We are now into the blackberry season in our corner of the world.
You will frequently find me with blue fingers and big smile.
I couldn’t find the blackberry in the Handbook of Nature Study, but I did read about the wild strawberry last week. I love this quote and I think it applies equally to the blackberry as it does to the strawberry.
“Of all the blossoms that cloth our open fields, one of the prettiest is that of the wild strawberry. And yet so influenced is man by his stomach that he seldom heeds this flower except as a promise of a crop of strawberries. It is comforting to know that the flowers of the field ‘do not care a rap’ whether man notices them or not; insect attentions are what they need, and they are surely as indifferent to our indifference as we are to theirs.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 608
We are partaking of both blackberries and strawberries right now as well as figs. The figs are huge this year and very juicy.
In the evening, after dinner last night, we were sitting outside and enjoying the cool air and I notice a Scrub jay sitting and having his meal of figs. There are so many figs this year that I don’t mind that they take the ones from the top of the tree that I can’t reach to pick. Sharing the fruits of the garden is all a part of the fun of it.
I hope everyone is enjoying the season and finding joy in the fruits of their gardens.
Crop Plants Notebook Pages – Companion to the Crop Plants Challenges
Custom made notebook pages for each crop plant challenge. I have designed simple to use pages that will complement each challenge and will be an easy way to start a nature journal. Each of the eight notebook pages is in full color, but they are just as great in black and white. View a SAMPLE
Summer afternoon hike at the lake…not just any lake but a sparkling alpine lake.
The trail is narrow and winds along the shore of the bay. I talked to another hiker along the trail and he was telling me he thinks the view on this trail is in his “top ten” views in the world. It is amazingly gorgeous. The colors of the water are so blue and the mountains, still with a little snow on the tops, are majestic. (The horizon line in this photo is so crooked that it really bothers me but I love this photo of my youngest stopped in the middle of the trail, taking in the panorama.)
It was nice to have my oldest son along since he is a photographer as well. He captured some great shots of the water and the surrounding mountains. We gave each other photography tips and support. He is such a tech guy and I am very much *not* a tech person but photography is a language that we speak in common.
This was a new wildflower to us…so bright pink. I had an inkling it was some kind of penstemon. I came home and looked it up and sure enough, Cliff Penstemon or Rock Penstemon-Penstemon rupicola, figwort family.
Here is the waterfall at the end of the trail. This was a 1.7 mile hike from the trailhead which runs Emerald Bay Campground to Eagle Falls. The falls were hard to capture in a photograph because the sun was behind them at this point late in the afternoon. You can imagine the waterfall roaring and the mist blowing over to us, cooling us off. It was very refreshing.
From the waterfall we hiked down to the shore of the lake to wade in the water and have a snack. The beach had a dozen or so Canada Geese. Look at those feet! They are really big birds with really big feet.
After we hiked back to the car, we drove to our favorite beach to have a picnic dinner. There were lots and lots of Mule’s ear blooming. We enjoyed our food and then walked along the shore one last time before heading home for the day.
One last photo for those that wonder about bears….here is the sign at the place we had our picnic.
No bears on this day. We have encountered bears before in this area and we agree with what the sign says, “Appreciate the experience and move on….”. The bears we have seen in the wild are usually too busy doing other stuff to take much heed of our presence. It is usually a pleasant experience and not one to be feared.
What a refreshing, fun afternoon and evening. We all are looking forward to our next trip to the lake.
This week’s garden update includes some new munchies from the garden. The poppy above is probably going to be close to one of the last that I have for the year. I love the texture of this blossom, so delicate and papery.
I went ahead and picked the last of the lettuce. These are little mini heads of lettuce that taste so sweet and nice, almost like butter lettuce.
This is the final crop of mixed leaf lettuce. I don’t really care for the bitterness of these varieties. I think we will plant a different kind in the fall….some that aren’t so strong.
Banana peppers….I can hardly wait!
The hydrangeas are awesome this year. I love the purpleness of this one plant.
Our experimental mullein is blooming. For the first time we left the mullein growing in several spots in the yard and it is now showing us its more beautiful side. The hummingbirds have been investigating it as well. 🙂 The empty feeder is a normal sight in our yard lately. I have a hard time keeping up.
Here is another angle of this section of the garden on a different day. The sunflowers are really tall now, way over my head. See how tall the mullein is too?
I don’t think that I have shared my milkweed’s progress yet. I sent away for some milkweed seeds from ButterflyEncounters.com and I started some of the seed in pots. I am a little nervous about transplanting it into the garden so I got a bigger pot and I am going to still keep a careful eye on it over the summer.
Amanda’s coneflowers are blooming and the bees are buzzing happily. If you look carefully in the background of this photo, you will see her zinnias have started to bloom as well.
Well, that is a quick trip around our garden this week. Just to a note to myself=We planted bee balm and salvia this week, hoping it will grow now that the weather is hot.
