The new idea for using the Outdoor Hour Challenge Newsletter instead of a weekly nature challenge has liberated our family to follow our interests. I hope that your family is enjoying the subjects that come your way and that you take advantage of following up interest with the Handbook of Nature Study.
Lemon Queen Sunflowers sprouting in the lavender box.We are growing these as part of the Great Sunflower Project.
There have been several comments and emails asking if you can submit any nature study topics to the upcoming blog carnival. I would love to see whatever you do for your Outdoor Hour Challenge using the Handbook of Nature Study, or journal entries using the suggested ideas from the newsletter, and/or notebook pages from your own backyard studies.
Please feel free to submit your entries as you go along, just as you would have done with Mr. Linky. Here is the submission page for your entries to the carnival: Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival
I hope to get our next study posted over the weekend….probably our garden flower entry.
Flowers in Pots Attract the Bees and Hummingbirds…Easy to Maintain
My goals this year for our garden are a little different than those in the recent past. I usually focus on growing veggies and accent with flowers. This year I am going to be a rebel and do the exact opposite. I am growing color and accenting with edibles. I am hoping for more of an “artist’s garden” this year, providing a space to sit with watercolors and colored pencils and oil pastels on those long hot summer afternoons. Sometimes a garden is more than just for growing food, healing and refreshing us with its beauty and vitality. Of course, you can really call it a “bee garden” since the focus has been on flowers that will attract bees, birds, and/or butterflies.
Our deck usually has some herbs and a few veggies in pots, keeping them close for the dinner time crunch. It is a great plan and I will do the same this year with two tomatoes and some basil.
We have had a lot of hummingbird traffic at our two feeders as well as the colorful flowers.
I am keeping just a few flowers on the deck and most of them will be to try to entice the hummingbirds up to the feeders. Red geraniums, bright daisies, and a hummingbird favorite lantana or two. I started my zinnia seeds and much to my surprise I found a pot full of milkweed growing already over in the corner. Seeds and seedlings are all tucked in ready to go. We are planning on studying our geraniums along with the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson #163) this summer.
Back in the main veggie garden I am going to be growing pole beans…Kentucky Wonders. I am dreaming of the green towers of vines and the never-ending picking that will come as the summer progresses.
Lots and lots of Bee Balm growing in the butterfly garden.
What will be missing are many of the water thirsty plants that I usually have that yield very little in proportion to the effort like bell peppers.I have lots of great plants that are well established that will give color without a lot of work.
These are coneflowers, chrysanthemums, and daisies from last year. I will fill in the empty spots with seeds.
The boxes this year are filled in with coneflowers and zinnias, dahlias and daisies. The bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds are going to be having a party all summer long out there. I love having a cutting garden to fill oodles of vases indoors.
We ended up transplanting a few daylilies to the front of the box and the rest is waiting for me to come finish planting the sunflower seeds. Thunderstorm rolled in this day and I had to give up.
My new garden space is coming together and the seeds are almost all in the ground. We had a composting problem and somehow a load was dumped in the garden space with un-composted rotten potatoes so we are sifting through again to get those out before planting the Three Sisters Garden (pumpkins, corn, and beans). The pumpkins, corn, and sunflowers will also be part of our summer nature study using the Handbook of Nature Study.
Happy Squash.
I have four zucchini seedlings happily growing in their new spot and the sunflowers are all showing signs of sprouting as the garden comes alive.
Looks a little different than the last time…now the lavender is the predominant plant, along with the blooming dogwood.
I am hoping that I don’t regret our decision to shift our garden focus this year but as with anything we can always change things back next year. We have a wonderful Farmer’s Market in our town where we can put our hands on any veggies we decide we need. Still eating healthy and with local produce….an important goal in our family.
That is this week’s garden update…..next week hopefully I will share our Three Sisters Garden.
Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!
