The Naturalist's Notebook is growing (which helps explain the long gap since our last blog entry and the hurried nature of this post). On July 15 we are opening a small second location, at 115 Main Street in Northeast Harbor, Maine. We're calling it The Naturalist's Notebook Annex.
The new space was once a fish market. More recently it was a toy shop. It will soon become a blend of science, nature, arts and the frontier of knowledge. It will be a room that we don't have at the main, larger Naturalist's Notebook in Seal Harbor. It will evolve and get better—we hadn't expected to create a second space, and we are inventing it right this minute.
This week we put this in the front window of the Northeast Harbor Annex, ending a few months of mystery among townspeople as to what would be moving into the small building at 115 Main Street.
In the meantime, of course, the original Naturalist's Notebook has already opened for the season, and visitors seem to love all three floors of interaction, learning, shopping and fun. Every room has changed dramatically since last season. More on that and other news soon.
For those of you who don't follow The Naturalist's Notebook on Facebook, here's another bit of news: Pamelia and I have added a rescue puppy named Rocky to the Notebook family. He was a tapeworm-riddled three-pound sad sack when a Mainer named Barbara saw him at a flea market in South Carolina early this year and changed his life. Barbara happens to be a friend of Bernd Heinrich's and—thanks to the matchmaking efforts of another friend of Bernd's and ours—we suddenly found ourselves driving three hours each way in the middle of a crazily busy stretch in late June because we had to bring Rocky into our world. We feel lucky indeed.
The blog will be returning to its normal frequency soon. Some fantastic bird photos (and much more) are coming. Stay tuned...