wildflowers Archives

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Columbine

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Columbine Wildflower Study (From the Wildflower Set #2)

Inside Preparation:

Use the information on the following websites to learn more about the two major kinds of columbine you might encounter.
Eastern red columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis): This plant is found east of the Rocky Mountains. Read more about it here: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflowers. The range map is found here: USDA Plants.
Western crimson columbine (Aquilegia Formosa): Find the range map here: USDA Plants. Try this website for more information: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflowers.
Use the chart on page 7 of the ebook to look up columbine in the suggested resources.
Sidenote: “Aquila” means eagle in Latin. Aquilegia refers to the spurred petals people think look like eagle’s talons.

Outdoor Hour Time:

Look for columbine in moist open woods, on banks and seeps, and in the sun or part shade. Look for columbine blooming anywhere from May—August.

Use the suggestions in this challenge to make careful observations of your columbine.

Follow-Up Activity:

Create a nature journal page with information about the columbine. You can use the suggestions in the ebook or use the nature notebook page and/or coloring page included in the ebook.
Create a buttercup family notebook page. Record any flowers you observe that are in the buttercup family.
Advanced study: Research the columbine duskywing butterfly. The columbine is the larval host.

How do you get the new Wildflower Nature Study ebook?

Members of the Ultimate Naturalist and Journey levels have access to the new ebook in their library. You need to click the “Members Area” button at the top of the website, sign into your account, and the ebook is there to download and save for your family to use when desired. If you don’t have a membership yet, I am offering a $5 off discount code that will be good towards your Ultimate Naturalist membership.

Discount Code: Wildflower5

If you are looking for a variety of wildflower, weed, and garden flower notebooking pages to use in your nature journal, I highly recommend this set from NotebookingPages.com. I have used them with my own family in the past and love them. Please note I am an affiliate for NotebookingPages.com and I will receive a small commission if you eventually purchase any of their products after clicking the link above.

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Cow Parsnip Flower Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Cow Parsnip Nature Study – from the Wildflower Set #2

Inside Preparation:

Learn all you can about this interesting plant that is common in North America (Heracleum maximum). USDA Cow Parsnip (range) and Cow Parsnip—Herculeum.
This website has awesome images and lots of information: Cow Parsnip.
Use the chart on page 7 of the ebook to look up cow parsnip in the suggested resources.

Outdoor Hour Time:

Look for cow parsnip in moist soil in meadows, along streams, and along roads. Look in full sun or partial shade. Bloom time is anywhere from February through September.

This plant is easy to identify once you study its traits. Use the observation suggestions in this challenge to make a careful examination of the cow parsnip.
Advanced study: Look for the anise swallowtail butterfly near your cow parsnip since it is the host plant for the larvae.

Follow-Up Activity:

Create a nature journal entry using the suggestions in the ebook if you have access to it. There is a custom notebook page and coloring page in the ebook for you to use if you wish.
Start a parsley family notebook page and add any plants you observe in this family to the list over time.
Advanced study: Research the origin of the Latin name for this plant.
Advanced study: Learn abut the relationship between the Anise swallowtail butterfly and the cow parsnip.

How do you get the new Wildflower Nature Study ebook?

Discount Code: Wildflower5

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Posted on July 5, 2017 by Barb — 2 Comments

Outdoor Mom – June 2017

Outdoor Mom – June 2017

What a month! We’re still getting acquainted with our new habitat and the weather here in Central Oregon. June started out feeling like early spring to me…cold at night, a few gray days, sprinkles, and the beginning of the wildflower season.

As I was looking at our photos from the first week in June, it seems so long ago! The brittlebush was the predominant flower we saw along the roadsides. There were a few other flowers like the pussypaws and a bit of yarrow.

Now the roads are lined with lupine, daisies, yarrow, and penstemon. We found an awesome patch of river lupine on a walk this last week. There were whole fields full of purple spikes so tall they looked artificial. I could’ve taken a hundred photos! (Make sure to look at our Lupine Nature Study Challenge.)

I can’t describe the feeling of waking up every morning now to a new day. I am eager to throw open the blinds to see what is out on the horizon. Is it a misty morning over the river? Are there deer or elk in the yard? Is it a golden sunrise? Each day has its own gift.

We walk every day in our new neighborhood. My favorite is the sunset walks down behind the house at the river. Over the past month, the grasses have grown from ankle high to pretty much waist high! We can barely see our Labrador as she walks through the grass. The sound of birdsong is a constant feature and I’m trying not to tune it out into the background.