The California poppies are late this year but right on time for our May Outdoor Hour Challenge for wildflowers. (See the May Newsletter for all the May topics to choose from.) We have both wild and cultivated poppies in our yard, hoping that the ones we planted with seed will self-seed for next year’s crop.
As the state flower of California, you could expect that there would be lots to see in the spring and this year there are many.
There is a section of our walking trail that has a large garden of poppies in various stages of development. One of the interesting things that we have noticed about poppies are the way the petals unfold when it is ready to bloom. The “cap” comes off and reveals the flower underneath. After the flower blooms the petals fall and a pod is revealed that looks sort of like a bean pod. Here is look at it close up.
We took the idea from Lesson 155 in the Handbook of Nature Study (#7) and looked closer at the pod. We cut the seed pod open lengthwise to examine the seeds with a lens. We observed the ribs and how the seeds were attached inside.
Here is a close-up through the magnifying lens of the seeds inside the pod….amazing! All of us were fascinated with the way the seeds are in the pod like you see in a pea pod. We are going to continue watching the pods as they dry up to see exactly when they become black because we know the seeds we planted were not green but black.
Here is Mr. B’s sketch of the dissected poppy pod.
Mr. B and I worked on notebook pages for our nature journals using the California Poppy pages from NotebookingPages.com. I highly recommend the Wildflower, Weeds, and Garden Flowers set because it has every flower listed in the Handbook of Nature Study…perfect companion to your nature study. If you own the Treasury Membership it is included so take a look for it in your files.
Fill In The Circle Tutorial
Many of you asked to have me give you more step-by-step tutorials on how I put my nature journal pages together. Here is one for the Fill In The Circle idea that is found in the May Newsletter. (All supplies are shown in the Amazon widget at the bottom of this blog entry – you may need to click over to the blog to see them.)
I started off with a large pencil circle for my poppy sketch. I also used pencil lines for the poem stanza that I wanted to include in this journal entry. I don’t always draw lines so it is up to you whether you need them or not.
I added watercolor pencil to the poppy and then made a larger box with pen around the two pages I am working on. I like the “window frame” look to tie two pages together. I copied the poem onto the page using a black pen. I used Prang Semi-Moist watercolors to paint the yellow background….sort of a wash technique using just a little color. I decided I wanted some funky bubble letters so I added those next.
I printed one poppy photo to include on the left page and used watercolors to paint the bubble letters. I added the date to the bottom corner. You can use this idea with any topic you want to include in your nature journal. I would love to see your results so post them in your entry and then submit it to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.
I think I forgot the sounds that come in open windows in the mornings and evenings. Winter requires the house to be shut up too much but with open windows I woke this morning to a an owl hooting in the neighbor’s tree.
“I’m awake! You Too!” he was calling.
What a great sound and it makes me wonder what all I have been missing closed up in the house for the winter.
This evening I am hearing crickets for the first time and the call of the tree frogs from across the street. It makes me happy to think we have reached the point where we can have open windows and doors to bring a little of nature back into our house. The mosquitoes are buzzing tonight too….found one in my bedroom and had to give him a swat. Now that I could do without.
We are busy working on weeding the garden walkways and preparing beds for seeds. This is a joyful, hopeful time. Outdoor Hour Challenge #12 includes choosing and planting flower seeds and I thought our family might include that as part of our first challenge for the month of May. (If you purchased the Garden Flowers Ebook you will have that challenge and corresponding notebook pages to go along with it.) I will share our seeds in separate entry later this week.
In the meantime, I thought I could share a little of the edibles in our garden landscaping. We try to mix edible plants with our flowers so we can harvest a little homegrown yummy-ness when the time comes. It also is such a treat to have a little handful of something each afternoon when we are outside…a couple of blueberries, a strawberry, or a grape popped in the mouth make even the fussiest of kids happier when they are helping to work in the garden.(You can read more of my tips for nature study and gardening with very young children HERE.