The last of the bird challenges has arrived. For our family, this series of challenges has helped us become more aware of the birds around us at all times. We also have all become more adept at using our Peterson Field Guide. Every week we have spent some time quietly observing birds, admiring their various colors, shapes, and behaviors.
This week’s challenge to learn about gray birds taught us more about the pigeons we see in our neighborhood. We have a flock of pigeons that live in our town on an overcrossing and there are always pigeons hanging around at our grocery store parking lot. Someone throws out bird seed for them on the pavement and they flock there to have a meal.
My daughter Amanda has a phobia about pigeons. She avoids them at all costs. Pigeons are not my favorite bird, but I have come to appreciate them more through our reading in the Handbook of Nature Study.
“For an out-of-doors exercise during recess let the pupils observe the pigeons and tell the colors of the beak, eyes, top of the head, back, breast, wings, tail, feet, and claws. This exercise is excellent training to fit the pupils to note quickly the colors of wild birds.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 52
No mockingbirds this week….we will keep our eyes out for this interesting bird and its songs.
We also spent some time discussing as a family how we don’t have as many birds in our yard and feeders during the summer as we do during the winter. In the winter, our list of feeder birds is really long. Yesterday we observed at our feeder to make a comparison.
House sparrow
Titmouse
Hummingbird
Western scrub jay (also in the bird bath)
Goldfinch
Comparing the lists is amazing….we must have a lot of migratory birds in our area since they must leave to go north once the winter is over. Looking at the maps in the back of the Peterson Field Guide have been very helpful in knowing just where our birds migrate to and from….so interesting.
We found this coloring page on Enchanted Learning and thought it was helpful. Rock Dove (Pigeon)
We also found this explanation helpful from the Peterson Field Guide.
“Pigeons and Doves. Plump, fast-flying birds with small heads and low, cooing voices; they nod their heads as they walk. Two types: 1. birds with fanlike talkes (Rock Dove or Domestic Pigeon); 2. smaller, brownish birds with rounded or pointed tails (Mourning Dove).
Peterson Field Guide (W) page 208
This was a great way to end our bird study. Of course, we will always be on the look out for different birds to add to our life list in our nature journal.
This post is long overdue. As I was going through all the past challenges, I realized that I never posted our study of raccoons.
In our neighborhood, we have raccoons. Big raccoons for the most part. They always surprise me when I see them because they are large, curious looking animals. We have had them look in our windows and french doors at night with their shining eyes. We have had them sit in open doorways and look in at us. They have been known to carry away whole bowls full of cat food. I had a big Tupperware container filled with catfood on the back deck and they would come at night and remove the cat food, carry the pieces over to the water dish, and proceed to wash the food and then eat it. We could see their hand prints on the deck and around the bowl. They are clever creatures indeed.
Last summer Mama Raccoon would bring her young ones in the middle of the night to climb the trees just outside our bedroom window. You could hear them making noises in the dark as they played and climbed. I am not positive but I think they would go up the tree and eat the seeds from the pods from the magnolia tree. They would rustle around in the limbs of the tree and if you shone the flashlight out there, their eyes would reflect like glass.
Here is a notebook page that Mr. B made for his nature journal about raccoons.
If you can’t read the bottom I will type it here for you to read. It makes me smile.
“One of the most adaptive mammals ever, the raccoon can make a living almost anywhere. Eating nearly everything it can put its hands on, raccoons aren’t ones to be starved easily. Some live eating grubs and fruit, but the majority of these sneaky thieves steal pet food, bird seed, and any valuables it could pawn off later for a good price. When caught in the act, they will climb the nearest tree and flaunt their invincibility by falling asleep up there. Guard dogs will do next to nothing because they will fight with ninja-like prowess when cornered.”
Funny.
This time of year our chances of seeing and observing a raccoon are very high. I hope we see one again soon.
We shared these a few weeks ago and I just now had time to look it up in my field guide.
Habitat: Crop fields, orchards, gardens, and meadows
Food: Juice of cruciferous plants, including commercial cabbage, kale, and broccoli crops; also turnip, horseradish, potato, beet, bean, grape, squash, sunflower, ragweed, and citrus foliage.
The field guide says that this insect causes white and yellow blotches on the foliage of infested plants…..
These bugs are right on my sunflowers and the sunflowers are right next to my squash plants.
It is always nice to put a name with an insect.
“Some insects go through all the stages of their development on land; these are the insects of fields and woods. This group includes some of the most interesting and beautiful of insects. They are especially well adapted for nature-study because specimens are constantly available.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 301
Here is my very first sunflower of the summer.
If you are interested in focusing on insects this summer, you can go back and work through Outdoor Hour Challenges 22-28. These challenges cover butterflies, moths, crickets, houseflies, ladybugs and aphids, honeybees, and dragonflies. These can be found on the Insects tab.
We were out working in the garden this morning and the topic of pollination came up. We were talking about the different ways that plants pollinate and as if to illustrate one way, this spider obliged us with his example.
