Hi, I'm Henry Cole and today I'm gonna read you one of my books,
one of my favorite books, On Meadowview Street.
[MUSIC]
It was a big day.
Caroline and her family were moving into their new house on Meadowview Street.
After things were unpacked,
Caroline's dad decided that the grass was too tall and got busy mowing the lawn.
Caroline was about to explore the new street to see if there was
a meadow view on Meadowview Street when she noticed a small blossom.
It's beautiful, Caroline said to herself, and all alone.
The mower was getting closer.
Caroline thought, I'd better do something quick.
The mower came to a halt.
Daddy, Caroline pleaded, couldn't you mow around my flower?
Hm, he said, thinking well that's less mowing for me.
Caroline raced inside the house.
She poked around boxes in the basement.
Ah-ha, she smiled, some string and some sticks, just what I needed.
Before long, Caroline had made a wildflower preserve.
Then she noticed another flower had bloomed nearby.
Her preserve got bigger and bigger and bigger.
That butterfly seems to like my little garden, Caroline thought happily.
As the grass grew taller, more flowers popped up all over the yard.
Soon there were different kinds and different colors everywhere.
[MUSIC]
Caroline's dad had a great idea for the mower.
One day Caroline sat in her preserve in the heat of the sun.
My garden needs a shady spot, she said to her parents.
A shady spot sounds nice, replied Caroline's mom.
Soon a truck made a delivery.
Caroline's mom took pictures.
Welcome to your new home, said Caroline to the maple tree.
The next day as Caroline admired the maple tree,
a wren landed on the end of her shovel.
Whoa, you're looking for a home too, said Caroline.
Caroline and her dad got to work.
They found some plans for building birdhouses.
Caroline helped cut the wood and nail the pieces together.
[SOUND] Perfect, thought Caroline.
So did the wren.
In no time, there were birds and insects everywhere around the tree,
zipping among the flowers.
Soon the wren house was full of twigs for a nest.
Caroline wanted one more thing.
We need a place where everyone can get a drink of water, she said.
The next day, she and her dad began building a pond.
They dug a large shallow hole and lined it with a heavy plastic sheet.
Caroline added plants that like living in water.
She lugged large rocks to the edge, making ledges and little caverns for
creatures to live in.
The more Caroline and her family worked on their yard, the more it changed.
It was now a home to many things.
[MUSIC]
And soon the Jacksons' yard changed and the Smiths' and the Sohos'.
[MUSIC]
Now there really was a meadow on
Meadowview Street and a home for everyone.
[MUSIC]
The idea for the story came to me years ago when I moved into a new house just
like Caroline did.
I moved into a new house.
You wanna see a picture of the day I moved in?
My golly.
Here's my yard at my new house.
I don't know if you know this or not but grass to wildlife is a real snooze.
Grass is not the greatest thing for
wildlife unless maybe you're a cow or horse.
Otherwise this is not a very attractive yard for wildlife.
And I remember standing there one day, I put a little red dot on the picture.
I don't know if you can see,
I was standing right where the little red dot is.
I was looking at the grass going, I hate you.
Suddenly a little honeybee came into my yard.
Here's what he did.
The honeybee flew around my yard,
he looked everywhere, and then he flew away.
I was so sad.
I didn't blame him for leaving.
I realized that to a honeybee, my yard was like a desert.
There wasn't any place for a honeybee to live, there was nothing for
a honeybee to eat.
I was so sad.
I realized that it was just gonna be me and the stupid grass.
So one day I went out into the yard and I ripped up all the grass and
I planted things that would attract wildlife into my yard.
I wanted as many things living there as possible.
Okay, this was when I moved in, and this wasn't too much longer.
Can you see the difference?
I dug a little pond, I planted things that the wildlife would like,
and pretty soon there was all sorts of wildlife living in my yard.
It was a beautiful place for me and the wildlife to live.
When I was a little kid, I liked being inside then too,
in fact, I found some pictures recently.
You'll like this.
Here's a picture I drew.
I think I was probably in second grade or so.
This is the house and
you can see even way back then I liked drawing trees and wildlife.
Look, there's a flock of crows going over the house and it's a beautiful sunny day.
No, that is not a giant asteroid about to hit the Earth.
No, that's my version of what the sun looked like,
it must have been quite a hot day that day.
And I like this picture too.
I love this.
Apparently this is after we had a visitor at school, Smokey the Bear.
So I drew a picture of Smokey the Bear,
protecting the forest from a wildfire that's coming.
And finally I wanna show you this picture.
This shows how much I loved being outside and wildlife when I was a little kid.
I would draw, particularly the insects,
I love drawing the insects that lived on my farm.
And it makes me think, you know, wildlife is everywhere.
If you have wildlife that lives near you, grab a crayon,
grab a pencil, go ahead and draw it.
It could be a deer that lives in the woods nearby,
it could be a pigeon that lives in a park nearby.
It could be an earthworm that's struggling to cross the sidewalk near your home.
But whatever it is, draw it, write a story about it.
'Cause wildlife can be very interesting and you can get a lot
of enjoyment out of observing the wildlife that lives around your home.
Thank you for sharing the story with me today and
I hope to see you again soon.
Bye, everybody.