Raising Maine

I fuss over my windows, but not the way Martha Stewart fusses over hers. My windows are more a tribute to Bill Nye the Science Guy (remember him? Loved that show!). They are not elegant, but they are beautiful, because they are an important part of the laboratory that is our home. Crickets. Beetles. Seeds. They are all study subjects in our laboratory home; each is captured, examined, identified, and researched (a theme in our home story: let no wall be bookshelf-free). With the exception of nonnative avifauna (like long-bodied cellar spiders many folks commonly mistake for daddy long-legs), all living creatures, unless found dead, are set free.

So recently, when I was moving into window winterization mode, I noticed all of the wonderful study subjects Boy Bird had accumulated and placed on our kitchen window sills. I had never given much thought to the sills in our kitchen being used in this way because, like every other room in our house, the kitchen is no less a study zone than, say, the study. On our “cookbook shelf,” a book about native Maine trees and a pocket guide to weather sidle up alongside Marjorie Standish’s “Keep Cooking – the Maine Way” and “Sundays at Moosewood.” Boy Bird's bugs, twigs, rocks, and other items are no less fixtures in our kitchen than the toaster and tea kettle.

With the arrival of a new kitten who enjoys sunning herself in the kitchen window—and knocking off and batting around the house anything not nailed down—we’ve had to transfer some of Boy Birds collectables to safer confines. Before doing so, I asked Boy Bird to give me a video tour of his kitchen window sill treasures. Being a scientist who understands the need to document nature, especially when it is endangered and threatened with extinction, he obliged.

We hope that you enjoy his video!