It has been extremely hot here the last few days and we have been missing our afternoon walks. My husband and I woke up early this morning, deciding to rise and take our dog for a long walk in the cool morning air.
What a delight!
We found some wildflowers to enjoy and I wanted to share them with you.
Queen Anne’s Lace (Are you looking for your Queen Anne’s lace to observe for the Summer Challenges?)
The chicory is just now starting to bloom around the edges of the trail. It is such a pretty color and contrasts greatly with the grasses baked brown in the heat.
Summertime means getting creative with your outdoor time…we try to be out in the early morning and in the evening around sundown. With the Summer Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges, we all are learning to use our senses more acutely.
I look forward to sharing more of our early morning observations in the weeks to come.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
Just a sidenote: I am working through a stack of nature related books this summer. One that I have read before but always enjoy reading again is this one:
I purchased mine used quite some time ago and it looks like there are a number of decent copies for less than a dollar.
We had an opportunity while on our Oregon Coast camping trip to take advantage of an extremely low tide to view spectacular marine creatures easily. We have done quite a bit of tide pool exploring in the last couple of years but this was by far the most awesome experience ever.
The colors of the marine life are shockingly beautiful with their pinks, bright greens, oranges, and purples. I will share a few of my favorite photos from the experience.
Sea stars and anemones were everywhere you looked, the most I have ever seen in one place.
We all loved getting a close up view of the sea stars and feeling their textures. We each had a favorite color.
This was the first time we saw this particular kind of sea star, a leather star and it was really interesting to look at. He sort of looks like he is waving to us in this photo.
How about this sun star?
There were also loads and loads of barnacles, mussels, and snails. I think the orange one is THIS. I think the striped one is THIS.
Talk about mussels…..some rocks were just covered in them.
This was the most fascinating creature that we observed during the low tide. The leather chitons were exposed on the rocks and we could really get up close. Yes, it is a living creature.
One morning we were out in the tide pools there was a volunteer naturalist helping answer questions. It was a treasure to have her there and we spent quite a bit of time exploring side by side. She was a wealth of information and I learned so much more by watching her movements and looking in places she suggested. She pointed out this worm. I think it might be this red ribbon worm.
It was an interesting perspective to see the sea grasses laying down flat because of the lack of water. The sea birds were having a delicious breakfast as they sat on the rocks. Even though it looks like the water is really close, we never got wet. Someone was always watching to see when the water was moving back in but we had plenty of time to rock hop and examine this habitat very closely.
The memories of this tidepool adventure will be with us for a very long time.
It was such a moving experience and we all felt blessed to have been able to take advantage of the opportunity.
I will try to post some of the photos from our hikes in the redwoods soon….awesome in a different way. If you are wondering what beach this is, we were at Harris Beach in Brookings, Oregon. I highly recommend this state park for camping and exploring the southern Oregon coast.
Have you seen the new product over at NotebookingPages.com? If you own a Lifetime Membership over on Debra’s website, you can log into your account on NotebookingPages.com and download your set right now. If you aren’t already a member over there, you can purchase the set separately or I would highly recommend a Lifetime Membership so you can access all of the 1000’s of notebooking pages she has to offer. ($4.95 for the setor get started with your membership with $10!)
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Better late than never….here is our last Spring Series Challenge for ants. I made this a challenge for my youngest son to go out and quickly find three different spots in our yard where he knew there were ants.
I know that from working around the yard that there are places where we regularly find ants. In fact, last week I was watering our garden and it seems that I disturbed a colony of ants and they were quickly crawling up my legs before I even knew it. Let’s just say that I decided the best course of action was to turn the hose on myself and wash them all away. It must have looked rather funny….you can picture me wearing a skirt with ants crawling all over my legs….then me drenched with cold hose water doing a little “ants in my pants” dance.
Here are the three photos that my son took as he completed my mini-challenge for ants.
Ant on the rocks
Ant on the tree
Ants on the sidewalk
I found a few more this morning during my outdoor time.
Ants on the sunflower
Ants on the wall leading up to the hummingbird feeder
I also noticed that on my wildside I now have English plantain blossoming. Can you see the pollen on my fingers from this little flower? It is very pretty up-close and I never even knew we had this in our yard because it usually gets mowed down before it has flowers.
After we did some pruning a few weeks ago, I added the limbs under a bush near our birdfeeder. I am trying to see what kind of animals and birds will be attracted to this sheltered area adjacent to my wildside. So far I have noticed that the little birds will fly into the pile and then pop out to snatch seeds from under the feeder.
Well that wraps up the whole Spring Series of Challenges for our family. We are busy working on the Summer Series as the weather warms up.
I know that yesterday was the first official day of summer but for some reason I forgot to publish this post so you are receiving it a day late. Perhaps it was that my laptop died and I have been working from a different computer….in any case, enjoy the notebook page and your second day of summer.
Note: I am hoping to continue working on a series of “Know Your Own Yard” posts over the summer and perhaps even into the autumn.
When all else fails, know your own backyard.
Take a few minutes on this first day of summer and explore with your children.
Here is a bonus notebook page for you to use to follow up your outdoor time!
Outdoor Hour Challenges Summer Series #1 Mosquitoes and World of Smell
Train Your Senses
Sight: Begin to learn how long it takes for your eyes to adjust as the evening gets darker. Use your sense of sight to observe mosquitoes or mosquito larvae. Can you observe any birds or bats eating mosquitoes?
Smell: Sit quietly in your yard, perhaps at different times of day, observing any smells of summer that you can recognize. Can you smell more at night when your other senses are not as useful? Can you smell more on a damp night or a dry night? Does a certain smell bring back a memory?
