March is in like a lion

I took February off and hibernated, something I’ve always said I would do and then never did.  It was a quiet reflective month and very restorative.  I’m back in the game and happy for the time of refreshment.  Last Sunday we attended the Asian New Year event, held in the Bend High School auditorium.  There are so few Chinese in Bend that they can’t fill a program so include Hawaiian dancers and Taiko drummers, hence Asian New Year even though it really is the Chinese New Year.  The program was wonderful and of course the Tai Chi school performances were spectacular.   The meal in the high school cafeteria afterwords prepared was by the culinary arts students was also good, but sitting on those hard lollipop benches wrenched Ian’s damaged back and he’s had a rough week.

I just spent three days at the High Desert Museum getting CIG (certified interpreter guide) training. I couldn’t see why we would need three full days but we needed that and more.  Monday morning our trainer Carolyn sent us into the museum to see who our audience was at that moment.  Attendance was sparse, mostly grandparents and small children.  What I noticed is that the animals come out when the noisy children aren’t present.  Note the dead quail at this feet - lunch.  Jess, the associate curator of wildlife, was cleaning skat from his cage so he was waiting for her to leave so he could eat.

A couple of offices had this sign in the door window.  I can only imagine what’s on the other side.

Even though Jess is staff, she hasn’t yet taken the mandatory CIG training which is only offered once a year. We were learning how to develop ten-minute talks that are both engaging and informative.  I was the only one in the class from Living History.  The rest were from natural sciences.  It’s was a challenge to apply the principles to my application since we would never talk for ten minutes. Our information is delivered though Q&A.  I’m still trying to digest what I learned - a lot!

I got to pet a skunk!  Her name is Daisy and she was raised as a pet but surrendered to the HDM by her owners when they realized just how much work is required to take care of her.  We still have skunks here at our house but I’ve never been this close to one.  Cinda told me this morning that she recently saw a skunk in our front yard.  They will on occasion snack under the bird feeders in the middle of the night.  We don’t want to stop feeding the birds so just don’t let the dog out in the backyard in the middle of the night.

Most of the presentations were done in the classroom but Suzanne is a docent-in-training and so we went to the archaeopteryx exhibit downstairs for her presentation.  That’s a rough one as she has a soft voice, the ceilings are high and it’s a public space, i.e., quite loud.  I round it interesting that 12 people could be passionately drawn to 12 different subjects.

Ian and I have wanted to get down to see this exhibit but haven’t, and now I find that it’s leave in a couple of weeks.

Now I really want to see it!  Ian’s son is flying in today so maybe that’s something we can all do together.

I’ve taken on another new activity.  Our church has several community-based activities, including the wood lot.  These are the volunteers who run it on Saturday mornings, providing firewood to families who heat with wood but can’t afford to buy it.  They serve about 50 families a weekend and will deliver to those who have no way to pick it up.  I’ve joined the Community Garden group and we were just waiting waiting for the volunteers to finish their break before starting our meeting - so we could hear ourselves.  We are just in the beginning stages, evaluating what was successful last year and planning planting for this year.  We’re still a couple of weeks away from any manual labor, dictated by weather.  My walking partner Cinda told me this morning that she’d like to participate so we will have another pair of hands.  I’m looking forward to gardening with leadership from experienced gardeners.