Mood:  lyrical

Hi everybody,

For those who don't know much about Nantucket in the summertime, it's beautiful here, warm, lots of beaches and natural beauty and very very very busy. Kind of like Christmas week for retail shop workers; we all try to squeeze in a year's worth of research, or capitalism, or talks, lectures, walks, family visits, beach hikes, symposiums, annual meetings, events, fundraisers, fun runs, vegetation profiles, plant and animal sampling, swimming, cocktail parties, three jobs at once not sure what your name is..........craziness. I have to admit, right now I am pining for October, when the weather is still warm, and I am still working 50-60 hour weeks, but not 80 hour weeks, and I can stop to smell the beach plums. Fortunately, I have a lot of volunteers and a great intern and also a very helpful husband who is picking up the slack and helping lead educational groups here at the field station and do the 9-10 research projects and umpteen other things I managed to put on my plate. We have a great group here which is part of Tulgeywood, differently abled kids and their counselors who windsurf, horse back ride and do many other all access sport type things that you might not expect folks in wheelchairs to do.

I've had quite a few friends and acquaintance write me on Facebook this week and reconnect after 28-30 years. One person asked me what I have been up to, and I thought, wow, how can I get that down to 1 page (not sure I could condense it into one book). I am sure a poem might be able to say it, and i figured, i need to try and condense it into something lyrical which has to save more words than my usual (verbose) articles do. Stay tuned, I am working on it.

The past two weeks, I helped to rescue an entangled female juvenile grey seal and I identified a beautiful moth (whitemarked tussock moth-very cute ....see)

that is eating the invasive plant purple loosestrife down by Sesachacha (pronounced "sack o joe' don't ask) Pond. 

 Nantucket has been in the news because a great white shark washed up on our southern beaches (dead, 6.5 foot female, sad), some folks think it is a prank by a local fishermen to "thin out" the herds of summer visitors. It probable was caught in a long line or net, and got cut out and discarded. Important to remember for nervous nellies that in over 350 years, only 4 shark attacks (3 fatal) have occurred in Massachusetts. You are more likely to be run down by an ice-cream truck..................which may not sound half bad.

more soon! Cue music from Jaws please.......................

p.s. i do know how to insert music clips, but hate when they come up on web pages and start hogging all the bandwidth ;-)