Our December days are accented with color….right in our own yard.
My husband brought some granite rocks into the front yard when we remodeled and I am so happy to see that they are alive with moss and lichens of a variety of colors. Now when I walk down my front path I will see some living things that have made themselves at home…that makes me happy.
There are still leaves falling each day from the colorful trees and I love the way this red leaf fell among the yellow-green leaves. Now that I look at the photo closely, I notice there is a mushroom peeking through on the top left side.
The gray skies of December have a different feel to them and give the afternoon a somber cast. The sweet gum tree is all dressed up with its sticker balls and a few remaining red-orange leaves. I find myself looking up at the sky more in the winter….checking the sky for clouds, looking for birds, viewing the world that opens up when the leaves are gone.
I feel a whole series of December World posts coming on as I work my way through my photos from this week. Using photography to capture your world is not only an easy way to document your time outdoors but it can be therapeutic to see the world through the lens of your camera. You get to focus on the small and the big.
Another November world sort of post from my world to yours….it is cold, really cold but no snow as they predicted which makes me very thankful. I am not ready yet for the winter to hit as hard as they thought it was going to this past week.
It was 43 degrees when we left the car for our walk on the trail. It was late afternoon and the light was so pretty in the remaining colorful leaves.
The mornings are still very cold and the leaves all have pretty patterns of ice to observe if you look up close.
How about this one from our deck railing? Amazingly beautiful don’t you think?
Another one that caught my eye…..lovely, just lovely.
As November comes to a close, so will my November World posts but then again, it will a December World.
Our study of pine cones started way back when I was writing the Autumn Series ebook. We gathered a few pine cones to use in the experiments suggested. We had fun soaking the cones in a bucket of water and then setting them in the sun to observe them as they dried and opened up again. Simple things sometimes make the deepest impressions and honestly, none of us had really put all the pieces together until doing the experiments. I know I took photos but they are lost somewhere on my hard drive. Could that be a sign of taking too many photos? I bet a lot of you can relate to my desire to document as much as I can about our world and that leads to lots of images to save and enjoy.
Our unofficial theme as we worked through this study became something like this:
Pine cones don’t just hold still, they are a living thing created for a specific purpose.
What else pushed this pine cone study up another notch?
We have had sort of an on-going study of the female and male cones of the pines in our area.
We studied pine cones back in February of 2008 as part of the Winter Wednesday studies: Cones and a Woodpecker. We also studied pines as part of the Winter Series back in February 2010. This time though we are really trying to concentrate on the cones.
We extended our study of female and male cones.
Male cones with the pollen.
This is the photo that sort of started it all so long ago. We wondered if these were “baby pine cones”. Well, it turns out they are not and only after completing a study of what gymnosperms are in our biology study did things start to fall into place. There are male and female cones on the tree. Females are usually at the top and males at the bottom. The males have the pollen that is wind driven up to meet up with the female cones. How about a simple video that even I can understand? Here you go!
Next we wondered why the female cones are sticky and then we guessed it had to do something with capturing the pollen…but that is whole other subject.
This guy wanted to be included in our pine cone study this week. He was so very happy that I put out some extra walnuts for him when I was filling the birdfeeders and he climbed up the tree to look in the living room window at us.
“Thanks a lot”, he said as he swished his big fluffy tail and then dropped to the ground and off to eat some more.
There were also some bird friends that made an appearance but I will save those for another post.
There is always something to learn about in our world and these challenges have helped us focus on things that we never dream of making into a complete study all on their own. I love it.
I have been thinking about the award and what it means, bringing back great memories from the last year and how much the Outdoor Hour has become the center of a great community of blog readers and participants.
Many of you follow the challenges and post your links faithfully, some of you pop in when you get a chance and blow me away with your great family nature study, and there are probably many of you I haven’t even “met” but who read through readers and email. I think all of you deserve a little bit of this award….without you there would be no real reason to keep this nature blog.
I think this award belongs to the community we have developed and nurtured. Behind the award is a lot of effort not only on my part but by all the moms and dads who have slowed down to take the time and value outdoor activities with their children. You all make what I do have meaning. The fruits of my labor are viewed in the smiles and great learning that I see each week when I open up my links to glimpse into your nature study.
