wildflowers Archives

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Barb — 3 Comments

Quick Thoughts from our World

The ebooks are finished. Our school year is officially over. Summer has begun.

Harvesting oregano and making some bundles to dry was first on the list. We also picked another quart of strawberries, a few peas, a couple of stray carrots, and the last of the spinach.

We planted zinnias, cosmos, Shasta daisies, Ireland Bells, more cilantro, moonflowers, and lots of seedlings. We were able to get all our seedlings into the ground: pumpkin, acorn squash, zucchini, tomatoes, a variety of peppers, dill, and a variety of sunflowers. It makes me tired just thinking about all that we planted. Now the weather needs to stay warm and I need to keep my eyes on all my babies. My husband and boys were such a great help this week in the garden.

Weeding and pruning the butterfly garden was next on the list.

Here is another photo. If you click over to Flickr for either of these photos, I have made notes telling you what we have planted there.

One last angle of the butterfly garden.

Checking the garden beds and seeing what is growing is always a fun task this time of year. We have a few big mulleins growing along the fence.

Our baby Western scrub jay is flying now and he regularly sits outside our window waiting for his mother.

Moving from our garden now to our other adventures.

Several long hikes this past week…one hike where we saw the snake and some that were not so exciting. Here is the predominant wildflower on our hiking trail right now, Purple Chinese Houses.

We also went on a long bike ride and the boys had a blast.

My oldest son and I shared some photo moments at the lake when we stopped for a break.

Sand angels and Canadian geese….sounds good to me, except for the sand in the shoes.

I had to stop my bike and take a photo of this phlox alongside the trail. It was just too pretty to pass by.

So I think that catches me up for the last week or so in our world. I love this time of year. We have two Outdoor Hour Challenges to finish up but they will be posted soon. I have emailed out all the orders for ebooks that I have received so if you ordered and did not receive your files, please email me and let me know. I am really looking forward to starting the summer series of challenges with our family.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Barb — 7 Comments

In Between Rain Storms

We braved a few raindrops and took to the walking trail this afternoon. The weather held out so we could enjoy the abundance of wildflowers.

Although this is an invasive plant in our area, it is just amazing right now. This Scotch broom or Common broom is bursting with color.

Just look at that color in this close-up. Does it look like a “noxious weed” to you? I know that it disturbs the ecosystem but it very pretty to look at…sigh.

And here is the first of the season….usually a long season in our area. Our Queen Anne’s Lace is in its usual spot right on the side of a particular spot on the trail.

From NotebookingPages.com Wildflower Set

As I type this there is a downpour of rain right outside my window. I am really glad we were able to take a walk in between rain storms.

Posted on May 18, 2010 by Barb — 3 Comments

Wildflower Surprises

Our last hike took us to a new area of our local mountains. Hiking along we noticed several new wildflowers. I was anxious to get home to look them up in the field guide.

This is the first one: Yellow star tulip!

This one I think is a Slender iris.

What a wonderful way to learn about a new area by getting to know its wildflowers. I marvel at each new creation that I see. These two new wildflowers now are safely recorded in my nature journal.

Posted on May 17, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

More Bees than Usual?

Has anyone else noticed that there are a lot of bees this year? It seems to me that our garden is just alive with bees and perhaps we have added enough flowering plants to attract more bees or there really are more bees like I am imagining.

In our hiking around the countryside, I have noticed more wildflowers this year as well. The clover is everywhere and perhaps with the abundance of flowers, there is a relationship with the number of bees.

Always more questions to answer….

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Barb — 4 Comments

Hike to the River: Spring Wildflowers

Friday we took a long afternoon hike to the river near our house. This is our usual trail but we went the entire distance to see how high the river is with some of the spring runoff from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The wildflowers are amazing right now…here are a few favorites.

This was really the star of the wildflowers on this particular hike, mustang clover. This flower is blanketing the hillsides. What a show!

Here is a photo of it along the trail.

The other wildflower making its glorious appearance is the California poppy.

We made it to the bottom of the river canyon and realized our beach is completely covered in water right now. We had to be content to sit on the rocks and watch the water rush by.

On the way back up, we stopped for a break in the shade. The insects were buzzing and we even saw our first mosquitoes of the season.

Here is a new to me wildflower on this trail, purple monkeyflower. There was a patch growing right along the trail on a moist bank.

I also saw for the very first time on this trail some pearly everlasting.

Two new wildflowers to add to our running list for this trail.

Hope you enjoyed seeing our outing. We definitely had a wonderful time on this spring afternoon.

Posted on May 5, 2010 by Barb — Leave a comment

Nature Study on the Wild Side: Part 2

“The teacher may judge as to her own progress in nature study by the length of time she is glad to spend in reading from nature’s book what is therein written. As she progresses, she finds those hours spent in studying nature speed faster, until a day thus spent seems but an hour.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 7

Everyday now we spend more and more time outdoors in various activities. The sunny skies and warmer temperatures have beckoned us outside to be refreshed and inspired. Nothing like soaking up a little sun in between schoolwork and housework.

Mr. A has become my personal gardener in exchange for some pocket money. I gladly have turned over my weeding and pruning duties to him and he is rather good at making the yard look especially nice. Now I can spend my time doing the more enjoyable tasks in the garden, knowing the weeds will not be ankle deep if I ignore them.

Mr. B and I take a “tour of the garden” during our morning break and each time we find something new and interesting. Yesterday we noticed the columbine is blooming, the day before that we took time to notice the strawberry bed and its multitude of little berries, and before that we watched the bees in the lavender. Just a few minutes outdoors, nothing earth shattering but still refreshing nonetheless.

I have been keeping close watch on my “wild side“. I had to negotiate with my hubby again to keep my little strip of wildness on the side of our house. He agreed that it was an interesting experiment and granted my wish.