We have a weekly routine of going to Sunriver for a walk and a “date”. It could be a cup of coffee or a lunch on the patio of one of the restaurants or a visit to the nature center. It is all such fun. There are so many walking and biking trails throughout the area that we’ll be hard pressed to walk each section before the summer is over but we’re going to cover as much as we can. This coming weekend I am going to Sunriver for the Central Oregon Wildflower Show! I may try to do an Instagram Live session if possible.

We have been hiking up at Newberry Volcanic National Monument. We drove up to Paulina Falls and then hiked up to Paulina Lake. It was a really warm day but the sound of falling water and the shady forest trail made it so enjoyable. We did some investigating while we were up there and now have a short list of places to hike and a kayak trip planned.

We spend a lot of time in our yard as we see it transforming rather quickly from winter to summer. We are nurturing the rock garden and adding a few new things as we discover what will actually grow in our garden zone. I pretty much find plants that say they are hardy to -20 degrees and figure that should be good enough.

Now that July is upon us, I am anticipating a big trip back east. I was just sent some links to hikes we will be doing in the Hudson Valley of New York and we have a trip to Niagara Falls planned too! As much as I want to go, I am sort of feeling like I would like to stay home to experience a complete July summer in Oregon. I guess that shows I’m beginning to feel more at home here. My husband will be in Oregon and I will have him document the weeks that I’m gone so I can at least see what I’m missing.

I hope you’re having a great summer so far and I look forward to hearing how your outdoor activities have enriched your life.

OHC Wildflower Set 2 @handbookofnaturestudy — Ultimate and Journey Level members can click this graphic to go directly to the library to download a copy of this new ebook. Make sure you are logged in and if you are having trouble with your password, please leave me a comment or send me a direct email to receive my assistance. Email: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com

How Do You Join?

Answer all or just one of the prompts in a blog entry on your own blog or right here on my blog in a comment. If you answer on your blog, make sure to leave me a link in a comment so that I can pop over and read your responses.

During our outdoor time this week we went….
The most inspiring thing we experienced was…
Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)…
In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting….
I added nature journal pages about….
I am reading…
I am dreaming about…
A photo I would like to share…

Posted on June 23, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Henbit Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Henbit Nature Study – Wildflower Set #2

Inside Preparation:

Henbit (Laminum amplexicaule) is a fairly common wildflower in North America. See the range map here: USDA Henbit.
You may wish to read this page: Henbit on Edible Wild Food. Please note that I do not encourage the eating of any plants covered in this ebook.
Use internet sources to research henbit. Ebook users look at page 7 for a list of suggestions.

Outdoor Hour Time:

Look for henbit alongside roads, in lawns, pastures, or gardens. Bloom time is early spring to late fall.

Observe henbit if possible but any of the related plants would be a wonderful alternative study, especially purple dead nettle. You can tell the difference between the plants by looking at the leaves. Henbit’s are heart shaped and dead nettle leaves are more triangular.
Make careful observations using the suggestions in this ebook if you have access to it.
Another name for henbit is giraffe head. Which name do you like better?

Follow-Up Activity:

Create a notebook page for henbit using the page provided in the ebook or in your nature journal. There is also a coloring page for henbit in the ebook.
Start a mint family notebook page. Keep a running list of flowers you observe and/or study in this plant family.
Advanced study: This website has a comparison of three similar plants that you may wish to consult: Identify That Plant. Create a nature journal page that includes descriptions of each of the featured plants: Creeping Charlie, purple dead nettle, and henbit.

How do you get the new Wildflower Nature Study ebook?

Discount Code: Wildflower5

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Wildflower Study Set #2

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Wildflower Nature Study Set #2

This 43 page digital ebook has 5 challenges and supplemental activities that will help you learn about some common wildflowers.
There are custom notebooking pages for each of the five wildflowers featured. In addition, there is a general notebook page for recording information for each of the plant families introduced in this ebook. There is also a page for use with any summer flower study.
I have included two wildflower related activities from the archives: Wildflower Photo Hunt and the Wildflower Big Grid Study.
Four coloring pages
There is enough material in this ebook to provide 5 weeks of wildflower study or more depending on how long you take to complete each challenge.
One of the resources in this ebook is a chart that coordinates each study with the Botany in a Day book.
Sample: Print an ebook sample here:OHC Wildflower Nature Study Set 2 Sample

Here are the specific flowers included in this ebook:

Henbit ( Mint Family)
Cow Parsnip (Parsley Family)
Columbine (Buttercup Family)
Chicory (Aster Family)
Cocklebur (Aster Family)

Note: If you don’t have the specific wildflowers listed above in your area, there are suggestions for studying an alternative flower or you can focus on the plant family instead. This ebook will work no matter where you live if you want to just focus on the plant families and use a local field guide to look for flowers you can observe during a nature walk in your own habitat.