Although the award is a great honor and I realize that you all supported me by voting, I think the real reward is the everyday, week-to-week sharing of nature study that I am privileged to be a part of with families from all over the world.
Thank you very much for your support of this blog, Handbook of Nature Study.
I didn’t take a single photo in this post. Here are the captions that go with each one:
1. Water bird at Lake Tahoe, taken by my son this past October.
2. Typical family nature outing….my youngest being silly and if you look in the background you can see me taking photos.
3.Another beautiful photo with mom and her camera…..my two oldest sons have inherited my photography passion.
4. Rare photo of all three of my boys standing still with their mom…..this year’s camping trip to Northern California and the Oregon Coast. (Please note that this photo was taken on the last day of a week-long camping trip with four guys so I am a little rough around the edges.)
I headed out with the boys for a walk in our neighborhood to see what interested them from our November World. I tried hard to just listen and observe what they commented on or stopped to look at as we spent some time in the crisp November air….we are expecting snow any time now so the air is cold, about 38 degrees F. The wind howled last night and the rain came in but now snow yet.
Back to our walk….I made a mental list as we walked of all the things they noticed.
Golden mushrooms- not very large and partially hidden under some fallen leaves.
Dark clouds and little peep holes of blue shining through occasionally (Hey, look at the blue sky Mom!)
The variety of colors of leaves on the ground.
The differences between the two kinds of oaks we saw….one has big leaves and the other has small pointy leaves
The sound of a crickets in the late afternoon.
Pretty good list for just a casual walk don’t you think?
I challenged myself to just take a walk and not bring my camera. I know how much I can be distracted by my own interests when I have the camera in my hand. I wanted on this walk, for this challenge to just spend time with the boys and notice things. I noticed that the air is different as the storm makes its way into our area, a sort of stillness that feels heavy. There is also a smell of dampness from the morning dew that isn’t present in the summer. There are still colors to be seen if you look closely and try to find them in the autumn weeds.
The birds seem more active when the weather is changing and after our walk I spent some time filling feeders and listening to the boys talk about the red-tailed hawk they saw earlier in the week, still gushing about its greatness and size.
It feels good to be living a life so close to our natural environment and learning about the lives of other creatures that cross our path. It is comforting to learn about the cycles of birth, growth, death, and then rebirth that takes place right in our own backyard. Yet, with all the knowledge of such things gained in years previous, we know there is so much more to glean as we keep inviting the opportunities to come by making time to get outdoors every week….just about every day.
Our November World has pretty much turned into a Winter World since I started writing this post a few days ago. We have had really cold temperatures and wild weather. It now feels like time to start thinking about winter nature study.
Our typical November weather is very unpredictable. We can have warm sunny days filled with outdoor activities or we can have cold, wet day where you stand at the window and wonder when it will end. Both were experienced this week as part of our official seasonal weather observations.
Using the chart provided in the ebook, we all worked together to keep track of morning and afternoon temperatures and other factors like wind, rain, clouds, etc. Our outdoor thermometer is broken so we had to take a portable one outdoors to make our measurements each time.
Comparing our morning and afternoon temperatures was interesting because of the large span of numbers on a few of the days. We had one day with a 24 degree change in temperature within a few hours and from day to day it was widely varied as well. I am the official record keeper for this challenge since they like the observation part but not the actual writing it down in a journal part.
Unofficial time spent outdoors found us raking leaves for the compost bin, noticing how beautifully the leaves fell in a pile around the base of this tree.
Observing clouds was fun this week since we had a variety to enjoy.
The changing color in most all the deciduous plants in the yard like this grape vine is happening before our very eyes.
More raking after the rain came through…these are the walnut tree leaves which have a particular odor that is imprinted in your brain once you smell it.
We also took a drive over the Sierra on Thursday and saw the mountains with a fresh blanket of snow that will more than likely stay there until late next spring.
We stopped to take in the snow at the summit and it was cold! This is about an hour’s drive from our house and very near to where the Donner Party was stranded if you have read about them in your history study. I highly recommend Patty Reed’s Doll if you are interested in reading a children’s version of their survival during the winter of 1846.
