out on the path and ran away fromt he toddlers who all wanted to pull its coxcomb.

May and Christopher in the Big Red Barn. It's a really big big red barn. Huge.