Pikes Peak Pebble Pups

Pikes Peak Pebble Pups

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

A Postcard from Siberia

By Julie Shimon

When you are nine years old receiving mail is always exciting; perhaps even more so when it’s a highly anticipated postcard, handmade, and coming to you from an unexpected friend in Russia.  There is a really great story behind Jack's most recent mail delivery. Last summer Jack wrote a story about a lecture on Nasutuceratops titusi. Of all the images available online of this interesting dinosaur his favorite was one created by Andrey Atuchin, an artist in Russia.  We sought permission to use his artwork and then weeks later Jack was back on email to Andrey asking permission to interview about his profession.

That interview became one of Jack’s favorite writing projects ever. Not only did he learn about a very interesting job—natural history illustrator—but he also got a glimpse into the life of Andrey and his family in Russia. Since the interview we have remained in touch and the opportunity came up again to work on a project together.  Jack’s school is doing a project to collect postcards from different states and countries. We asked Andrey if he’d like to do a postcard trade. For our part, it was simple to find some fun postcards of Colorado landmarks and write notes and draw pictures (Jack’s sister) and send them to Russia.  Andrey, however, was a great sport when he replied that he’d love to trade postcards but since he couldn’t get one in Kemerovo he was going to make one for Jack!!

Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society Pebble Pup Jack Shimon
displaying his postcard from his paleontologist friend who lives in Siberia, Russia.
The card is from Andrey Atuchin who is also a paleo artist.
As you can imagine, this was one piece of mail we couldn’t wait for.  Andrey said it took two weeks for the delivery to arrive from Moscow for him to get started. That delivery was a beautiful photo of a snowy Siberia, taken by a photographer friend of Andrey’s who lives near Baikal Lake in Siberia.  The other side of the card contains Andrey’s original artwork. When Andrey emailed that his postcard was in the mail to Jack we settled in to be patient.  Little did we know that while it took two weeks for the photo to travel within Siberia it only took one week from it to go from Moscow, across the ocean, and into our mailbox!!

Welcome! This is the gateway to adventure and discovery

Through this blog pebble pups and junior members of the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society can access their lessons, work on assignments and projects, and receive details about field trips in the Pikes Peak Region. This Internet program is also suitable for young people who are interested in Earth science but do not live near a rock club or gem and mineral society or for young people anywhere who want a deeper dive into these topics. The only requirement is that all participants must be members of the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society and must fill out the CSMS membership form (under important websites) and send their registration and membership fee in. Steven Veatch is the senior instructor and will need an email from you with your name, address, phone number, and permission from your parents to participate in this program.