Our weather study will be on-going as we keep adding to our weather chart and it will give us some great data to use to compare to our winter observations.
We finally completed our autumn observations for the Queen Anne’s Lace in our neighborhood. The challenge asked us to go back to our patch of this flower and compare the changes since our summer observations. Most of the Queen Anne’s Lace looks like this right now…dry, brittle, brown, and stiff. We cut a stem or two to take inside to observe closely and compare to our summer observations.
We had a great time observing closely the flower heads we brought in and were able to observe some interesting things. The challenge suggested using a hand lens to look more closely at the seeds of the Queen Anne’s Lace.
Each dried cluster was made up of many dried flower clusters.
The large cluster was made up of more than 70 small clusters.
Each small cluster had over 20 seeds in it.
We drew a flower cluster and a seed after viewing it with our loupe. The little seeds were sticky and I found them in the carpet and the hem of my skirt after we had finished. We thought about our dandelion seeds (akenes) and how they are blown away in the wind and compared them to the Queen Anne’s Lace seeds that are definitely spread by adhesion or attachment. Our dog regularly helps disperse the seeds of the Queen Anne’s Lace as she romps through the weeds on our walks.
On today’s walk with the dog, we found a patch of Queen Anne’s Lace that is not quite dried up yet. There is still a little greenness to the stem, leaves, and flower head. We are experiencing some unseasonably warm weather with the afternoons in the 70’s. I actually took a walk without a sweatshirt and we worked up a thirst by the time we reached home again. We will be trying to get out in the warm temperatures again tomorrow….who knows how long they will last.
The season of abundant Queen Anne’s Lace is over but we shall be watching as we enter the winter season to see if the plants make much of a change.
We were able to experience two kinds of salmon and their spawning this autumn.
The Kokanee salmon are a land-locked species that live in the high mountain lake and then return to the creek of their birth for spawning.
This shallow creek is the perfect place for laying eggs in the gravel.
The fish come by the thousands, swimming and leaping around in the water as they make their way back up the creek from the lake.
The bears are around and we are warned to keep clear of them as they come for their autumn feast of salmon after the fish have spawned and then die.
Even though these are land-locked salmon, they still go through the same changes that their ocean cousins perform. Their colors change and their jaws and teeth become more prominent.
They wiggle a little dance to court the females and then fertilize her eggs. It is amazing to watch.
There are two bridges that you can watch the fish from and on this day there were quite a few nature lovers out there viewing the fish ritual.
The ducks, gulls, and eagles all depend on the salmon spawning for their autumn diet. We didn’t see any eagles on this day but the ducks were present.
They eat the freshly laid eggs if they get the chance.
Our second salmon observing opportunity came this past weekend at the American River above Sacramento. There is a fish hatchery below a dam where the salmon will make their way up the fish ladder.
Here is the ladder the salmon will leap up as they make their way to the hatchery. The officials were waiting until the next day to open the gate that ajoins the river to the ladder.
We were a little early but we were still able to observe the *huge* Chinook salmon waiting at the gate to climb up. They were actually jumping up out of the water and slamming into the metal gate. One sign says they can leap out of the water nine feet!
The Chinook are much larger than the Kokanee and we decided it was because they have a much longer migration journey. They travel round trip 2,000 miles from their birthplace, down the American River, through the Sacramento Delta and then out into the Pacific Ocean. Two or three years later, they make the return trip and end up at their birthplace again….changing from freshwater fish to saltwater fish and back again.
The hatchery we visited has a lovely visitor’s center to learn more about the cycle of life of the salmon.
Trout are filling the holding ponds of the hatchery at the moment. There are steelhead and rainbow trout to view. In a month or so the steelhead will start their journey up the fish ladder and we may take time to visit again.
We had an additional observation of the rainbow trout a few weeks ago at a local pond that they stock for the kids to fish in. They are such beautiful fish and very tasty too. (I’m surprised I didn’t encourage us all to taste test the salmon and the trout…next time.)
