With love, Mrs. Kent

La+Ca%C3%B1adas+top+bug+hunter%2C+Quinn+Kent%2C+gets+down+and+dirty.+

Heather Kent

La Cañada’s top bug hunter, Quinn Kent, gets down and dirty.

Welcome to Dear Tologs, a place where faculty, staff, and students not a part of the newspaper staff can share their thoughts with the school community. What shows have you been watching? How are you spending your time? Have you had any deep, introspective revelations while in isolation? We want to know! You can send your submissions to Mr. Dibblee (tdibblee@fsha.org).

Dear Tologs… 

How’ve you been? Things are weird, and I miss the normal weirdness of each of you in the studio. 

But on the bright side, all this rain has brought out the bugs. Why do I mention this? Because my four, nearly five year old is quite the entomologist. Each of us is living a very different reality right now. And while it’s not where we thought we’d be with spring break around the corner, I’m finding a lot of great adventures to be had, if you’re willing to look for them. Between creating an online ceramics course, having my family home with limited options means that I get to pop outside during the day and get away from my screen and, you guessed it… go bug hunting. It turns out we have quite the habitat in our backyard, which is exciting, as it means a healthy ecosystem, but Quinn doesn’t care about that. She’s excited to find the slugs (so. many. slugs.), the worms, the pinchy bugs (they don’t hurt when they pinch, promise). And, various grubs, larvae, and what have you. After I leave Google Meet and wrap up class, we head on outside. Quinn grabs some empty playdough containers for observing captured bugs, and I grab my gardening gloves along with the outdoor bug habitat. This consists of a small plastic box that she’s outfitted with some dirt, bark, and sticks, and which will be restocked with cabbage leaves or other greenery for food. Once we’re outside, I pull weeds. I’m trying to stay ahead of them, and they happen to be prime bug sites. While I’m weeding, Quinn turns rocks and twigs over for bugs, holds her current specimens, and quickly comes to grab any new finds when they are unearthed by weeding. 

Eventually, it’s time to head inside for one reason or another and wash up and have a snack. I don’t know about you, but bug hunting is hungry business. 

So while we grapple with remote learning and trying to find  flour (is everyone trying to catch up on their #bakinggoals?), let’s not forget that there are some beautiful opportunities to be had in this moment. 

With love, 

Mrs. Kent, Quinn, and Sally the slug.