How do you get the new Wildflower Nature Study ebook?

If you don’t have a membership yet, I am offering a $5 off discount code that will be good towards your Ultimate Naturalist membership.

Discount Code: Wildflower5

How To Get Started With This New Ebook!

Make sure you have a membership to the Handbook of Nature Study website! Click the Purchase Now button above or the Join Us button on the website. If you don’t already have a membership, use the discount code above for $5 off an Ultimate Naturalist Membership. If you are a member, sign in to your library and download the book.

You may wish to subscribe to the Handbook of Nature Study blog so you can receive the prompts in your email box each Friday. Also, subscribers receive my free monthly nature study newsletter on the first of every month. It is full of nature study encouragement, activities, and printables.

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Posted on June 7, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Wildflower Series Set #2 Coming Soon!

Outdoor Hour Challenge Wildflower Nature Study Set #2

Don’t miss the special promotion code at the bottom of this email!

It’s time for a new set of wildflower challenges! I have been busy working on a brand new set of five wildflower challenges to post over the next few months. I will have the ebook ready by 6/20/17.

Please note the notebooking pages will only be available to ebook users and the ebook will be available for those that have an Ultimate or Journey level membership.

Wildflowers Included in Set #2

Henbit
Cow Parsnip
Columbine
Chicory
Cocklebur

This new ebook will be loaded into the Ultimate Naturalist and Journey level memberships soon!

If you aren’t a member yet, you still have time to join and have immediate access as soon as it publishes.

As a special promo, you can use the discount code WILDFLOWER5 for $5 off the Ultimate Naturalist Membership.

Handbook of Nature Study Ultimate Naturalist Membership

Join us later in June for this exciting series of nature study challenges!

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Posted on May 24, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Mom – May 2017

Outdoor Mom – May 2017

Are you ready for my first Outdoor Mom journal entry from our new home in Oregon? This place is amazing! We had a period of time that we had to be “homeless” as we transitioned from living in our old home until we moved into the new one so we took advantage of those few days by going camping with two of our older children. The weather was perfect and we hiked a bit and had some awesome evening campfires. It was so very relaxing after a whirlwind of packing and transporting our household 450 miles.

Now that we’re settling into the new place, we realize how much wildlife we have living all around us. The most notable animals are the Rocky Mountain elk that graze in the land right behind ours. They make their way slowly by our fence line both at dawn and dusk. So far the largest group we observed was eight elk. Last night, one of the elk was brave enough to jump our fence and eat at the birdfeeder. What a treat to see these magnificent mammals close up!

We have enjoyed the early morning birdsong and many mornings there is a swirling mist rising up over the river. I wake up now and jump out of bed to look out the window to see what there is to see. I let my dog outside early this morning and a few minutes later I spied her sitting at the fence watching a group of four elk. She just sat and watched, sniffing the air. It made me laugh….I can only imagine what the Kona dog was thinking.

I have started a bird list, adding each bird as it makes its appearance. I have a pair of binoculars at the ready near the window just in case a new bird decides to visit the yard. It’s going to be a fun summer of bird watching and learning my waterfowl for this area of Oregon. I think I’m up to the challenge.

I have a really nice neighborhood for walking. It is a flat mile if I walk in a loop. As I walk, I’m making mental notes of any plant emerging that looks like it may be a wildflower. It is still very early spring here and many of the trees are just getting their leaves. I am hoping to learn my Oregon wildflowers one flower at a time, just like I did in California when I first started out with nature study with my children. I realized already that I need new field guides and a really good hiking guide book. I will be researching them on Amazon over the next month or two.

We took our first hike since moving at Smith Rock State Park. My daughter was with us which made everything more fun. I will share more about this awesome place in a future post.

Well hopefully you’ve had a great month of nature time as well. Share a comment or a link to your blog entry if you want me to pop over and take a look!

Don’t forget that I am sharing a nature journal page each week on my Instagram account if you want to see the pages as they unfold. Follow me here: Instagram – outdoorhourchallenge. And, if you want to create a page and share it on your Instagram for me to see, use the hashtag #OHCnaturejournal

Posted on May 23, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Nature Journal Pages – April Examples

Note: I found this entry in my drafts! I have been so busy over the past six weeks as we sold our house in California, purchased a house in Oregon, moved all our belongings, and tried to keep from getting to stressed out. It isn’t surprising then that a few things slipped through the cracks.

