The Common or Field Buttercup-Handbook of Nature Study, pages 516-518
“The buttercups, bright-eyed and bold,
Held up their chalices of gold
To catch the sunshine and the dew.”
“Common buttercups and daisies are always associated in the minds of the children, because they grow in the same fields’ yet the two are so widely different in structure that they may reveal to the child something of the marvelous differences between common flowers; the buttercup is a single flower, while the single daisy is a large group of tiny flowers.”
This sounds like a great way to learn about some common flowers in the garden.
We have a spot that we hike to that has a whole hillside of buttercups.
We didn’t complete an in depth study this week but we did complete our observations and then a journal entry. I know you all must think that we spend oodles of time each week in nature study but in all honesty, some weeks we just *enjoy* getting outdoors without much preparation or follow-up.
I would rather we aim for making our outdoor time as regular as possible, have some focus to start off with, and leave things open and flexible if something happens to catch our attention.
Here is something we found on the trail that caught our eye this week. Butterflies!
I know this one is dead but it did give us an excellent opportunity to examine this creature up close.
The blue is iridescent in this swallowtail…so pretty.
This painted lady let me come very close and get a good photo. She was very busy sipping nectar from the wildflowers in this sunny spot alongside the trail.
We were watching these swallowtails for a very long time. I love to watch them flutter around in the sunshine as they gather their meal. Click to see this one better. 🙂
Our garden is coming alive with colors. I am not sure what we will study for next week yet.
Now is your chance to go outside and pick a flower to study from your yard. It does not have to be a buttercup but something that you can observe from your neighborhood. Pick your flower and then look it up in the Handbook of Nature Study.
I have been feeling sort of guilty about all the wildflower posts on this blog but after much deliberation, I came to the conclusion that recording things that are important to me is at the heart of why I keep a blog. My goal this spring has been to observe as many of the local wildflowers as I can and try to keep a record of when they started blooming and then identify them as I can with my field guide. This blog is part of my nature journal…a digital version of my paper journal.
In addition to recording my wildflowers on the blog, I have tried to keep current with our Wednesday Flower Study posts and the Outdoor Hour bird challenges. I slipped in a post about our great natural bridge hike last week and I have a backlog of posts to make about our other hikes.
Even though every post doesn’t exactly reference the Handbook of Nature Study, I still feel like I am staying “on topic” and helping to encourage other families to get outdoors and explore their own neighborhood. With the exception of the first photo of me taking photos of flowers, all the other photos are within a 25 minute driving distance from my house.
“It may not be practical for every family, but when mothers understand the good that a measure can do, they will often work miracles to provide it. A twenty minute trip with a picnic lunch can make a day in the country accessible to almost anyone, but why do it just one day? Why not do it lots of days? Or even every nice day?” Charlotte Mason in Modern English, volume one, page 44
So here are April 14th’s flowers from our regular hiking trail.
I have decided that yellow sunflower shaped flowers are really hard to identify. I need to start carrying my book with me on hikes and not relying on my photos to help make an identification.
This is something rather beautiful and we only have seen it one place in all our travels. I can’t find a identification for it but it sort of looks like Purple fritillary…not quite sure.
April 15th’s flowers from Cronan Ranch and the American River Confluence
(These are both new hikes to our family and we ended up going back to both places over the next few days to explore some more.)
Lupine. This is the year of lupine in our area. It is glorious and abundant everywhere you go. In a lot of places it is a mix of lupine and poppies and the blue and gold combination is stunning.
Lupines…right alongside the river. Yellow bush lupine and blue pod lupine.
Baby blue eyes
Back to the American River Confluence on 4/17/09
The plant and flower look like Miner’s lettuce but I have never seen the heart shaped buds before. Anyone know what this is?
We think these are Ground iris. We saw quite a few of them along the slope on the river side of the trail.
I think that is all of the outstanding new wildflowers that we observed and enjoyed over the last week’s hikes. I have a few more to share but I will post about those when I write about each individual hike.
I have developed a huge case of spring allergies. I have not been out for my usual walk in three days and I am getting antsy to break out and enjoy the spring. I am hoping that my allergy medicine kicks in soon and I can get out and explore some more of our local area.