The blueberry bushes really are not all that happy looking. They are all covered in fresh green leaves but I am needing to read up on what a blueberry needs to really get established. I seem to remember something about how they like a pine needle mulch.
Mr. A’s strawberries are looking incredible and there are dozens of blossoms and little baby strawberries filling the box. These are an easy crop to get started and we purchased ever-bearing and June bearing plants so we will have a longer harvest. (There is a challenge for strawberries if you are interested.)
We were very surprised to see so many blossoms on the pear tree this year. We had pruned it way back to keep it out of the neighbor’s yard and this seems to have been agreeable to the tree. We might get a dozen pears this year….well, we can hope for that.
Figs….does anyone really like figs? This tree was here when we moved in 25 years ago and we have tried to cut it down several times, just to have it grow back more lush than ever. We have finally come to grips with it and we share the fruits with those in our lives who enjoy them. The birds like them too so I guess it is worth the mess.
Tomato in a pot to cover the ugly stump….sounds like a good idea and if it doesn’t do well we can always move it. We also have seedless grapes planted there on the fence to shield the ugly propane tank from view when we are sitting on the back deck. They vines get so green and climb all over, producing little sweet bites to nibble when I am out in the back watering in the hot summer sun. (There is a challenge for tomatoes if you are interested.) Do you have a place for a tomato in a pot?
Another reminder to us: Keep the back door closed in the evenings. This bat made its way INTO the house last week. The cat may have brought it inside but we aren’t entirely sure. We had a comedy act going on trying to get it to fly back outside. My boys ran and got the butterfly net and we were able to get him in the corner and inside the net. He really calmed down and just hung in the net long enough for us to get a good look at him. We released him outside and he fly away so gracefully. (There is a challenge for bats if you are interested.)
We are ready to start doing some nature study and the boys have been discussing what subjects we will study for the month as part of the new format of the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Don’t forget you can pick from any of the topics: wildflowers, garden flowers, birds, and/or mammals. You can chose one from each category or stick with one topic and study four of them in a row. Please feel free to make the challenges work and build on interest you find with your children. Don’t forget to submit your blog entries that you complete to the OHC Blog Carnival.
Perfect day for a hike but a lot of pollen in the air.
I was determined to take a hike last weekend even though conditions were still windy and the pollen count was off the scale. I did something I rarely do and that is to take an antihistamine. Sometimes they work just fine and then other times they make me feel worse so it was a gamble. Other than feeling tired more quickly, I think it ended up being a good day outdoors.
Looking down from about half way to the water.
Some of the family had other plans so in the end it was my husband, my oldest son, and I who hit the trail. I like hiking in small groups so this worked out great for taking our time and quietly enjoying the views and wildflowers.There were a few other families on the trail but everyone was friendly.
I had my usual wildflower game going where I try to name the flowers as we pass them by…mostly in my head but sometimes out loud if the guys happened to stop to point one out. This plant is something new and we almost missed it growing right along the trail in a rock face.
How it can manage to grow stuck right in the crack of the rock is amazing. You can see the delicate yellow flowers with the cute little pansy-like faces. It is always frustrating to me when I can’t readily identify a plant, although I think I learn more when I have to really break the plant down and look at its parts to work with the field guide. I will come back to edit if I discover the name of this one.
Here is another angle where you can see a poppy determined to grow right in the same crack. The rock is along a steep section of the trail and there was much graffiti scratched into the surface.
How about a fern on the same rock?
Back to the hike…it was warm and there were birds singing practically the whole way down to the water (which was our destination).
We had parked at the top of the canyon and began the trail which wound around and down a steep grade. We took our time and noticed quite a bit of poison oak already flourishing at the trail’s edge and I was so glad we didn’t have the dog with us. She is oblivious to poison oak.
This plant is growing in patches alongside the trail on rocky outcrops. It is a striking color and seems to grow right on the rocks. I believe it is a variety of Dudleya, perhaps this one.
