The East Quabbin Land Trust‘s Service Learning Coordinator had a wonderful idea for an event at Wendemuth Meadow, the newly-conserved property in the center of North Brookfield: she called it an “Art Venture” and scheduled it for this morning, from 9 am to noon.

Those of us who volunteered to help arrived around 8:30 to set up the five stations: (1) sketching in the barn, (2) origami and boat races at the stream, (3) rock art along the stone wall, (4) stick sculpture at the bend in the path, and (5) kite-making and flying at the top of the hill. All materials were provided by the Land Trust or by donations (I brought in some of the stones for the sculpture and also supplied one of the kites).

We were blessed with a gorgeous summer day, with constant sunshine and high clouds.  Here is what the meadow looked like, from my vantage point near stone-lined culvert:

Small groups stopped by throughout the morning, but I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get a higher turnout.  All told, about a dozen people showed up, and the children seemed to enjoy themselves, which is what really counts.

As I’ve done paper-folding since I was a child, I offered to teach participants how to make paper boats to sail in our little stream. Here are some of our creations, afloat in the still waters!
The boats are made with paper sheets that are the standard 8-1/2 x 11 and the folds are simple enough that even young children can complete them.  I also offered to teach visitors how to fold water lilies, for which we needed the traditional square origami paper (I brought paper cut to 5-1/2 inches per side); more complicated folds are required to finish these.

When I first imagined our paper boats sailing along, I wondered where they would end up, if I followed them all the way from source to sea.  To satisfy my curiosity, I pored over paper maps and researched Massachusetts watersheds online.  I discovered that North Brookfield lies entirely within the Chicopee River Basin, which is comprised of four major watersheds: the Swift, the Ware, the Quaboag, and the Chicopee.  Our small stream, which crosses under Bates Street three times, joins Coys Brook, which crosses Cider Mill Road and Route 67, then joins the Quaboag River in West Brookfield.  The Quaboag meets the Ware River and the Chicopee River in . . . you guessed it: the Three Rivers section of Palmer.  The Chicopee, in turn, flows west roughly parallel to the Mass Pike and joins the Connecticut River in the city of Chicopee.  The Connecticut, longest river in New England, flows southward from the Canadian border 410 miles to its mouth in Long Island Sound.  Its watershed encompasses five U.S. states and one Canadian province; the river has 148 tributaries, 38 of which are themselves major rivers.  It would be quite the journey for a paper boat launched on Bates Street to sail to this river.

Here are some of the rock art creations:

The most popular activity this morning seemed to be the kite-flying; at one point, I looked up and counted at least four kites in the sky.  Alas, I knew my camera would not be able to record the sight from where I stood near the old barn.  But now I know where to go with my kite, when fall arrives and the leaves change color and the migrating hawks also ride the thermals on their way south.