Month: November 2023

SMC

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This week’s Buildings assignment was to sketch a fancy local building that we could sit directly in front of. I was on my way to the historic Adamson House when I realised that the new Santa Monica College satellite (opened earlier this year) fit the bill.

It seems there was not really a need for this campus, but the money was available, so they built it anyway. The parking lot is always empty. Are there any students inside? In the meantime, the park opposite is populated by people experiencing homelessness. Were resources allocated rationally?

Trichechus manatus

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It’s Manatee Awareness Month.

I’ve never seen a manatee (or a dugong, the Australian member of the Sirenia order), but I would love to. Sirenia are the only extant herbivorous marine mammals and the only group of herbivorous mammals to have become completely aquatic. These large, slow, gentle creatures are more closely related to elephants than to other marine mammals.

Humans are the main cause of death for manatees—no longer hunting, but still habitat destruction, propellers, flood gates, fishing nets. Additionally, with the warming of the oceans, their behaviour patterns change, food sources are disrupted, and bacteria and parasites spread more quickly. All three species of manatees (West Indian, Amazonian and West African) have been listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since the 1980s. Another gentle giant could well disappear from the planet in our lifetimes.

nature journaling at the tide pools

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We had our third SMMNJC meetup today, and I’m still a-glow, hours later. Fourteen of us met at low tide at Malibu Lagoon State Beach to share a picnic, then marvel at sea hares, anemones, limpets, shrimp, crabs, octopuses, patterns in the sand, seabirds, and so much more. Near the end of our time together, I quoted the immortal words of Kurt Vonnegut, “Well if this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”  My heart is full.