Tanana Valley

"A person might be able to play without being creative, but he sure can't be creative without playing." Kurt Hanks

What a great time at the Tanana Valley Sandhill Crane Festival at the Creamers Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, Fairbanks, Alaska, end of August.

Creamer's Refuge was once a productive dairy farm, but is now 2,000acres of wetland migratory bird habitat, as well as barley grain fields to provide food for them as they pass through on their autumn migration south. An amazing place, very accessible to the community, with trails, observation platforms, and a visitors center to learn all about cranes. There were more than 1500 cranes and as many snow geese.

We can feel so grateful to have protected places like Creamer's Field that sustain nature's seasonal rituals, and provide soul nurturing for we human's who go there for retreat with the wild. www.creamersfield.org

I was honored to be this year's featured guest artist and keynote speaker. I facilitated 3 workshops, one of which was to create a ground mosaic of a dancing crane using natural materials found on site, such as grass, poplar, birch and fireweed. Fun for all ages.

Then we participants formed the number 350, as a climate change message to the upcoming summit in Copenhagen, Denmark. The image was captured from the air.

It was a fun detail that the 350 photo event happened at 3:50pm.

Why 350? It is the most important number for the world. See the text with the aerial photo.

Learn more, get involved. www.350.org