Confession: My petunias are from the garden nursery. I don’t really much like petunias but they are a happy spring flower that has brightened up our front and back decks with their cheerful blooms. My eldest son helped me pick the color and I am surprised that he picked pink because he usually picks much richer primary colors in flowers.
I don’t blog much about my oldest son because he is a very busy twenty-one year old young man who has a full-time job as a computer programmer and goes to college in the evenings. When he isn’t working or at school, he is sequestered away working on complicated homework or his various artistic ventures. Usually on the weekends, he spends his Sundays with us and for our family that means worshiping together and then spending some family time at home in the yard or outside hiking or walking the dog. My oldest is always up for a little time on the trail. He lives and works in a very technological world but he is still connected to the outdoors and feels the need to be refreshed by the sky, trees, and birds. We have some of our best talks as we share our outdoor time.
Anyway, back to our weekly flower study.
As always, we found something interesting in the Handbook of Nature Study about our subject. The story of our modern petunias is interesting and we talked about colors of petunias that we have seen in our area. We also learned that petunias are in the nightshade family. The petunia gives off its perfume at nightfall, perhaps to attract the hummingbird moths to feast on its nectar.
“With their long feeding tubes the hummingbird moths have little difficulty in securing the nectar, but bees also will work industriously in the petunias. They will scramble into the blossoms and, apparently complaining with high-pitched buzzing because of the tight fit, rifle the nectar-wells, that seem to be better adapted to insects of quite different build.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 583
The lesson suggests that each child have their own flower for observation and that they have access to a petunia bed to observe the habits of the plant. We will be adding a few more petunias to our flower garden so we can observe all the interesting tidbits contained in the Handbook of Nature Study.
There are lots of suggestions for sketches in this lesson. We will be adding to our journals as the spring and summer go by. I found a coloring page for petunias if you would like one for your nature journal.
So now it is your turn to pick a garden flower and pull out the Handbook of Nature Study and see what you can learn this week. We will be moving on to buttercups this week. We have been observing them on our hikes for a few weeks now and it is high time that we take a few minutes to really study them. You can pick any flower you have in your yard or that you have access to and can observe up close. Even if you don’t do a formal study…take a few minutes this week to share a flower with your child. After all, it is spring now!
We had the opportunity to take a drive to a new hiking spot. We live in a pretty special area of California and we can drive an hour or so and find the best adventures. We live in what people affectionately call Gold Country……our house is about 8 miles from where they discovered gold in California and the Gold Rush began.
This time though, we headed about fifty miles south of our house to a place in Calaveras County where there is a natural rock bridge over the river. This well-kept secret location was shared with me by a fellow homeschooler. I tried to Google it and came up with very vague directions but we were determined to try to find this spot.
We finally found the parking area for the trail and we filled the backpack up with water and a few snacks. Immediately I knew this was going to be a great wildflower hike because the first stretch bordered a little meadow with this view. Purple/blue flowers are Harvest brodiaea. (click to see the flowers better)
Here is the trail as it cuts across a fairly steep section of the hillside. The trail is the dirt path on the top right of the photo. Do you see my boys on the trail? They left us in the dust in a hurry to see the destination. We could hear the river rushing down below but instead of hurrying, my husband and I took our time and also a few photographs. Well, maybe a lot of photos!
It was a fairly easy three quarters of a mile hike down the hillside to the water and along the way it wound through buckeye, red bud, and oaks. On each sunny hillside, we found an abundance of wildflowers. Breathtaking beauty like this doesn’t come along everyday and we found ourselves marveling at the vivid colors of the flowers. It is at times like these that you feel impelled to stop and say a little prayer of thanks to our loving Creator….what a garden he has made for us to enjoy.
Once down to the bottom of the ravine, we found what we had come to see….the natural bridge which looked more like a cave or a tunnel.
The boys decided to wade out into the middle of the mouth of the tunnel and see if they could see the light at the other end. The water was really cold and they moved rather quickly through the shallow water.
It is nearly impossible to give you a really good idea of what the natural bridge is like but this photo shows you a little of the stalactite formations on the ceiling of the bridge. There was water raining down inside and in one area it looked like a cascading waterfall inside.