Here are some photos from yesterday.

1. Wild Side 1, 2. Wild Side 2, 3. Yellow flower in the Wild side, 4. Pink flower in the Wild Side, 5. Flower gone to see in the Wild Side, 6. Blue flower in the Wild Side, 7. Awesome leaves in the Wild Side, 8. Bleeding hearts in the Wild Side

Looking closer, I am finding a huge variety of living things right there on the side of my house.

Tomorrow I will post our cattail entry….waiting on finishing our notebook pages.

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

Evening Walk

Last Friday, it was a perfect evening for a hike. We took advantage of the longer daylight hours and the warm spring air to hike our familiar trail.

We spotted some Purple Chinese houses right off the bat as we began our way down the canyon.

I had my eye out for some Fairy lanterns and I found many that were just getting ready to bloom. I spotted this one blooming along a side path.

The Golden brodiaea is blooming right now too!

My son spotted a few Larkspurs just starting to bloom.

Also there were some California poppies.

We found another big cluster of Mule’s ears blooming in our meadow.

Now wasn’t that worth the effort to get out and take a walk after dinner???

If you would like to see some photos from our Arizona desert trip, pop over to my other blog and you can view them in the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival entry!

Posted on April 25, 2010 by Barb — 7 Comments

Our Dandelion Morning

As part of the Spring Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges, we spent a sunny morning looking for the tallest dandelion in our yard. We have quite a few this year, partly because we have left our “wild side” wild and partly because it is just a good year for dandelions.

I gave my boys a ruler and a camera as we went out the door. I challenged them to find the tallest dandelion they could see in our backyard. They knew just where to look and as our dog followed them around, they measured and took photos. I wandered around the yard looking at all the growing things and the number of bees we have in our flowers.

They tried to convince me that the dog ate the biggest one. Our dog does love it when you blow the seeds and she will try to catch the seeds in her mouth as they fly around in the air. It is actually quite funny. She will also lay in the dandelions and eat the leaves.

So here is the verdict. They found one that measured just at twelve inches high.

They brought a few flowers in to look at and I took the opportunity to draw a few things in my nature journal. I noticed in the evening that the dandelions that were in the vase had all closed up tightly. This morning in the sunshine they were open again.

Another day this week we will go out early in the morning and observe to see if the flowers are closed up and if they open up later in the sunshine.

It was a fun study for all of us and it gave us a really good excuse to be outdoors on a school day.

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Barb — 19 Comments

OHC Spring Series #4: Wildflowers-Dandelions

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Spring Series #4 Dandelions

Inside Preparation Work:
Read in the Handbook of Nature Study about dandelions on pages 531-535. After reading the suggestions on pages 543 and 535, choose several ideas from the lesson to complete during your Outdoor Hour Time.

Outdoor Hour Time:
Spend 15 minutes outdoors this week in your own backyard or a near-by park. As you walk along, keep your eyes out for dandelions.

Suggestions for Observations

See if you can find several dandelions in various stages of growth.
Look at the leaves and collect a few for sketching later in your nature journal.
If it is growing in your own yard, you might like to dig up the complete dandelion plant and observe the roots.
Measure the height of several different dandelion plants and compare them.
Examine an unopened dandelion flower.
Watch a bee working in a dandelion.
Observe the seeds and how they are dispersed.
Observe your dandelions on a sunny day and then on a cloudy day. Note any differences.

Follow-Up Activities:
Take some time to draw the dandelion in your nature journal or complete the notebook page from the Spring Series ebook. Make sure to record your observations of the dandelion and make a sketch of the leaf and flower. If you would like to see our sample study of a dandelion in our backyard, here is the LINK.

Composite Flowers-Supplement to the Study of a Dandelion
The dandelion is a composite flower and the Handbook of Nature Study has a section to explain just what that means.

“Many plants have their flowers set close together and thus make a mass of color, like the geraniums or the clovers. But there are other plants where there are different kinds of flowers in one head, those at the center doing a certain kind of work for the production of seed, and those around the edges, doing another kind of work. The sunflower, goldenrod, asters, daisies, coneflower, thistle, dandelion, burdock, everlasting, and many other common flowers have their blossoms arranged in this way.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 503

Observe your dandelion, perhaps with a magnifying lens, to see if you can observe the parts of a composite flower:
Look at the center of the flower for the disc flowers and around the edges for ray flowers. (illustrated in the diagram on page 575)
Examine the disc flowers in the center and see if they are open or unfolded. How many ray flowers are there?
Locate the bracts (green cover of the flower before it opens). Can you see the bracts on the back of the flower?
More ideas for studying a composite flower are found on page 503 in Lesson 131. Note: This lesson will be Lesson 135 in the older edition and in the Plants and Trees pdf it is on page 68.

If you would like all the Spring Series Challenges in one book, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. The ebook also contains art and music appreciation plans for the winter months as well. Please see this entry for more details:

Spring Nature Study with Art and Music Appreciation

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Barb — 5 Comments

Wildflowers Again….Our Daily Walk

Starting off with some pretty clover.

Next are some Mule’s Ears…this is the biggest clump I have ever seen with them all in bloom. Perfect. (Ignore the camera strap in the corner of the photo.)

So much like a sunflower and the bloom is rather large. You can really see the soft looking texture of the leaf which gives this flower its common name.

I wasn’t the only one enjoying the blossom.

Next came the lupine again….so much of it now along the trail: Miniature lupine.

Here is its leaf.

Last but not least, the California poppy. You can see one getting ready to open up and the other still in the bud stage with its “hat” on.

I have about four entries worth of photos to upload but I am out of time this evening. Stay tuned….our bird entry is coming up in a day or two as well.

Category: wildflowers