If you're on Mount Desert Island tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 9), stop by The Naturalist's Notebook between 2 and 4 p.m. to learn more about wild plants, primitive skills and a new MDI-based plant organization called Anaskimin (a Native American word for acorn). New England Wild Flower Society botanist Arthur Haines, who has written a number of plant books, including Flora of Maine and Ancestral Plants, will be demonstrating friction fire-making, cordage making and other skills and answering all your questions about plants.
For a little more about Arthur, you might want to look back at my May post about a plant walk Pamelia, I and a group of other people took with him:
http://www.thenaturalistsnotebook.com/our-blog/tadpole-buddies-a-plant-genius-and-my-yellow-warbler
Though of late I've been absorbed with Sports Illustrated work, Pamelia went out and took advantage of yesterday's huge tidal shift. Western Bay was super high in the morning (with sizeable waves) and super low in late afternoon. Among other discoveries, Pamelia found a starfish (or sea star, for purists) of a different color. We've encountered deep red ones, but this one was more of a pinkish red.