More Chinese lanterns in the shady spots….love this flower.
I have been noticing the abundance of thistle this year. It is very pretty right now with its purple flowers.
This is one trail where I know to look for Tidy tips. Look carefully and you will notice the notice the difference between this and other yellow flowers.
I really want to take the time to record this flower in my nature journal, partly because it is my favorite color but also because I like the way when you slow down to observe it closely it has the purple dots on the petals that seem to point the way for insects to come and investigate its pollen.
So this was our destination….the natural bridge. The creek comes right through the rocks here in this spot….looks like a cave but it is more like a tunnel. You can wade through the water and come out the other side if you want to, which I don’t. We were content to enjoy the sound of the water rushing through the rock and seeing the water cascading down at the opening.
There are formations on the top that are covered in moss…stalactites from the top rock that hang down. Sort of on the creepy side but still very interesting.
We reached our destination and found a place to sit on the rocks to rest and enjoy the setting. There were quite a number of birds including robins, towhees, swallows, and one bird that sang and sang and sang. I had my mini binoculars with me and I was able to capture a glimpse at him in a tree on the other side of the creek. Between the song and the quick look, I identified him as a Black-headed grosbeak.
We sat near the water for quite a long time just enjoying our first real spring hike of the year. We drank some water and then started back up the hill to the car. Even with allergies, allergy head, and with the heat, I was able to keep up with the men.
One last interesting image from the day….bright orange lichen covered many of the rocks. What a punch of color!
Hope you enjoyed seeing our spring hike and some of our wildflowers….more to come. You can count on that.
What a wet month we had! Snow too! Our normal April is perhaps a little rainy but mostly sunny afternoons to work out in the garden. We have adjusted our planting schedule and we are hoping to get out there soon to put things in the ground.
April was full of spring nature study and the carnival will show how wonderful you are all doing at keeping your nature study going from season to season. I have included in this entry some images from our family’s nature journals from past years…some quite a long time ago. I hope to give you a variety of ideas to add some new life into your nature journals.
Nature Journals can be personal and humorous as well as informative. This was written after researching bees….I think the notebook page is from the set that goes with Apologia’s Flying Creatures.
Spring Queen Anne’s Lace Observations
You don’t want to miss seeing this entry from Angie at Petra School. She and her son completed the Spring Observations of Queen Anne’s Lace. I love how her son’s personality comes out in his journals. I have watched my sons use humor and personal voice in their journals and these are the best entries to look back on years later. (I also never correct spelling in their nature journals.)
They didn’t find Queen Anne’s Lace but they did find bluebells! Read Shirley Ann’s entry to the carnival sharing their English countryside hike and spring weather: Nature’s Treasures in April. Don’t you just want to go and take the hike with them….old stone cottage and all!
Tricia took the challenge to go back to their spot for Queen Anne’s Lace. You can read about it in their entry, The Spring Time Hunt for Queen Anne’s Lace. I commented on her entry that I thought that this spring challenge was not so much to see the plant growing but to remind ourselves of the changes and stages that plants go through as they make their life cycle. This entry is full of great images…don’t miss it.
Using magazine images with captions is an easy way to make a colorful nature journal entry. This was when we were concentrating on learning more about our forest habitat. We subscribed to National Wildlife magazine and kept them as a source of images for nature study and art.
Spring Weather
Jessy from Our Side of the Mountain shares their weather/clouds study with the carnival. Check out their entry Spring Weather and Clouds to see their homemade sundial, a great collection of weather related books, and some lovely images of clouds. Enjoyed seeing your study!
Want to see some more spectacular clouds? Angie from Petra School submits this entry, Exposure to Space, Rockets, and Weather to the carnival. The other wonderful thing about this entry is how Angie shares their nature journals progress….amazing both in skill and content. I love seeing how nature journals can transform our children into writers and artists. I appreciate your entry Angie.
