Can you guess what bird Bob Spear will make from this block? Hints may follow in later posts or comments, but please don’t let that keep you from sharing your ideas.
Identify the bird: Carving
Northern Cardinal Carving Class
We are really looking forward to this coming Saturday’s carving class. David Tuttle of the Green Mountain Woodcarvers will be teaching it, which means a great combination of experience and fun. He’ll provide the cardinal wood blank and eyes; the Museum will offer snacks and coffee. 
The cardinal can stand alone or become a holiday ornament (as in the picture). There’s still some time to pre-register! Call (802) 434-2167 or email us at museum@birdsofvermont.org; you can bring payment to the class or pay by phone. (Aside: do you think we should we enable PayPal?)
If you take this class, please bring your lunch and your own carving tools. Some carving tools may be for sale–let us know when you register. The fee is $25 for Birds of Vermont Museum members / $35 non-members.
Class starts at 9:00am and goes until 4:00pm. Best for older kids and adults, and beginners are welcome.
Letter to Young Artists
Guest post by Lori Hinrichsen, Artist, Photographer, and Judge of the 2010 Art Contest
When I walked into the Museum the other day I was thrilled to be surrounded by so much creativity, imagery, and enthusiasm of all the artwork entries. From abstract to representational, from humor, composition, color and form, to a range of creative interpretation, the Birds of Vermont Museum Art contest was a delight for the eyes.
I want to congratulate all of you who participated in the event and I genuinely wish I could have given each of you a ribbon for all your wonderful entries. I would like to encourage you to keep making art and sharing it with others. I would like to extend gratitude to your teachers, parents, neighbors, friends and family for keeping the arts alive, every day.
Wishing you a warm lingering autumn. Vermont is a very special place in all seasons.
• Lori’s Website • Photographs •
Art Contest and Art Show sneak peeks
Here’s a quick little sneak peek of some of the entries in our Community Art Show and Youth Art Contest. Come by to see more … much more! There are some wonderful pieces on display.
Come to the Fall Festival, Saturday October 9
Enjoy our Fall Festival with Woodcarvers — Live birds — Used Books/Garage Sale — Nature Journal Workshop — Insect Info — Birds!
Woodcarvers will be demonstrating their art in the workshop.
Carol Winfield returns with live birds at 11:00.
Find something wonderful at our Used Books/Garage Sale.
Heather Fitzgerald offers a Nature Journal Workshop.
Rhonda Mace from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture will answer questions about Invasive Insects.
Kids activities and games, nature walks.
Celebrate a great year!
Free!
Fun for Everyone!
The Peeps of the Museum: First (Annual?) Community Art Show
The First (and possibly Annual) Community Art Show is open! Members, Volunteers, Interns and Staff display their artworks at the museum. Drop by and admire our local talent.
The show is open with the Museum: Daily 10 am – 4 pm until October 31st.
If you are a member or volunteer and would like to display a piece, please give us a ring (802 434-2167) or an email (museum@birdsofvermont.org). We still have some space.
Ice Cream Social and Half-Birthday Celebration on Sunday, August 22
Join us for an old-fashioned ice cream social to celebrate Bob Spear, the Museum’s founder and Master Woodcarver, and another glorious year!
We’re hosting this event at the Museum on Sunday, August 22, 2010. We’ll serve ice cream and cake at 1:00 or so, right after Bob blows out the candles.
While here, visit all the new carvings from the past year. Eat good food. Spend some time with old and new birders, carvers, and other friends. Great fun for everyone.
Free with museum admission – and of course all current members get in for free. Just show us your card! (Not yet a member? Become one on Sunday—just in time.) If you let us know you’re coming, we’ll be sure to have enough ice cream. Looking forward to seeing you!
7/17/10 Garden Journal #3
Guest Post by Nic Cormier, Education Intern
Last week we got a responses to our post that we had put on the Front Porch Forum asking if anyone had any flowers or plant donations for our gardens. Ms. Janet Labelle, who lives just down the road from the museum, invited us to her home to see if there were any plants she had that we wanted. By the end of the visit, she had kindly donated Pink Penstemon, Wild Columbine, Hazelnut/Filbert crosses, and Bee Balm. That same day Mr. Bill Mayville donated some red and purple Bee Balm and planted them himself. This week Bill also brought us old slabs of rock, which had been a foundation to a house, for our rock paths and keyhole garden. Erin’s neighbors, the Zimmerman’s, recently cut down and chipped a few old trees in their yard. They said we can go anytime and take as much as we need for mulch, which we have been using steadily for the past few days. Thanks to all for the donations.
We still have a bucket of Irises brought to us by Rick that have yet to be planted. A few Trumpet Vines need a trellis before they can be planted near the viewing window, and a couple of Stonecrops that will be going in near the rock wall in the feeding yard. We are currently working on creating a keyhole garden with a stone walk-way for a fun element to the garden as well as a walk-way to a compost pile and another to the sewage pipe, both of which will be rock pathways. In the center of the keyhole we plan to erect either a bird bath that we make or a bird house with a roof that holds soil and can be planted with a short flowering plant.
Some plants that are still on the wish-list are Spicebush, Coreopsis, Turtlehead, Cardinal Flower, Winterberry Holly and Butterfly Bush, but we would also take almost anything that is donated.
On rainy days I have been working on the signage and guide that will be used. It is exciting seeing the whole project come together from thoughts to paper to reality.
A Meditation on a Child and Birding
Guest post from Dr. Stewart Kirkaldy, Museum Volunteer
Every once in a while one has an experience that is profoundly moving. This happened to me recently on International Migratory Bird Day at the Birds of Vermont Museum where I was working at the viewing window. A young couple came in with three children, the eldest of whom was a serious birder. She was 10 years old or less but had a “life list” of fifty-eight on arrival. Very soon she saw her first Hummingbird to which she responded with incredible vocal enthusiasm, jumping up and down and rushing across the room to give her father the news. (She added two new species to her list that afternoon.) Her interest and enthusiasm was evident all day. She was an inspiration and rejuvenated hope in my heart for the future of humanity.
The realization dawned on me that she is at one end of the spectrum of human activity and, sadly, too many are at the other end as exemplified by Big Oil Company Executives whose actions and indifference led to the recent catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But what she left me with was the hope well expressed in a hymn that ends “… when man’s crude acts deface no more / the handiwork of God.”
Louisiana Waterthrush sighted
Guest post from Shirley Johnson, Board President, Birds of Vermont Museum, and today’s Guide on the Early Morning Bird Walk
We had good views of a Louisiana Waterthrush this morning during the weekly Sunday morning bird walk at the Birds of Vermont Museum. The bird was seen in the woods on the south side of Sherman Hollow Road, on the nature trails open to guests of the museum, on the hillside in the watershed area above the duckpond.
More info:
Early Morning Bird Walks: http://birdsofvermont.org/events.php
Lousiana Waterthrush: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Louisiana_Waterthrush/id