What a day!
What was it that Oscar Wilde used to always say? The only thing worse than throwing a beaver festival where no one comes is throwing a beaver festival where EVERYONE comes!!!
The festival was on channel 7 twice in the morning, and in the SF Gate as well, so lots of new faces found their way to our door. So many children! Every single key to the waters was claimed and I had to turn away offers to take the post test. Many new faces that had read Ben’s famous book and wanted to see the festival for themselves, and some who read Ben’s book and specifically came to meet ME because of it. I was even asked to sign a few copies.
A nice woman who had driven from Arizona to see the festival, Joe Wheaton’s sister and her son who once again sent greetings from the famous researcher, Marie from Safari West who loved Amy’s artwork and is probably going to hire her away from us next year. Emily Fairfax who had flown in for the event from LA, a sweet couple from Jenner who brought me flowers, and many nice families we had watched grow up with the festival. It was a wild wonderful day.
Best parade ever. I just loved the picket signs. And at the center of it all Amy worked steadily finishing her wonderous creation. A bobcat in the morning, a salmon in the afternoon and a turtle and crayfish to finish. It all came out amazing and we wrapped it in barricades in the hope of getting one sighting of it in the morning light before its disappeared. I will never stop being grateful for what she did.
For me the most surprising thing of all was how enthusiastic children were about the treasure hunt and how proud they were of their finds and discoveries. This was a simple activity, no fancy charms or complicated buttons. Just some modgepodge and a whole lot of printed keys and postcards. The sight of painstakingly taped together maps in the hands of the beaming children was ADORABLE. The sight of children telling me that they figured out that the beaver was the key to the waters was PRICELESS. And one little boy felt so proud at the end of the parade he shouted “I found the KEY! I have the KEY!” and everyone clapped for him because he it was that sort of day.
And Robin of Napa came! Who is so involved with our beavers but never ever ever comes! It was so fun to meet her and her little dog too! Some of these photos are from her, or from others I snagged off facebook. Cheryl will send some later after she has RESTED nearly enough!!!
Great day, great bands, great response to auction and great children. This is Ripley signing off.
