Sophie's back

Finally got some Shore time this summer--3 overnights with Sophie: we rode a rollercoaster (her idea) & laughed and laughed, dribbled a basketball, crocheted bracelets, and saw the fox! Returned home tonight to find an email from my editor with news that my forthcoming book, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship that Changed the World has an official publication date--May 10, 2011!! Hip, hip, hurrah!!!

Women's Equality Day

90 years ago on August 26th, women finally won the right to vote when the 19th Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution. Established by Congress as Women's Equality Day, August 26th is a day to mark the long and fierce battle to win a right that in 2010 many people take for granted. The Territory of Wyoming granted women that right in 1869. In 1870, Louisa Gardner Swain, who lived in Laramie, was the first woman in Wyoming to cast her ballot. During our road trip to Yellowstone in May, Linda & I stopped in Laramie, to photograph this statue to Louise Swain.
Last year Sophie, Linda & I celebrated Women's Equality Day with a tour of Alva Belmont's mansion in Newport, RI, where Alva held suffrage fund raising events, much to the consternation of her conservative neighbors. This year we'll spend it at a barrier island off the coast of New Jersey, the home state of Alice Paul the fearless suffragist who was jailed & force fed as she led the final push to win the vote.

wildlife spottings and a book

I was transfixed by an array of zinnias in a formal garden at the New Jersey State Botanical Garden (yes, there is such a place in Ringwood State Forest located in the relatively unpopulated northwest part of the state) when a large, dark shape edged into my line of vision.
"Pets aren't allowed here," I thought as my brain sorted through breeds to match the shape. Just as I settled on "Afghan Hound . . . ," I heard Linda gasp--"Bear!" It was about 20 feet away and oblivious to us--what a thrill. A day later, we were walking along the beach to the end of Barnegat Peninsula in Island Beach State Park (one of my all-time favorite walks) when we got a good long look at a black & white shore bird with a long bright orange bill that we had never seen before. "That's an Oystercatcher," I said, having no idea where I got that name, except perhaps from the gazillion of books I've read with Sophie about animals and nature.
Driving out of the park, Linda shouted "Fox!" And there it was, close enough to the car to reach out and pet, which of course we didn't!
On our way home, we stopped at the Ben Franklin store stuffed with everything from trinkets to towels to toys to books. Holding a copy of a book, Linda exclaimed, "It was an Oystercatcher!" And there it was illustrated by Barbara Patrizzi on the cover of her book O is for Oystercatcher: A Book of Seaside ABCs. Delighted that I had somehow from somewhere retrieved that name, I bought the book, which is a beautiful book published by Down the Shore Publishing, a reminder of what readers give up when they limit themselves to Kindles & Nooks (which I'm not against, but there is something so special about the look, the feel of a carefully, lovingly written, illustrated, produced book.)