Here is a close-up of the ceiling showing the stalactite formations. All those lessons in geology paid off and we had some great conversation about how we think this bridge was formed. We talked about limestone and calcium carbonate and springs. We talked about erosion and ground water and water tables. We talked about the difference between stalactites and stalagmites.
We made plans to come back this summer with a headlamp and perhaps a little inflatable raft.
My husband and I had a very relaxing time at the river and the boys had fun exploring the limestone/marble pools and trying to jump across the watery stretches. They were already wet from wading in the tunnel so a little more water fun was okay by me.
Here is another pretty flower we found as we hiked back up the trail. I don’t know what it is called yet but I am going to keep on working on identifying it.
Here is one that was blooming along one whole section of the trail. Mustang clover.
Isn’t this the best photo? I love how it shows the shape of the plant growing. I am pretty sure this is Caterpillar scorpionweed….what a name!
This is a white variety of lupine growing at the parking spot.
Okay….this one makes me laugh. It is called Pineapple weed. The description says that this plant is not a native plant to California but I see it just about everywhere right now.
I know….how many wildflowers can I cram into this one post? Believe me, there are plenty more but they will have to wait for another time.
I hope you enjoyed viewing some glimpses into our day. I started this post on Monday….we have had some new adventures since this one and I can’t wait to share those too.
We have been trying to observe birds and their wing shapes and tail shapes over the last few days. The weather has been sunny and cool so the hiking has been fantastic.
We watched two turkey vultures soaring right over our head yesterday…we say their wingtips and the way their feathers spread out as they glide on the wind.
We had the chance to see this pair of barn swallows at the flower farm and even though you can’t see it very well in the photos, their tails are very unique.
As we are working through these challenges, our family is starting to be able to notice more quickly the shapes and sizes of birds and I am sure it is because we are paying closer attention and we now have more vocabulary to express what we are seeing.
We also had a chance to observe some red-winged blackbirdsand to see their beautiful colors as they flew near us. This one has his back to the camera but you can see his pretty red spots.
Yesterday we had a chance to observe goldfinches in a thistle feeder. They are such pretty birds.
“Goldfinches are seen at their best in late summer or September, when they appear in flocks wherever the thistle seeds are found in abundance.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 57
We had quite a few goldfinches in our garden last fall because we left our huge sunflower plants intact until just about all the seeds had been eaten. It amazed us that they could land on the head of a sunflower and it wouldn’t even bend over in the least. They must be light birds. They also are fun to watch when they hang upside down in the feeders.
This was a finch at the Living Desert Museum in Palm Springs, CA from February.
My son pointed out the beautiful clouds overhead as we wandered around the local flower farm. There is a vineyard next the the farm and it was a perfect picture looking out in the distance.
Here is the pretty sky over the vineyard and it made the lilacs ever so purple….sigh.
Another pretty sky photo from our week….this time you can see that this big oak has not put on its leaves for the season yet.
We also had a chance to observe some crab apple blossoms. These must be drawn in the nature journal!
So even though we didn’t see many goldfinches or a single meadowlark, we were happy to see some birds to check out their wing and tail shapes. The barn swallow was also a new bird for us so that was exciting too.
We have done the reading up on yellow birds so the next time we are out and the opportunity arises, we will be ready for the challenge.
“The flowers of the bleeding heart are beautiful jewel-like pendants arranged along the stem according to their age; the mature flower, ready to shed its petals, is near the main stem, while the tiny unopened bud is hung at the very tip where new buds are constantly being formed during a long season of bloom.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 559
We chose the bleeding heart this week to take a closer look at during our afternoon outdoor time. We have one side of our house that is pretty much left in a wild state and it is full of bleeding hearts that bloom in the spring time. The mower comes close to this area but I have given strict orders that this particular stretch of the yard be left alone to do as it wishes.
We brought inside a vase full of flowers to examine up close just as the book suggested. Do you know what? We have never cut any of these flowers to bring indoors before this study. The other amazing thing is that we didn’t even know that they had a fragrance until we had the vase on the table and we were observing the flowers parts.
