I was born and raised in New England.  A daughter of a dairy farmer,  I grew up very close to the land and knew our 180 acres inside out.  You might say I was a tree hugger from the get go! Adulthood came, then college, and finally corporate life.  All of which took me farther and farther away from what was near and dear to my heart.  After awhile light dawned, and I began to make my way back to what really makes me tick – my love for our earth and the amazing gift of the natural world around us.  A gift that we can so easily take for granted.  To quote John Muir once again….”Most people are on this world not in it.”  Well, I’m in and staying 🙂

For the last 12 weeks, I’ve been enrolled in Clemson University’s ‘South Carolina Master Naturalist Program.’  It has been a fun, overwhelming, more fun, hectic, consuming, and even more fun….. experience.  My training took place at the Low Country Institute on Spring Island in Beaufort County.  Chris Marsh, Tony Mills, Sarah Ernst and a host of past MN graduate volunteers led 28 of us through the wilds of the low country.  Yesterday culminated our journey to becoming Master Naturalists with an all inclusive field and written exam, a yummy pot luck lunch and….. Graduation 🙂

This New Englander, who would glance a wary eye into the low country woods (imagining what crawly things lurk in palmetto thickets….) can proudly say she’s no longer shy about heading in. Very cautious mind you, but give me bug spray and away I go!  Still, my next big purchase will be snake boots…… just ’cause 🙂

Now that I have my life back, (really, if you’re thinking you’d like to partake in this program, make sure you have an empty schedule!) I will be scanning and posting my field sketches.  That’s after I get my studio cleaned up from 12 weeks of neglect.  I know the scanner is in there somewhere!  Master Naturalist, PJB, signing off…….