Reconnaissant is French for thankful, click on the player to hear how it sounds. Sometimes if things sound different we can think about them differently. I stopped down to thank the beavers this morning, but they were too busy with their holiday preparations to visit – athough their dams look amazing. Yesterday was an odd bundle of beaver fortune with an abrupt invitation to lunch from Michael Pollock (NOAA Fisheries) who was passing through Martinez on the way to a family gathering. He wanted to chat beavers and revisit the habitat which he has not seen since it was blown out in March. It happened to be his birthday! He was enormously impressed with the repairs, and as we chatted over tea at Lemongrass I told him about the story of our returned patriarch and the industrious little beaver who builds with reeds. He might not have believed me if he hadn’t seen the secondary dam for himself. Oh, he also wanted to see where the beaver mural wasn’t and said he had laughed harder at that story than at any other time all year.
When I got home there was an email from Fox news in Blaine MI asking for comment on the BIG BEAVER killing I wrote about yesterday. Did I think that was an usually large beaver? Were there any other solutions besides killing? Since I wasn’t local he didn’t want an interview but I tried to slip in lots of beaver information and encourage him to ask the right questions. Apparently there’s a nearby resident who’s very pro-beaver and they were going to feature them on the news that night. Sweet.
As if all that wasn’t thanks-inducing enough a package arrived which turned out to be the delivery of my advance copies of Jo Marshall’s “Rushing Waters”. Remember the youth fiction about the “Twigs” who enlist the help of goliath beavers to save the land from flooding caused by global warming? She had asked me to read it and provide a jacket review, which I was stunned to see was boldly included on the first page. The book is illustrated by an Disney artist D.W. Murray and is the latest of a series. She sent three copies, so I’ll bring one to the renewed Martinez Library for donation!
Is that all? It’s more than enough. I certainly have had plenty to be thankful for this year, from meeting folks at the Oregon conference in February to presenting with Michael and Rick in Yosemite in March to an excellent beaver festival in August and a unsolicited beaver ballad in September – not to mention the great Martinez Coverup which provided literally weeks of unfolding amusement. I’m grateful that Dad came back and that our three thrive on to carry mom’s legacy into the future, and that the community of Martinez continues to extend support and encouragement for the beavers.
Have a beautiful Turkey Day, and here’s some extra gratitude.
