Club Day. The Nature Version.

Nature Club today was down-to-your-bones good.  Given the ridiculously hectic week we're almost through, I decided to do something easy for Nature Club this week.  We strapped on a pair of snowshoes and went to see what we could see at the park.  In all honesty, the activity itself was exactly the same as what the Birds of Prey Club did two meetings ago.  Minus the infighting, though.  And plus a few nature walk spottings of the footprint and scat variety.

And we had fun!  We giggled!  We fell in the knee-deep snow, then practically ate it trying to push back up to standing!  We played Predator and Prey where a whole family of rabbits sadly met it's demise at the hands of a crafty bobcat (and wolf and lynx). I was delighted to learn that the Clubbers had an opportunity to try something they had never done before.

And somehow today, I found an action I can take to cool my anger of the heritage school demolition I mentioned yesterday.  Sometime this morning, my mind floated back to the vacations we've taken the last two years.  Each one had a significant history component to them.  The ones that captivated the children the most were the places where we could see the buildings both inside and out.  It really made all the stories we'd read to the children come alive.  As we crossed the St. Lawrence River from Lévis to Québec City, we mused about how the British must have felt facing those intimidating cliffs and walls.  We took ourselves back to a simpler time as we strolled down Lover's Lane and explored the childhood haunts of Lucy Maud Montgomery.  My children actually stood stock still at a doorway like a sentinel for several minutes simply because we were inside the fortifications at the Citadel in Halifax.  Simply seeing exhibits describing history, such as the Acadian museum we visited, held much less fascination.

There is a business case for preserving historic sites and buildings.  To aid in building that business case, I can simply tell our story and the differences in the experiences I've seen.  A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a real-life experience is a feast for all the senses.  Given that the school was built when this city was in its infancy, it tells not only about what the school experience used to be like in the "good old days".  It tells the story of a people.  It gives clues as to how this city came to be as it is, even if those who now hold the reins of power wish it to be no more.

The clock is ticking for that old gal.  I'd better get writing.