Now available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships:
Under the Fallen Leaves and Autumn Willow notebooking pages!
I created a few more autumn themed notebooking pages for you to use with your family.
Under the Fallen Leaves notebooking page: Take a few minutes to look under the leaves in your yard or a near-by park. What do you see there? Create a sketch and describe what you saw, felt, and smelled during your outdoor time.
Autumn Willow Tree notebooking page: Use this page to record your autumn willow observations. This can be the start of a year long/four seasons study of willows for your family. I will be reminding you each season to make some notes about your willow tree.
Note: If you have any subjects you would like me to create nature notebook pages for, please let me know in a comment here on the blog or in an email: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com
Print a complete list of printables available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships by clicking the button above.
FYI: There will no longer be a monthly printable planning page. Please note that members have access to the complete year’s plan in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships. Non-members can follow along by subscribing to this blog and each Friday the Outdoor Hour Challenge will come into your email inbox.
We’ve only lived here in Central Oregon since May so we haven’t experienced all of the seasons yet. The November World Outdoor Hour Challenge suggested comparing the things we see this week with another season. I guess that means I would need to compare my November habitat to that of summertime. We had such a glorious summer season with lots of time spent outdoors so this should be fairly easy.
The river behind our house runs year round but there is a small slough that was filled up with water in May and almost dried up in mid-summer. Right now it has lots of water and at times is covered in a sheet of ice. When we moved in last May, we could pull our kayaks out to this slough and make it out to the main river, but by the end of June it was landlocked again. We’ve been keeping track of the amount of water as it rises higher with the rains and snow.
The green grasses of early summer are all gone, either from the cattle grazing or from it turning brown in the freezing temperatures. There are small patches of yellow-gold, tall grass still showing in areas and we read that this is what the winter elk will be eating because it will be sticking up out of the snow. I am anxious to see if the elk come back….they left in late spring when the deer showed up.
Most of the trees in our area are evergreens so they look pretty much the same as in the summer. There are lots of cones on the ground and the squirrels have been very busy gathering them up. We will have up to five gray squirrels in our yard at a time scurrying around under the feeders and up in the trees.
The river willows are all barren but are still very pretty with their reddish-orange colored twigs. The leaves are gone but there are buds forming with the spring time leaves sleeping inside.
The beavers are cutting the willow limbs and dragging them down to the river. We’ve been trying to find where they are taking all of the willows but have been unsuccessful. We think it may be easier to spot their activity once the snow is blanketing the ground and we can see tracks or other signs of their movements. I am thoroughly enjoying the investigating of the beavers…it’s a bit like finding treasure when we see some tracks or cut willows.
The Canada goose are back on the river. We often see up to 12 at a time as they float in the eddy near our house. I’m not sure if they will be winter residents or not. You know I will be watching! (The image above is my best attempt at sneaking up on the geese and getting a photo.)
All in all, November has been a really good month for being outdoors for our family. There were some cold, snowy days but we are finding that even on a snowy day, if you bundle up right, getting outside is a refreshing experience and makes my attitude more positive.
If you want to follow along with the next series of Winter Outdoor Hour Challenges, we will be starting them up again in January. Make sure to subscribe to my blog and you will receive a new Outdoor Hour Challenge right in your inbox every Friday. There is no commitment to do every one. Winter can be a hard time to keep nature study going with your family but I guarantee you if you get them outside, even for fifteen minutes once a week, you will see the benefit in better attitudes (including yours!) Click the link above for more information on the nature study plans for the complete year using the Outdoor Hour Challenge.
