kissalostsoul

It was a ladies day out for Diana, Mary, and myself today so we headed for the Celebrate the Gulf Festival in Pass Christian, MS.  This is a family friendly festival whose goal is to educate the public about the wonders of the Gulf of Mexico area.  Lot’s of hands on activities for the kids, and interesting displays for adults.  The interns from our refuge, and some local volunteers manned the MS Sandhill Crane NWR booth.  You could be banded there like a bird, and there was a live corn snake in that cardboard box on the lower right.  The snake was taking a little rest in between performances.  The US Navy even had a boat and sea bottom investigation monitors on display.  All of these young sailors were dressed in blue and black fatigues, and I had to ask what happened to their ♪ ♫‘Bell-bottomed Trousers and Coats of Navy Blue’ ♫  They assured me that they had about five different uniforms.  I expected to see them in those crisp white ...

It was back to the VC to work for me today.  Most of the time was spent welcoming the 25 visitors throughout the day, and catching up with Doug, the volunteer coordinator.  He has been gone for the last three weeks dealing with health issues with his parents up in Pennsylvania.  We needed to get the schedule for the next month set up with school groups coming in for programs. Also in the plans is a trip for all of the volunteers and interns to Ship Island off of the Mississippi coast in April.  I’m looking forward to that trip.  April turns out to be Volunteer Appreciation Month, so the refuge will probably foot the bill for this trip.  Sweet!! I have found Mississippi Sandhill Crane NWR to be the most willing, of all the refuges I’ve volunteered at, to provide trips and wonderful experiences for their volunteers.  It’s one of those perks that makes volunteering here most memorable. During a lull in visitation during the afternoon, I took a w...

It was time to haul out my rubber boots and walking stick today as we would be on a quest for some carnivorous plants.  The area we were going to required a walk through a very wet and muddy area.  The boots also help deter mosquitoes and chiggers from attacking my legs.  I need the walking stick to help with my stability walking through mucky areas. Before we sloshed through the wet area, we checked out a culvert that we were told had a lot of bladderworts near it. Sure enough, we found them.  They are a carnivorous plant that is aquatic and is usually only noticed when in bloom.  Wikipedia had a pretty good explanation of how this plant operates.   Aquatic species, such as U. vulgaris ( common bladderwort ), possess bladders that are usually larger and can feed on more substantial prey such as water fleas ( Daphnia ) , nematodes and even fish fry, mosquito larvae and young tadpoles . Despite their small siz...

Diana, Emma, and I headed out this morning for a girls’ day at the beach on Dauphin Island, Alabama.  It was about an hours drive away.  I’ve never been much of a beach person (picture an alewife die off on the shores of Lake Michigan when I was growing up in Chicago).  I believe Diana has always been a beach person.  What a pleasant surprise it was for me to arrive at this mostly vacant white sand beach for the afternoon!  The water wasn’t brown, and the waves provided a lovely sound backdrop. As I went about setting up my chair under the beach umbrella that Diana had brought, she took Emma on a little romp in the sand.  I had told her that the last time I took Emma near any sand, she was a lunatic and nearly pulled my arm out of its socket.  Thank goodness she’s calmed down some.  Emma was happy until… Diana tried to coax her into the water.  Emma has always hated getting wet and even avoids small puddles that might get her feet...

Well I sure am.  The older I get, the weaker my wrists seem to get.  Today I tried to open a new jar of marinated mushrooms to go along with my grilled spare ribs.  First I just tried to open it using my hands alone.  Ha!  What was I thinking? So I got out my trusty rubber round thing that I got my first year on the road from the Social Security booth at Quartzsite.  No luck there either.    Okay, it was time to pull out my arsenal. Next up was this handy dandy little opener that works on most every jar, and it’s adjustable to the jar lid size.  Not today, though.  It failed me.  I really like marinated mushrooms so I was getting worried.  I had one last tool to try… …and it worked!  Yahooie!  I believe this antique jar opener was my grandmother’s.  Sometimes in an RV, even a women has multiple tools to accomplish the same thing.    It sure helped with my wrist...

Just before noon today, John and Diana and I launched one of the two canoes for our use to take a paddle up Bayou Castille.  John prefaced our trip by stating that it had been many years since he had been in a canoe.  Diana remarked that she was a boater, not a canoeist.  Alrighty then.  We got ourselves out into the bayou.  It’s been over forty years since I’ve been paddling in the front of the canoe; I’m usually in the stern and doing the steering.  It was a bit unsettling for me.  (On second thought, it was a lot unsettling for me)  I could just imagine us tipping over as the canoe seemed to be rocking back and forth too much for my comfort.  I had my life vest on and the bayou is not very deep, but I was most concerned about ruining my camera.  It took me a while to settle down. In our journey, we did come upon an active Osprey nest.  The nest was perched in the tallest tree along the ...