Rainy Day Fun

A grand time was had by all at the Healthy Harvest Celebration today in Gorham, Maine! More than 100 kids and their parents came out of the rain to celebrate the release of Mystery Vine and the awesome new Gorham Fitness Studio. Book-related arts & crafts, energetic games and dances led by GFS owner Jesse Coleman, story time breaks to soothe the crowd, fabulous face painting created by terrific volunteers, healthy snacks donated by community businesses, and a grand finale movie all made for a wonderful day!

Kids Connect to Nature

On a recent visit to Eight Corners School in Scarborough, Maine, I talked to kids about the amazing critters that wriggle, waggle, scamper and scoot in and around my pond. We acted out Scoot! with animal movements and Turtle Splash! with puppets. Mrs. Wood's second graders sent me a gorgeous stack of drawings about my visit. I wish you could see them all! Here's Brendan's awesome drawing of the critters at Frog Song Pond.

Mystery Makers at the Library!

Kids at Baxter Memorial Library in Gorham, Maine, had a fun story time and then set to work on their very own Mystery Vines! For more photos, click HERE....and then scroll down!

A Mystery Vine Party!

My friends at the Gorham Fitness Studio are having a party!

For more info, click HERE to go to the Mystery Vine page!

Healthy Harvest Celebration!

at Gorham Fitness Studio

Fall, Fitness, Fun!

You are invited to a Harvest Celebration

Join Gorham’s own Children’s Author Cathryn Falwell

for the release of her latest book “Mystery Vine”.

There will be activities, Live DJ, Pumpkin Art, Healthy

Snacks, and fitness games with Gorham Fitness

Studio Instructors. We will end the evening with a

showing of “The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” on

the big screen. Come and Celebrate a Healthy

Harvest!

What: Healthy Harvest Celebration

When: Saturday, October 24th, 2009

Where: Gorham Fitness Studio

17D Railroad Ave Gorham, Maine

(behind Hannaford, beside Post Office)

Time: 2pm-5pm (Movie begins at 4pm)

FREE to Community

www.gorhamfitnessstudio.com

(207)839-3353

Basking

Squirrels may be collecting acorns to store for the long Maine winter, but the turtles of Frog Song Pond are gathering sunlight. Four of them braved a chilly wind today to soak up some rays, reminding me of the illustrations I made for Scoot! and Turtle Splash, with all those teeny tiny pieces of paper. This one looked particularly pensive, perhaps reflecting on summer memories before hibernating in the bottom of the pond.

More frogs and turtles and other critters, are here.

Farewell to Loons

September. The nights are cooler now, and the leaves are beginning to change. I visited No Name Pond one last time and waved good-bye to the loon family. We watched the chicks grow from tiny fluff balls in June, to nearly ready to fly adolescents. I worked on a picture book about them while listening to the parents call across the lake to each other in that incredible, haunting sound. The book is taking shape--not ready to go out as a proposal to a publisher just yet.

So-- here's the loon family, taken last week, and one of the chicks doing a little foot waggle. And a "farewell to summer" photo of the lake. If you missed my earlier post about loons, be sure to check out the wonderful work being done by the BioDiversity Research Institute in Gorham, Maine.

Mystery Vine

Mystery Vine, which Kirkus Reviews calls, "a great choice to help prepare children for the fun and fruitfulness of gardening," is finally out. HarperCollins has a "browse inside" site where you can peek at some of the pages:

http://browseinside.harpercollinschildrens.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061771989 or click here.

And for more about this book, Mystery Vine now has it's own blog page here.

Happy gardening, and happy reading!