So for our Outdoor Hour Challenge we were able to compare two different species of salmon as well as the salmon to the trout.
Our favorite is still the Kokanee salmon in its wild habitat and its unique cycle of life.
Here is a nature journal entry I made a few years ago featuring this colorful amazing fish.
I don’t usually enjoy the fall season…it is a melancholy time for me. I love the barefoot days of summer and the hot afternoons working in the garden or swimming in the pool. I would much rather be hiking in the green, green hills with wildflowers blooming at my side in the springtime. The promise of spring and the activity of summer are much more likely to gain my vote for “favorite season”. Winter is the enduring time, the time for preparing for spring and summer.
Autumn days are soon filled with colored leaves, falling leaves, and raking leaves. It seems to creep up slowly but then you wake up one morning to find that the leaves are starting to turn colors…..oranges, reds, yellows, golds, purples.
Observing autumn trees and looking close though, you will see spring’s leaves preparing for the winter.
So here we are in the middle of our autumn challenges and making the best of what the season has to offer. We gathered a few leaves to compare and my son reminded me that we did an in-depth study of leaves and their parts as part of our biology study.
I went to the shelf and pulled out his biology notebook and his nature journal and we thumbed through to find our completed study.
So now what could we do to learn more about leaves?
First of all, I shared with my son the idea that I gleaned from Amy at The Teachable Heart and her family’s study of autumn leaves. She actually color copied the leaves for their nature journals and they looked wonderful. I thought maybe we could do the same for our tree and other fall leaves that we were comparing just for a change in our journals.
We had already decided to choose another tree to study for a year-long tree study, the birch tree in our backyard. We gathered a few leaves and took a closer look at the tree while we were out there.
Welcome to our new tree for the year! We are excited to see what we can learn by looking at and comparing this tree to our previous tree study subjects.
These catkins are such interesting things to look at and we looked up some more information in our tree guide after our outdoor time.
We brought some inside to look at with our loupes and to draw in detail in our nature journals.
While we were out we looked at several other kinds of leaves….the dandelion growing in my pot is such an interesting shape in comparison to our tree leaves.
How about these leaves on the broccoli? Amazing gray-green color.
Our coleus is still giving us blazing amounts of color in the container garden on the deck. It makes me happy just to look at these leaves.
It had to go in my nature journal.
Watercolor pencils are fun to work with in your nature journals and we always have a set sitting on or near our work area table. It is easy to sketch quickly and then come back later to add water and details.
I will end my entry here since this journal is getting quite long. We are enjoying the connections between our biology study and our nature study using the Outdoor Hour Challenges.
Autumn came this past weekend to our world and we awoke to sprinkles of rain on the ground. It wasn’t much so we didn’t let it cancel our plans to head up early to the apple orchards to find some apples to sample and use as part of our apple challenge.
Our traditional autumn outing always starts off with apple cider doughnuts….there are plain, glazed, crumb, and cinnamon spice varieties to enjoy along with your big cup of steaming hot coffee. The crumb doughnuts were the first to be eaten. We were early enough to have a good spot to sit to eat and enjoy the mountain air.
Then the real business of the day was at hand, choosing a few new kinds of apples to try. We were disappointed that they did not have Honey Crisp to purchase since I had read on several blogs about their wonderful taste. In the end, we settled on Empire, Jonagold, and Mutsu.
Empire is a cross between Red delicious and McIntosh.
Jonagold is a cross between a Jonathan and a Golden Delicious.
Mutsu is also known as the Crispin.
Our official taste tests were interrupted when we decided to make the Mutsu apples into a pastry dessert. Mr. B had already created a wonderful dessert a few months ago with some apples and he repeated his recipe for us to enjoy again.
We compared the sizes, colors, shapes, and tastes of the apples, noting the seed patterns, the skin textures, and the skin thicknesses as we cut and peeled the apples for the pastry and some applesauce.
Some of the apples were so large that they would be a complete meal all by themselves! My dear husband announced that although he enjoyed the new varieties that we picked out, he still loves the Granny Smith for eating the best. Go figure.
This was a delicious challenge for our family and we learned a little more about the different local varieties of apples available for eating and baking.
