Natural selection

I spent an excellent morning at Five Rivers Environmental Center. I've signed up to become a volunteer instructor, and today was part one of the training in Outdoor Discovery and Snow-shoeing. Eventually I should be able to take small parties of school children round and (hopefully) help them to enjoy getting out and observing nature.

Apparently it's not so much about filling kids with facts (just as well given my hazy knowledge in this area) but more about sharing enthusiasm. The trainers today did a brilliant job of enthusing me. And incidentally I did learn quite a few facts, too, such as that many owls (who are not all that wise and have very small brains) don't know how to build their own nests, so they live in empty squirrel drays. And deers' stomachs adapt in winter so that they can digest stuff like bark and twigs when leaves are in short supply. And I could go on at length about why foxes walk the way they do in snow, and why red squirrels are much fiercer than grey ones and...

'That's interesting,' said my family without conviction, turning their attentions back to the games on the Man's cellphone. I guess I still have some way to go...