Once we pulled the petals back to look inside, the fragrance was almost overwhelmingly sweet….too sweet. My daughter thought they smelled like honey and I think that is a pretty accurate comparison.
The Handbook of Nature Study has a great explanation of the way this flower works and how the bees pollinate it by pushing apart the spoon-bowl shaped outer petals, pushing against the hinge works, then probing the nectar pitcher inside.
Here is the flower with the outer petals removed, exposing the inner petals and the heart shaped base of the stamen.
We would love to watch a bee gathering nectar so the next warm day we will be out and trying to catch that process happening.
Now you can pick your flower and join the Wednesday Flower Study. Choose a flower from your garden and look it up in the Handbook of Nature Study. Here is more information on how to get started. Join in during any week you have time. Wednesday Flower Study
Here is my original list and the flowers we are going to cover in our study.
Flowers Blooming Already or That We Can Study Right Now
Violet (page 476) Finished 3/18/09. Here is a LINK.
Buttercup (page 516)
Tulip (page 552) Finished 4/1/09. Here is a LINK.
California Poppy (page 531) Finished 4/8/09. Here is a LINK.
Petunias (page 581)
Mullein (page 537)
Dandelion (page 531) Finished 3/25/09. Here is a LINK.
Flowers that Will Study in Addition to Those Above
Bleeding Heart (page 558) Finished 4/15/09.
Bachelor’s Buttons (page 578)
Sweet Peas (page 588)
Queen Anne’s Lace (page 542)
We will be moving on to petunias next week. We have some really nice white and pink ones to study up close and to record in our nature journals.
Just another entry to share what is along the trail this week as we hike along……I have not captured them all but I am working diligently to document the majority of the flowers. It was a rainy day but when a break in the clouds came we struck out for a long walk in the woods.
Purple Chinese Houses are starting to bloom along the trail on the hilly sides and in the sun. My favorite….purple.
Here are some more Indian Pinks. These are one flower you can’t miss because of their brilliant color.
I did not get a good photo of this one but I will try again next time. This is blue larkspur.
This was an unidentified flower on a vine last week but now that I can see the fruit forming….I know what it is! Wild cucumber! I saw these at the Channel Islands National Park and we examined the dried fruits and seeds. I will be watching this one develop over the summer.
This yellow flower is blanketing the area right now. I am working on its identification.
Is this interesting or what? I was taking photos of some poppies and I noticed this unusual looking plant. Any ideas?
That is it for this entry. I am happy to report that we seem to be slowly identifying most of the wildflowers we find along the trail. This is a huge project but one that I am totally and completely enjoying and it doesn’t seem like work at all.
“Nature is imperfectly perfect, filled with loose parts and possibilities, with mud and dust, nettles and sky, transcendent hands-on moments and skinned knees.” Last Child in the Woods, page 96
Once again I had a moment while reading this book. I know exactly what he is talking about when he says “transcendent hands-on moments”. I have had those moments. My kids have had those moments. They are still possible in this modern, technological world.
Whether it is standing on top of a giant granite dome or swimming under the crystal clear waters of the Hawaiian Islands, it is the same. It is a spark, a racing of the heart, a moment that lasts forever but not really.
Those moments are times that stick with you long after the physical experience.
Outdoor Hour Challenge Birds #3
Goldfinch and Meadowlark (Western and Eastern)
Inside preparation work:
1. Read the Handbook of Nature Study pages 29-33 about feathers. Another great link is found here: Feather Structure. Here is another link to Bird Wing Shapes.
2. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study pages 53-57 about the goldfinch.
3. Read the Handbook of Nature Study pages 80-82 about the meadowlark.
4. Backyard Birds: Read aloud with your child pages 16-19. Use the illustrations to point out the field marks for each bird and for the goldfinch, the differences between the male and female birds.
5. Peterson Field Guide: Make note of the wing and tail shape illustrations on pages 18 and 19(W) 24 and 25(E) Look up in the index the goldfinch and the meadowlark. Observe the illustrations carefully and read the narrative descriptions and explanations. Notice the beak, the tail, and the wing shape for future reference. (See links at the bottom of the post for the particulars on these field guides.)