Tornado Watch! I don’t think I ever imagined this scenario as I prepared this Outdoor Hour but Tricia and her family incorporated a real live tornado watch into their Spring Weather Observation Challenge. Read their account of the day and also read each child’s spring weather observations and thoughts. Thank you for sharing your crazy weather…so glad it all turned out fine.
Amy and her little ones share their Nature Study – Spring Weather post with carnival readers.With just a little preparation they had a full study, including learning about wind direction. Her children are learning to be so observant!
This is officially their Signs of Spring entry but I thought it would go nicely in the Spring Weather category. Ann from Harvest Moon by Hand has submitted their family’s Signs of Spring entry and I am surprised at how much snow and ice they still have even after April 1st. I love how their family adapts their challenges to fit their local habitat…don’t miss seeing their pheasant feathers! Thanks for sharing your entry with the carnival.
Makita shares on her blog, Academia Celestia,all about their trip to Northern California and their spring adventure in her carnival entry, Of Ticks and Trees. They discovered wildflowers and a couple really interesting things to learn about. I will let you read all about it over on her blog. Don’t miss seeing their nature journals.
As they learned to draw with a little 3-D perspective, I saw it transfer into their nature journals.
Spring Tree Observations
Everyone can have their own tree to observe! This is what Ann and her girls are going to do this year as they start their Year-Long Tree Study. Read about their trees in their entry on Harvest Moon by Hand. They are doing so an awesome job on their nature journals…click over to take a peek.
It’s a new year and Tricia’s family shares their new Year-Long Tree Study subjects with blog carnival readers.They have two new tree friends to observe throughout the seasons and they got a good start with some observations for the nature journals.
Phyllis share two entries done by her son James as part of their Spring Tree Study. Don’t miss seeing both his photo essays – Spring Trees Through The Eyes of A 10 Year Old: Part 1 and Part 2. I loved seeing how nature study has awakened a love for the beauty in nature in one of our young participants. Thanks James! Wait, there is one more update: Part 3.
Dover Coloring Books make great additions to the nature journal. The boys would use colored pencils and then cut the images out to adhere onto the nature journal pages. I saw them learn better how to draw birds from observing the blackline drawings in the coloring books.
Spring Bird Observations
Angie from Petra School has decided that the fifteen minutes outdoors has become an obsession. I like to think of it as a really good habit since it is beneficial to you and to your family. The time taken outdoors is refreshing and as Angie shows in this entry, can lead to family passions. Please read her entry, Going Birdy.
Tricia, Hodgepodge Mom, share their family Spring Bird Observation entry with the carnival.There are so many great things about their bird study but my favorite is seeing the bluebirds getting ready to nest! Wonderful resources and great follow-up make this one entry not to miss. Thanks Hodgepodge Family!
Amy from The Teachable Heart has put together their young family’s bird entry for the carnival. They worked on learning some new bird calls for their backyard birds. Make sure to view their journal entries. I always enjoy reading how their family adapts the challenges to their little ones.
This entry was in response to learning how our local pond habitat supports different kinds of life. I love the way my son represents the different elements…plus the lettering is fun!
Spring Cattails
Ann and her girls share their cattail adventure in their entry Year-Long Cattail Study on Harvest Moon by Hand. They did an excellent study with a dissection, sketching and recording their thoughts in their nature journals. Thank you so much for sharing your cattails….now to see what happens in the summer!
Cattails and eggs! Angie and her sons found a great subject while on a quest for cattails. In their Spring Cattails entry they share their thoughts on how this year’s cattails compare to last year’s. I love seeing how these year-long studies help us to learn so much more about our local habitats. I really enjoyed this entry and I know carnival readers will too.
As the boys have learned more details about our nature study subjects, I try to get them to use accurate vocabulary in their nature journals. I would write the words on a piece of scratch paper for them to copy onto the page.
