EYE OF TOBIA PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG

Documenting, sharing and musing about photography (and life with small children)

This little guy was discovered by Dunedin in the garden up in Vermont. It is an adolescent presentation of the Red-Spotted Newt. The time in his life when he hops up out of his aquatic home and tries living on firm ground for his rebellious years. For those not sure how the story ends, he will head back to a water dwelling existence after up to 7 years of soul(earth) searching, leaving his color and vigor behind. But the red spots from his youth will remain.
Luckily Dunedin didn’t ask if we could eat him… We are going through a bit of confusion about what is edible these days…

Dunedin is a little naturalist at heart. She studies the world around her with such great attention to detail, losing herself in the her daily discoveries. At the age of 2 she knew all of the 25 birds in our book from the library “Crinkleroot’s 25 Birds Every Child Should Know” by Jim Arnosky and she could identify many of them by their call on our walks. This last weekend, she was able to identify, after only a brief glimpse, a hummingbird. Something she has only seen in pictures before. She picks out animal encyclopedias for her bed time reading. She can tell you what the only 2 egg laying mammals are. She will tell you that a giraffe is an herbivore, that a tiger is carnivore, that an elephant has hooves not paws, the difference between harbor and leopard seals and will tell you that only boy narwhals have tusks. Well, she would likely not tell YOU. She would walk into a dark wooded landscape with far more bravery than if she were to have to enter room filled with people. This is something, that as a mother makes me both proud and sad. I wish for her to find more enjoyment from the people in the world around her and not view them with such distrust. It is likely there is a social lesson she will learn someday and pass through this phase of fearing the unknown stranger. But I hope her being able to find her center whilst inspecting the underbelly of a red spotted newt is something that will stay.