Outdoor Hour Time
Practice your quiet observation skills for at least part of your 10-15 minutes of birding time. Remember the focus from challenge two and make special note of the shape of the beak and the way the bird uses it. Also, make note of the wing and tail shapes of any birds that you observe during this challenge.
Shape of the tail: Square tip? Rounded? Pointed? Notched? Shape of the wing: Rounded? Pointed? Slim? Long? Short?
Sometimes a bird’s wings and tail look differently when they fly. Observe a bird during flight to see if you can notice different colors, shapes, or stripes when they fly. Remember to make these observations for any bird you see during your outdoor time and not just for the meadowlark and/or the goldfinch.
Follow Up Activity for the Goldfinch and the Meadowlark
You can make a nature journal entry for the goldfinch and the meadowlark if you would like. There are several styles of journal pages in the NotebookingPages.com set below.
For something different in your nature journal, copy the John Keats poem on page 57 of the Handbook of Nature Study. Many families like to include poetry in their nature journals and this poem about the goldfinch is a perfect addition.
If you are using NotebookingPages.com’s bird nature study set (shown below), you can use the pages on feathers to record your feather observations or you can draw a feather and label its parts.
If you would like to hear the bird calls for this week’s birds, here are the links:
Also I am highly recommending that you purchase the Bird Bundle from NotebookingPages.com as a great supplement to your study of birds using the Outdoor Hour Challenge. Note: These are affiliate links.
Use code discount5 to save $5 on any purchase $10 or more from the NotebookingPages.com Shop. (This does not include membership purchases.)
I found it surprising that the California poppy is covered in the Handbook of Naure Study since it is usually thought to be a book for the East Coast and not the West. I thought the information was really well done and the black line drawing of the poppy on page 564 was really perfect for helping us draw a poppy in our nature journal.
My earliest memories of poppies are when I was quite young and my aunt taught me that you could “tip their hats”.
“One of the most interesting performances to watch that I know is the way this poppy takes off its cap before it bows to the world. Like magic the cap loosens around the base; it is then pushed off by the welling, expanding petals until completely loosened, and finally it drops.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 563
These are really small poppies…the ones I remember as a child were much bigger but you get the idea.
This is such a silly little video but please envision me perched precariously on the side of the hill trying to hold the camera and to tip the cap at the same time. 🙂
I wish I could share with you how lovely these flowers are because my photos just do not do them justice. The hillsides and banks alongside our hiking trail are a blaze with poppies right now.
“….we can never understand its beauty until we see it glowing in masses on the California foothills.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 563
The orange glow of California Poppies really cheers me up and it reminds me that it really *is spring*!
“This is not nearly so pretty or so descriptive as the name given to this poppy by the Spanish settlers on the Pacific Coast, for they called it Copa-de-oro, cups of gold.”
“In California it should be studied in the spring, when the hills are covered with it. But the plant may be brought into the schoolroom, root and all, and placed in a jar, under which conditions it will continue to blossom.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 565
“The insects in California take advantage of the closing petals and often get a night’s lodging within them, where they are cozily housed with plenty of pollen for supper and breakfast; and they pay their bill in a strange way by carrying off as much of the golden meal as adheres to them, just as the man who weighs gold dust gets his pay from what adheres to the pan of his scales.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 565
I think I would like to sleep inside a poppy blossom…..all surrounded by soft orange petals.
One last very cool thing to share with you. Last week we took a different fork in our usual trail. The trail wound around a long ways and gave us hints of a view of the river below. We kept saying that we would go one more bend and one more turn before we decided to stop. Well, we did that for a good twenty-five minutes until we reached a dead-end. Guess what was there?
What is it?
It is an abandoned gold mine, pretty much filled up with water……I will save more photos for another entry. 🙂
We will be studying our Bleeding Hearts this week. Although the most striking flowers in our garden right now are the pear blossoms. They are so pretty and delicate.
Now it is your turn. Pick a flower from the Handbook of Nature Study or from your garden and make your own flower study. You do not need to pick poppies….pick something you have in your area. Here is the first entry in this series to explain more about Wednesday Flower Study day.