Hope you enjoyed the carnival and were inspired to get outdoors this month and join all of us in our nature study adventures. I look forward to seeing all the May entries. Here is where you can submit your entries: Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.
Our last official Outdoor Hour Challenge for the 2011 Spring Series has arrived. I can hardly believe it but we are going into the month of May next week! With May will come some changes to the Outdoor Hour Challenge, exciting changes for us all! I will be sharing my new ideas and directions for the Outdoor Hour Challenge on May 1, 2011.
In the meantime, take this week to enjoy hunting up some spring wildflowers and/or dandelions.
Here is a link to the Spring Wildflower Study- Dandelions.
Please make sure to click over and read all about how your family can study this common plant and be educated on the many things we can learn from this weed/wildflower.
You may also be interested in my Spring Nature Study Ebooks!
We took a walk to look for birds as part of the Spring Bird Observation Challenge from last week. It had been raining earlier in the day but we took off for our hike as soon as the clouds parted a little. The walking trail had lots of earthworms wiggling across which is why we saw A LOT of robins. The robins were singing and then hopping along side the trail as we hiked.
I think I was too distracted to capture a good photo but you can see him up there on the branch of the pine.
He did make it into our nature journals though….big fat red belly and all. There is lots of information in the Handbook of Nature Study for the robin. I encourage you to use this information as the basis of a great spring study of birds. There is an official Outdoor Hour Challenge for robins: Red Birds.
Here is an additional printable brochure on American Robins that is excellent: American Robins.
Part of the trail is lined with Scotch broom….yellow boughs make a beautiful setting. I know it is considered a “noxious” weed and invasive but I will enjoy it as I walk the trail this spring.
On another section of the trail the Sierra peas are in bloom giving the grass dots of purple and pink.
The California poppies are really blooming now and this section of the trail full of them.I am working on a new blog entry featuring poppies that I will post soon.
We recognized this flower from last year…Blue eyed grass which isn’t a grass at all but it is in the iris family.
Here is our list for April:
Canada goose -on the move, although we have some that stay year-round in a marshy area at the edge of town
Cooper’s hawk – we hear this sound a lot in our yard (nest call/alarm call)
Red-tail hawk
Rock pigeons
I think the most interesting thing about our list is the absence of some of our “regular” feeder birds. It appears that some of them have moved on: House finches, Lesser goldfinches, Spotted towhees, Dark eyed juncos.
Last year we decided to relandscape the frontyard to get rid of the lawn. Our city raised the water and sewer rates extremely high (over double) and it just didn’t seem right to keep that green lawn year-round anymore. I had myself convinced long ago to make the change to a less water thirsty landscape but my husband loved his green grass. He changed his mind after the first $$$ water bill we received.
Here is what our yard looked like in August 2010.
At first we were just going to slowly remove parts of the lawn and plant natives and drought resistant shrubs. This was the first attempt at our remodel, planting more lavender and sage.
Soon though, my husband got motivated and decided to excavate some terraces with a friend’s heavy equipment. This meant building a block wall and then eventually a walkway made with pavers. This was a huge learning experience and we didn’t always enjoy the process but we did like the way it looked. It meant removing a messy magnolia tree from the yard but we replaced it with a dogwood. This was late August 2010.
The planting part is always fun and makes it feel like you are making progress.I don’t know how we would have accomplished this huge project without the help of all the children. My daughter is the paver expert and came to help us make all the curves and cuts just right. The boys were lots of help in moving plants around, helping to find just the right arrangement. This was September 4, 2010.
This was on October 4, 2010. Amanda and her dad are building the upper walkway that goes around to the side of our house. I use this walkway now to come from the backyard to the front when I fill the birdfeeders.
We had a mild autumn so we were able to finish most of our plans before the bad weather hit. This was taken November 5, 2010. We were installing a birdfeeding station…a total and complete success and the birds have been visiting every day since then.
This was taken on March 28, 2011. The yellow daffodils really perked up the yard and we decided that we made a great choice in paver color.
