I was invited to be the guest author at the Spartanburg Junior Writers' Program this summer. It's an annual summer event located at USC Upstate. There were two classes, and in the first gathering it was great to see more adult teachers (from another writing program taking place) than kids. After a 30 minute talk about the hows and whys of journaling, we all went outside to the Arboretum. The weather was the best imaginable for June in South Carolina - 70/75 degrees, breezy, sunny, with no humidity. Wow! Those of you who live down here know what I mean. There were huge tadpoles in the creek, many little wildflowers, interesting trees casting deep shade, and numerous birds singing around and about: the mockingbirds and blue jays were the loudest.
My visit left me with a big question.... what kind of tree has leaves like the one above? They were lovely, but I know they're not native, and although we were sitting in the arboretum, there was no name plaque for the large tree. If any of you tree experts out there know what it is, please let me know.
On the way back to the classroom, the kids I walked with complained that the day wasn't long enough. ;-) Ha! That was good to hear.
What a fun day!
+++++
Here are a few photos I snapped while everyone concentrated on their journals:
The Program Director sent me these photos - here I am watching the geese fly over!
1 comment:
Hi! Maybe some type of sassafras? That was my initial guess.... This is from Wikipedia: ''The species are unusual in having three distinct leaf patterns on the same plant, unlobed oval, bilobed (mitten-shaped), and trilobed (three-pronged); rarely the leaves can be five-lobed.'' I love your drawings, look forward to your book...
lizzy
Post a Comment