Flat Stanley, also known as, Flat Christopher

This is so cool! I received a letter from a second grader named Flat Christopher. Here’s the letter. I removed his address to prevent bad people from sending him naughty things.

Here’s an illustration of Flat Christopher:

Too cute!!

Here’s the letter I wrote back to Flat Christopher. I hope I didn’t bore him to tears. I don’t really identify with children, not having had any of my own.

December 13, 2006

Dear Flat Christopher,

I live in ****, New York. **** is on the south shore of Lake Ontario. Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes. It is a fresh water lake. Here is a map of the five Great Lakes.

There is a park called **** Park on the shore of Lake Ontario. I took pictures of the lake. You can see water forever. If you cross this lake going north, you would end up in Canada.

Here is a picture of the pier at **** Park. This is one of the places I like to go fishing.

Some days you can see sailboats on the lake. It is always windy here so sailing is very good. The day I took these photos it was very windy. You can see water spraying up on the shoreline.

Sincerely Yours,

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Common Merganser (Mergus merganser)

Thanks to Lorianne, she id’d the ducks in the photo in my previous blog entry (and I know Susan would have too if she were here first) as the female Common Merganser Mergus merganser. Lorianne also gave me this link. I have to say, to whoever names birds, animals, plants, trees, etc. etc. that I simply *hate* the word “Common” before any of the *ahem* common names of God’s creatures. I guess it means there’s plenty of them around, but I still don’t like it. Period. I don’t think there’s anything common about this duck to this very casual birder. I love its long, thin bill, and the stuff flying out from the back of the females’ heads – the crest.

I love learning new things! Thanks again for your help!