We did have to totally replace our front deck in the process because of rotted wood. This was the only part of the project that we hired someone to help us with since it meant removing the entrance to our house and reworking the stairs. My husband’s friend is a contractor and he had the job done in a day.
The grasses we planted in the autumn did not make it through the winter. We decided to replace them with yarrow. You can see the dogwood tree here in this image..we are eagerly waiting for it to bloom and get some leaves. My dear husband gathered some granite boulders from a friend’s land and brought them home for some added interest to the front walk. I am hoping to get one more big one if the opportunity arises.
Here we are today on April 26, 2011. The daffodils are done and the lavender is coming alive with purple. My favorite part of the yard right now is the California lilac that is blooming on either side of the deck stairs.
You can see it better in this image.
We have put a lot of hard work into this project and it continues to evolve as the seasons go by. We are anxious to see how it looks as the plants grow and the trees get leaves.
One last quick change we are making is to paint the shutters on the front of the house brown. You can see in the images above that we have one set painted. We were thinking we wanted them to be red but they ended up looking pink instead. My husband then found this brown and I think it is going to be a good match to tie into the deck and the yard. (They were white and blended in too much to the yellow of our house.) I am not sure about the front door color now…it is a nice shade of green but it may end up painted a nice brown as well.
We are now totally drought resistant in the frontyard. I am hoping we can get by with one really good watering a week, depending on the weather.
List of plants:
California lilac
Moonshine yarrow
Spanish and English lavender
Smoke tree
Dogwood tree
California poppies (not blooming yet)
Red Hot Poker
Sage – can’t remember the varieties
Day lilies – Stella Oro (these are planted amongst the daffodils)
Butterfly bush – purple and white
Forsythia
Blackberry vines – left these since they grow between our house and the neighbors
Crepe myrtles – two colors
Agapanthus (left from previous landscaping-waiting to see how they grow with little watering)
Heavenly bamboo (left from previous landscaping-also seeing how this goes)
Adding a redbud (have a coupon that I will use this weekend)
Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!
Blue dicks are the purplest purple of the spring in our world. I am thinking that the wildflowers on our usual trail are almost a full month behind their usual bloom schedule. I love knowing the rhythm of the growing things in our part of the world and being able to anticipate the blooming sequence.
There are meadows and trail edges filled with Blue dicks along with orange California poppies. Those two colors together are a feast for the eyes.
The other amazing purple flowers blooming right now are the Purple Chinese Houses. They are just starting to bloom and in the next few weeks they will bring the trailsides alive with color.
These are Indian Pinks….not very pink but rather a deep reddish orange. There are more of these blooming than usual.
The fennel is not as striking as some of the other wildflowers but it has a really nice shape.
Here is another kind of Miner’s Lettuce. You can really see how it grows in a rosette shape and then has delicate flowers at the ends.
Here is the first of the Pretty Faces. They are a really soft yellow and I like the way they look as they begin to open up. Maybe this one should go into my nature journal…
I almost missed this one! This is Hairy Fringepod and it makes me happy. There is just something about this plant that seems so special and unique. It will eventually bloom.
Here is a new wildflower for our list. I think it is a Woodland Star. It is in the saxifrage family which I am beginning to be able to pick out when I am identifying flowers.
This is certainly not a lovely wildflower but a really interesting insect that I learned about a few years ago….it is a Green Stigma Hangingfly. You can click on the image and go over to Flickr to see the largest size to really get a good look at this amazing insect.
I took quite a few more photos but this entry is getting really long so I will save some for another entry later this week. Hope you enjoyed seeing some of the colorful flowers from our part of the country (Northern California).
If you are interested in seeing more of my wildflower studies…you can click over to my Yosemite Wildflower blog and see some from past years.
for the robin. I encourage you to use this information as the basis of a great spring study of birds. There is an official Outdoor Hour Challenge for robins: 
