Month: January 2009

We got a few inches of snow last night–not the 8-10″ they were forecasting, but enough of a layer that Doug and I decided to take out our new snowshoes again. We  headed up to the center of town to walk around Chestnut Hill Farm, a recently created conservation area. We were clearly the only ones who had been there that day, aside from a few critters. It was really windy as we crossed the field, but once we got into the woods, it was peaceful and still and the only tracks to be seen were ours.

This is one of my favorite activities from the “Kitchen Science” series I do at the Museum. It’s super easy and has instant gratification.
Pour some milk to cover the bottom of a shallow plate (I use pie plates)
Place 3 or 4 drops of food coloring in the milk. Don’t mix.
Dip a toothpick into some dish soap.
Gently touch the toothpick to the surface of the milk and/or your drops of color.

Like, wow, man. The colors..!

spotted while wandering around the hallways of Mass. General Hospital.

caught in the act of getting breakfast

at the end of the day…

Here’s one of the big differences between kids and adults. If you give adults a challenge like, oh, “here, use this stuff to build a roller coaster track,” most adults will respond with something like “oh, I’m terrible at stuff like this.”  Kids will be all over it.  And that’s why working with kids is often more rewarding and more fun than working with adults.

Around this time of year, every car in New England has a fine layer of salt on it, and every car is a sort of whitish grayish color. Not pretty. But it’s kind of this badge of honor, an indication of the hardiness of New Englanders. Whenever I get my car washed, I feel like I’m displaying a weakness, as though I must offer up an excuse: “It’s really bad for the paint! That’s the only reason I’m washing it! I swear!”

Anyway, I can definitively say that I have never taken a photo from inside my car while inside a car wash.

We had to pick up a couple of things at the Container Store today, and of course, Parker couldn’t resist.

Doug and I bought snow shoes today, and immediately went out and tested them at Waseeka Audubon Sanctuary in Hopkinton MA. It was a gorgeous day, not too cold, but still snowy enough to make the snow shoes fun. We saw 3 deer but didn’t get decent pictures of them. We also couldn’t walk the whole loop trail because some beavers have flooded the pond, cutting off part of the trail.

Here’s Doug taking one of his potential Project 365 shots for the day.

some kind of critters ran across our yard last night. I suspect the smaller tracks belong to a squirrel. The larger tracks could be a fox, skunk or neighborhood dog, among other things.