Sunday, May 9, 2010

Mothers day and a Paleontologist treasure find





My Mothers day weekend has been wonderful. Aaron and Olivia belong to Sea Cubs and a Mothers day breakfast was hosted at the hall yesterday. I took my Mother and Sister along with me. It was wonderful sitting in a hall full of Mothers. The chatter and laughter was contagious. We had a guest speaker Bonita De klerk a Paleontologist,( someone who studies the History of life on earth through examining fossils found in sedimentary rock) talk to us very passionately about their incredible find at the "Cradle of humankind" 40 minutes from where I live. Please look here if you are interested in teaching your children.(http://www.southafrica.info/about/science/sediba.htm ). Bonita along with the Witz team led by Lee Berger, have been hard at work uncovering fossils of a new species of Hominid (Australopithecus Sediba). They are the most complete hominid skeletons ever found. They are of a woman and a child dating back 1.78 - 1.95 million years ago. The story surrounding the find is phenomenal. It was all meant to be the way I see it. Lee Berger's son Matthew found the first fossil. Apparently Lee "Googled Earthed" the site . He was looking for a cluster of trees which is a typical clue to an entrance of a cave. Bonita said that so many famous Paleontologists have camped near by over the years and never even knew that the cave a few meters away even existed. To put this whole find into perspective, It can take a scientist sometimes up to 20 years to uncover 1 fossil tooth and a bone. I know my Boy Aaron, our little treasure finder , has been asking questions all weekend about all this. Homeschooling, allows me to start seeing the signs of my children's interests and enables me to place them in the right direction early on in their lives.

This morning I received these lovely glass bottles for Mothers day today. Gran filled the vases with all these delightful flowers. Aaron made me a recycled jar vase and Olivia recycled a glass jar lantern for me. I love it when crafts are made when you do not even know they are busy making them... I too had a delightful raw lunch that my husband put together. Chickpea and lentil burger on a spinach leaf..really tasty.

A happy Mothers day to all~

8 comments:

softearthart said...

History sure is interesting, its amazing that we come from a gene pool of early man. lovely flowers , cheers Marie

Beth said...

I'm fascinated to learn more about the newly discovered fossils of hominids and how the cave was found using google earth. It sounds like you had a much more intellectual mother's day than most people! I like the gifts, too! Happy Mother's Day! love, Beth

Kelly said...

Hi Suzanne
Happy Mothers Day to a special mama. what a great day you enjoyed with such precious displays of love shown to you by your husband and children. The paleontologist's talk sounds fascinating and I shall look into this further when I get a moment.
Have a lovely day, dear friend.
Kelly

Jessica said...

Sounds amazing--I have discovered through homeschooling Benjamin that I really love learning about prehistoric life and early man.

Oh & I just adore your gifts...so, so sweet (I love handmade gifts!)

Happy Mother's Day!

* * said...

Such beautiful bottles and flowers!
Your meal looks lovely : )
Happy new week to you!

TwigandToadstool said...

I just love those little lanterns...I think we just HAVE to have some of those here at the Toadstool!!!
beautiful blog!
maureen

Anonymous said...

I love the bottles with the flowers. So beautiful. Good Morning America did a story about this little boy. What a fascinating story. It's one to feed all of our imaginations isn't it? So glad you had a great mother's day.

Erin said...

It's nice to catch up on my favorite blogs.
I collect those tiny vases too. Mine are currently filled with peonies - in every room of the house.