FAMILY PICNIC

This was my introduction to the Monkey flower, the first one that I ever saw. I found it growing beside a stream in Grand Valley, north of Huckleberry Hollow, where Mrs. Trowbridge lived.

Mrs. Trowbridge is in high spirits because summer has come to Huckleberry Hollow. Today she shares the family's first summer outing with us. Whenever I hike up Wild Rose Creek, I wonder which one of the boulders I've hopped onto or jumped over was the one that Mrs. T referred to as the family's "special boulder", where they had so many memorable family outings. I sure wish I could have been there to join them for beetle burgers.

Speaking of beetle burgers, I've noticed that whenever Mrs. T talked about meals, she usually referred to meat. After researching the shrew's diet I understood why. I learned that 80% of the shrew diet is from animal protein. The rest comes from berries, seeds and nuts. I would never know by Mrs. T's gentle demeanor that shrews are ferocious carnivors.

I plan to make another trek this summer into Huckleberry Hollow, the area in the rain forest where Mrs. Trowbridge lived. I hope to go in a few weeks, when the wildflowers are in full bloom. I wish some of you could join me. If I find time to make the trip, I'll post some photos for you. It's truly a magical place.

Sidebar Info: I recently learned that there was once ANOTHER Trowbridge Chronicles. Between 1861 and 1906 the Trowbridge Chronicles newspaper was published in a rural county in Southwest England.