Hearing: Can you hear any mosquitoes or other insects buzzing?
Inside Preparation Work:
1. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 411-415 on mosquitoes. Pay special attention to page 414 where there is a list of places that mosquito larvae can be found. Read through Lesson 105 to equip yourself for your mosquito study.
2. Read in Discover Nature at Sundown pages 14-26. This section will give you some general information about how humans and other living creatures use their sense of smell. We will study several of these living things as part of this series of challenge: moths, evening primroses, mosquitoes, frogs, and bats.
Outdoor Hour Time:
1. This week spend your 15 minutes outdoors at sundown. As you start your Summer Series of Challenges, try to establish a routine of going outdoors in the evening to spend some time observing your backyard or neighborhood as the light fades. Use the suggests above to use your senses during your outdoor time. After reading in Discover Nature At Sundown, you will have some ideas for night-blooming flowers to look for and to smell. Also the book suggests observing sounds on a damp night and a dry night and comparing your results.
2. Also, as part of this challenge, you can try to collect some live mosquito larvae. Here are some instructions:
Look in a pond, along a stream, in a rain barrel or any where else you can find some standing water.
Collect a jar full of water to bring home to observe. Scoop the water rapidly and hopefully you will get some larvae or pupae.
The Handbook of Nature Study suggests putting the jar on your desk to observe the “wigglers”. Use the suggestions from Lesson 105 to study your mosquitoes. Here is a link to a webpage that has more information about mosquitoes: How Stuff Works: Mosquitoes
Follow-Up Activity:
1. There is a notebook activity included with this challenge is to keep track of all the smells of summer that you find over the next few weeks. As a new smell comes to your attention, make sure to write it down in your journal. There is set of free mosquito notebook pages available over on NotebookingFairy.com.
2. If you were successful in collecting and then observing mosquito larvae, record your thoughts in your nature journal or on the notebook page provided in the Summer Series ebook. If you did not find any mosquito larvae, you can record the things you learned about mosquitoes instead.
If you would like all the Summer Series Challenges in one place, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. Here is a link to a complete description: Summer Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges
Our tulip tree is blooming like crazy! I have never seen so many blossoms on this tree and the bees have noticed too. The buzzing starts as soon as the sun rises and continues most of the day.
Wouldn’t you want to buzz around this blossom and collect some pollen too? The colors and patterns are very impressive if you take the time to observe them up close. You can see clearly the inner part that will become the helicopter seeds in the fall right there in the middle of the blossom.
You can see how the sepals bend back and expose the flowers. The design of this flower truly shows the finger of our Grand Creator.
Here is a view of the tree with all the flowers….it is amazing the difference between the seasons in this tree.
Our next update will be with the Summer Series of Challenges.
“I know of nothing so deceptive as the appearance of the poppy buds, which, rough and hairy, droop so naturally that it seems as if their weight must compel the stem to bend; and yet, if we test it, we find the stem is as stiff as if made of steel wire.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 560
“The poppies shed their sepals when the flowers expand; they offer quantities of pollen to the bees, which are very fond of it. The seed capsule develops holes around the top, through which the seeds are shaken, a few at a time.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 562
Observations suggested in the Handbook of Nature Study:
Look at the bud of the poppy. How is it covered? How many sepals? Can you see where they unite? Is the stem bent because the bud is heavy? What happens to this crook in the stem when the flower opens? Does the crook always straighten out completely?
We used these suggestions to really look at our poppies that are planted in a pot on our back deck. I put the pot near our hummingbird feeder and I quite often see a bee or a hummer stop by for a little something as they go by.
I really do need to plant some more of these beautiful flowers in my garden next year.
If you are interested in using your garden as a nature study focus this summer, please consider using the Outdoor Hour Challenge Gardens and Flowering Plants Ebook. Here is a link for more information.
Here is an updated collage of photos from my “wildside”. There were lots of insects this time to observe and the different grasses are so diverse in their growing and the way they make seeds. Some are like velcro and some look almost like wheat. Some are red and some are green or almost yellow.
I am finding this project very satisfying.
Enjoy!
If you are interested, here are the other two posts in this series:
Our crop of blackberries growing near our “wildside” is amazing this year. The abundance of blossoms and new little berries makes my mouth water just thinking of the summer eating we will enjoy.
The coreopsisis bursting with color and I have vases and vases filled with these cheerful blooms.
You will need to click over to Flickr to read the notes for this photo. This is my fence-line garden and it happens to have my tallest sunflower so far this season. This is a volunteer flower and the birds must have planted the seed sometime for us all to enjoy.
Just a little snapshot from the garden this week. From now on, the garden’s look will change almost daily.
It’s not too late! You can still plant some things in your garden to enjoy this summer even if you plant something in a pot on your porch.
Our Outdoor Hour Challenge Earthworm Studywas very informal and done as we did our gardening this past weekend. Our garden boxes were tilled in preparation of our seedlings and in the process we uncovered lots of glorious earthworms. What amazing creatures!
I am always worried that we will hurt them if we dig them up but they soon snuggle back down into the soil, more quickly than you think they should.
We did a formal study of earthworms earlier in the year when we studied them in our science dissection unit. Here is a diagram of the innards of an earthworm.
Mr. B also did a very good sketch of an earthworm for his nature journal.
Rest assured that we will be continuing our study of earthworms as we tend our garden this summer.
You can find the Outdoor Hour Challenge for Earthworms with links, study ideas, and more here on my blog: OHC Spring #9 Earthworms.
