Sometimes I look around and I hear that Talking Heads song "Once in a Lifetime" going through my head and I ask myself, "How did I get here?"

Hanging out with Julie and Bill last week is a prime example. I remember reading Julie's articles and seeing her artwork for years in Bird Watcher's Digest and thinking, "I bet she'd be a cool chick to hang out with." And the fact that I do get to do that now--well, it takes everything I have not to "geek out". I think I did okay last week, until I got to go into her studio and saw a proof of her book that is coming out this fall. This book looks so cool, a collection of stories and essays combined with her artwork. It's as if you are going to come across a hard cover edition of her nature journal. I always thought it would be neat to do a book that way, fill it with great information, factual and not too schmaltzy and fill it with beautiful bird images and Julie has accomplished that. You might want to give a head's up to your local bird store to see if they are going to carry it this fall, it's sure to be a great gift item for the holidays. I can't remember the title, but it's being published by Houghton Mifflin. I was so honored to be in her studio and to get a sneak peak at her upcoming book, I loved the yellow breasted chat, the bullfrog, the golden eagle soaring on the title page and she even has a print of starlings duking it out--you know it takes talent if an artist can do starlings and get you to appreciate their beauty.

I think the geek out has officially passed. This is going to be a great book--I'm so excited. There are so many great books that are going to come out in the next twelve months. Carrol Henderson is doing a book on what started about an egg collection in Iowa and has now turned into a history of bird watching. That's going to be an amazing book as well. He's been showing me snippets of what he has been collecting for the book. Last week he showed me a pair of 100 year old binoculars (boy we've come a long way, baby). The history of these eggs are just unbelievable and this going to be a great read.