We were really examining these black-eyed susans and their pretty pollen spots and we realized that this very yellow spider was sitting right there in front of us. Isn’t he pretty?
I ran inside and gathered a few things to use in exploring the garden and its pollens. I brought out a few Q-tips and a hand lens for gathering some pollen from the flowers and looked at it up close. We also found that many of the flowers and veggies that we observed had ants crawling in around the inside of the flower. Pollination.
Pollen on a day lily
We took a few minutes more to look at various ways that plants hold their pollen and watched a few bees at work and then we came inside.
Pollen on a petunia
It was a short nature study but the best kind……stemming from curiosity about something we had close at hand.
We spent four days hiking several sections of the Oregon Coast Trail……a trail that extends from the California border to the Washington border along the Pacific Ocean.
This trail has some fabulous and surprising views and the sections we hiked were mostly within the Samuel Boardman State Scenic Corridor. If you ever have the chance to even hike a mile or so along this trail, grab it and enjoy the tall trees, the green ferns, and the views of the rugged and awesome Oregon Coast.
We camped at Harris Beach and four out of the five evenings were just like this….clear, sunny and filled with beautiful waves. We walked on the beach every night after dinner and then we would go back to the campsite and build a big campfire and roast marshmallows.
The first section we hiked started at Indian Sands and just like its name suggests, it has some huge sand dunes. The trail is a little sketchy at some points and you have to really hunt for signs but it is worth the effort. The dunes were perfect for running down or rolling down if you preferred.
Just around the corner from the dunes, the trail turns into a narrow path through wildflowers and Sitka spruce. Yes, that is the trail right along the cliff’s edge. It was a spectacular section of the trail and the wildflowers are so thick you have a hard time seeing them all. Wild strawberry, Indian paintbrush, wild iris, clover, daisies….I can’t even remember all the different flowers. We came back a second time to rehike this section because it was awesome.
The foxglove was dazzling and the forests were dotted with purple blossoms here and there. I love purple.
Another section of the trail leads down to China Beach. The trail was not well worn and was very narrow in sections but the wildflowers were spectacular. I loved this place and spent lots of time looking at all the different wildflowers. While I was busy doing that, the boys were busy doing something else.
Another day we drove farther north and caught up with the trail at Cape Blanco. It was a little cooler and definitely more windy here and if you look closely in the background of the photo above, you will see the lighthouse. This was a fantastic place with a huge campground. We would like to come back to Cape Blanco some day and camp for a few days to explore more. This time though we hiked the bluffs and then headed down to the beach to see if we could find some tidepools.
Monkey flower, clover, and lupine all make a lovely mix of colors.
We did find a few tidepools and these snails in the splash zone. We watched them climb around for a few minutes and then we had the most fabulous time watching the birds at the beach. We saw mostly crows and turkey vultures but a few swallows, gulls, and songbirds as well.
The next morning found us hiking along the section of the Oregon Coast Trail at Thunder Rock. The trees were so thick along the path that it was quite dark and eerie. We had the trail to ourselves and when we broke out of the trees, we saw the view above. A spectacular cove with an arch rock and pretty clear water.
This invertebrate was crossing the path and he was the most beautiful snail that I have ever seen, if that is even possible for a snail to be beautiful.
The turn around spot on this section of the trail was a place called Secret Beach. The water was here and the beach, although small, was very nice.
I encourage families to consider a trip to the Oregon Coast and try some of the Oregon Coast Trail….you will not soon forget the beauty and the wonder of this unique place.
Do you see the short fence around the box? Yes, we had critters get in last week and dig holes and uproot all of our onions. We think it is our resident skunk since we can smell him at night and early mornings. So far the fence has deterred him from digging anymore holes.
Many of our day lilies are blooming and this one is our newest variety, Lemon Sachet. It is gorgeous!
The coneflowers are just about ready to burst out in Amanda’s garden box. I love to have a fresh bouquet of these flowers on my dining room table since they make me smile.
Amanda’s zinnias and cosmos are growing tall and the cosmos have flower buds…it won’t be long now.
My flower garden is cheerful and colorful this year. I have black-eyed susans, roses, alyssum, sunflowers, morning glories, a hydrangea, and gladiolas all at varying degrees of maturity. The hummingbirds are already making themselves at home.
The green beans have perfect little blossoms and lots of them! I can hardly wait to have some crisp green beans for dinner.
Look at those baby tomatoes. I think they double in size every day now that the weather has turned hot.
Squash blossoms are a favorite of the bees in the garden.
Monster zucchini plant! The little ones next to it are winter squash. This is a new area to my garden this year and it receives a lot of sun…perfect for squash.
Last but not least, here are some peppers and blossoms. We have three varieties of peppers this year and they are all looking good so far. We tend to have puny peppers so I am hoping that this time I picked varieties that like our soil and weather.
I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into this week’s garden. I am working on a post where I share our hiking/wildflower/camping adventure from last week’s trip to the Oregon Coast.
List of Crop Plant Challenge in the Ebook:
