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In 2016 I’m doing a 365 Nature project. Learn more about the project and see all the 365 Nature posts.


Yesterday afternoon I received an email telling me that my glass bird I had designed on Day 296 was ready to be picked up. Very excitedly, I drove to Tacoma this morning to the Museum of Glass and bring it home. As I waited, I looked at the other birds the master glass blowers had created during the Bird Lover’s Weekend and there were some very nice ones. I was happy to see when my bird came out, although I was only able to look at it for a minute before they wrapped and boxed it up again.

When I finally returned home, I was able to take a better look at my new Varied Thrush. It turned out beautifully and the patterns and details are wonderful. Holding it in the light, I could see the layers that I had watched the glass blowers lay and the stripes on the head. I’ve always appreciated the glass birds before, but now, having watched the entire bird from design to finish, it’s a much higher level of appreciation. What I held in my hands is one of a kind. Although I certainly didn’t hold it in my hands for long, it was place very quickly in the cabinet safe from people – including me.

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Kelly Brenner

Kelly Brenner

Kelly Brenner is a naturalist, writer and artist based in Seattle. She is the author of THE NATURALIST AT HOME: Projects for Discovering the Hidden World Around Us and NATURE OBSCURA: A City’s Hidden Natural World from Mountaineers Books, a finalist for the Washington State Book Awards and Pacific Northwest Book Awards. She writes articles about natural history and has bylines in Crosscut, Popular Science, National Wildlife Magazine and others. On the side she writes fiction.

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