Here is my April nature journal entry for your enjoyment.

Weekly Nature Journal Project

April 2017

This month my nature journal is full of flowers. My world has been filled with flowers so it only makes sense that this is what made its way into my heart and then onto my journal pages. The first part of the month we were in Oregon, then back to California, then back to Oregon again. This pattern will be happening for the next few months while we transition our life to our new home.

Central Oregon is just starting to move from winter into spring, so it was fun to create a second spring page noting my observations in contrast to my previous California spring page. I featured the crocus we saw and used a bright springy background of yellow for my journaling.

The first wildflower we studied from the new Wildflower Set #1 is the subject of the next page in my journal. We saw mustard all up and down the state of California.

This is the second page in my year-long study of the dogwood tree. I think this is my favorite page of the month! I so enjoyed making careful and up close observations of this pretty flower…or rather flowers and bracts. The creamy color and delicate pink tinge may just make this my favorite flowering tree.

I think this is my first two page spread of the year. I wanted to sketch this flower and include a photo so it made sense to make it two pages facing each other. I included a list of the other flowers we found on this particular hike. It’s always nice to have a record to compare from year to year.

As we get ready to make our move to Oregon, I’m getting very sentimental about my home and garden here in California. Each day I try to make more mental notes of the sights and sounds. It’s comforting to know that many of those memories are tucked safely away in my journals. I packed my older nature journals into a box yesterday and was grateful for the time I have spent digging deeper into learning about my neighborhood’s flora and fauna. I also packed my children’s nature journals alongside mine in the box. I inherited those journals from them as they left home. You can be sure they will be treasured keepsakes of the 30 years we have lived here on Hilltop Drive.

From a hilltop to a riverbank….maybe next month you will see my new habitat make an appearance in my nature journal!

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Posted on May 19, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Poppy and Buttercup Wildflower Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Poppy and Buttercup Wildflower Study

From the Archives and in the More Nature Study – Spring ebook

We are going to go on a search for poppies and buttercups this week! In my world, this is prime time for both of these wildflowers. In fact, I have some blooming right in my front yard!

Join me using the ideas from the archive post linked above or you can download the More Nature Study –Spring ebook if you are an Ultimate Naturalist Library member.

You may with to create a poppy nature journal entry using the idea I shared in this post from the past: Nature Journal Tutorial.

How do you get the new Wildflower Nature Study ebook?

Discount Code: Wildflower5

Posted on May 12, 2017 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge- Yarrow Wildflower Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Yarrow Wildflower Study

Wildflower Set #1

Inside Preparation:

Yarrow is a plant that most of us will regularly see alongside our hiking and walking trails. In addition, many garden nurseries have cultivated varieties of the yarrow plants if you are not successful in finding one in a more natural setting.

¨ Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium )You may wish to check the range of this particular plant on USDA.
¨ You may wish to view and download this fact sheet about the common yarrow: USDA Yarrow.
¨ The yarrow plant is the host plant for the Painted Lady butterfly so make sure to look for this pretty insect when you find some yarrow.
¨ Bloom time is usually April to September. Yarrow grows in full sun or part shade in dry habitats.
¨ Aster Family: check out this page with an informative video.

Outdoor Hour Time:

¨ Yarrow is found just about everywhere in the United States. Look for it in dry sunny spots starting in April. We see it alongside most of our hiking trails and is easy to spot because it is usually about 3 feet tall. If you find a patch to observe in person, use the observation suggestions on the following page to make a careful study of this beautiful flower.

Follow-Up Activity:

Note: Ebook users can find custom notebook pages to use for the yarrow flower and the aster family.

¨ Create a notebook page for the yarrow.
¨ Start an aster family notebook page. Keep a running list over time of the flowers you observe and/or study in this plant family.
¨ Advanced study: Learn the medicinal uses of yarrow. Here is a link to use: Herb Wisdom.

The Yarrow Plant Attracts the following Butterflies:

Banded Hairstreak, Lorquin Admiral, West Coast Lady,

American Copper, Red-banded Hairstreak,

How do you get the new Wildflower Nature Study ebook?

Discount Code: Wildflower5

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Category: wildflowers

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Columbine

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Cow Parsnip Flower Study

Outdoor Mom – June 2017

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Henbit Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Wildflower Study Set #2

Wildflower Series Set #2 Coming Soon!

Outdoor Mom – May 2017

Nature Journal Pages – April Examples

Outdoor Hour Challenge – Poppy and Buttercup Wildflower Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge- Yarrow Wildflower Study

Outdoor Hour Challenges for families since 2008!