Our "nature" area... Tomatoes saved from frost on the windowsill, Snack-Jack pumpkins from the garden, baskets of nature finds, a dried ear of Gareth's Black Aztec corn, a basket of tree-related books, and a sumac tree Gareth found in the yard and transplanted into a pot.
The weather this week has been mostly gorgeous and leading up to what looks like peak weekend for fall color, and we have been trying to make the most of it. On Wednesday, I took the little boys for a nature walk around the yard. I gave them a basket and told them that we would collect leaves and pine cones and rocks and whatever else they wanted to put in it. This suggestion was met with enthusiam, and the five of us (Chipmunk was on my back) set off for a tour of the yard.
Our haul... The big yellow leaves are pignut hickory (I think), then maple leaves (of course)... and I really do think we've got sugar maples, not red maples... birch bark, asters...
(You can see that we brought along a few knights as a bodyguard. The colors on this picture are a little funny because the camera was on the wrong setting.)
The boys wanted to stay in the yard for our walk. They did not want to venture into the field. Granted that our yard is much bigger and wilder than most, experience with other little people (Gareth and Katydid) in small suburban yards makes me think that at this age, you don't need a lot of complicated field trips anyway. Gareth and Katydid had their love of nature kindled by picking up stone landscaping blocks to observe the roly-polies (pill bugs or wood lice) eating the mulch, by observing the butterflies that fluttered through our flower beds, by collecting acorns that fell from a big oak tree that stood on the hill behind us. Every once in a while, we would head off to a park with a playground and a nature trail, where I would let them play until they wanted to be done playing, and then we would set off down the trail through the woods.
In this house, we still do the play and walk routine:
Pop needed to take a break on the tire swing.
And, of course, we had to run around with the chickens a bit. (Pip volunteered to carry the basket and did a very good job.) Then we were off on our walk again.
Farmerboy discovered some sap on this spruce tree and several rows of holes probably tapped by sapsuckers. He touched the sap to prove it was sticky.
After we collected pine cones from beneath the spruce trees (spruce cones??), Farmerboy remembered how the water collects in that corner of the yard every spring to form a shallow pond. He hypothesized about how the water came down the hill, so we studied the lay of the land a bit, and I pointed out that we should have been able to tell that this part of the land was wet when we moved in because of the big weeping willow that grows there. I love weeping willows, but this is the only place we've ever lived that we've actually had one. The limbs are too weak for climbing unfortunately, but they still make a good "secret place" which the kids use sometimes when they play their "Civilization" game (which involves a lot of trading between different "cities".)
The underside of a roll of birch bark which made its way beneath the willow tree through "trade"...
There was also a big thistle beneath the willow tree that the boys wanted to examine. Farmerboy wondered if it was possible to pull all the thistle's spines off in an attempt to neutralize it. The answer is no.
After we poked around under the willow tree, Farmerboy wanted to show us the other spots in the yard that have become "cities".
Katydid's city is located in the ferns. I'm not sure what kind of ferns we have, but could they possibly be New York ferns? You can also see that our chickens think that we are part of the flock. They followed us on our walk around the yard and are now foraging for bugs among the leaf litter and rotting stumps.
Farmerboy investigates the soft, crumbly pile of completely rotted wood at the base of one of the stumps.
The stump itself is hollow and used as a "storage area", Farmerboy informs me. Pip immediately decides to store some rocks.
After investigating the ferns, we head around the side yard to the remains of the huge tree that came down last year. The wind blows maple leaves from the trees in the front yard back this way, and we examine and collect a few pretty ones.
Katydid and Gareth have joined us by this point. One of the choices up on the white board this particular morning was to take a nature walk and journal the finds. I knew that Katydid would enjoy this choice, and I hoped to encourage Gareth to document what he found, if he chose that option. He did, and it surprised me. But, he informed me, nature journaling is kind of "boring." Alas.
Katydid took a picture of a wooly bear caterpillar for us...
... but by that time, the little boys had done enough nature walking and were ready to play!
Ahhh, the nature you have on your property is wild and beautiful! Love the photos of your children enjoying it.
Posted by: Kathy | October 11, 2008 at 10:04 AM
Your home and yard are just so beautiful. The pictures of the kids by the trees look remarkably like photos I take of my own kids in my own yard! You make me appreciate it even more!
But I don't have a single piece of furniture that in any way compares to that piece with all the nature stuff on it. I love it!
Posted by: Eileen | October 11, 2008 at 11:35 AM
Oh, can I come sit in your beautiful sunny window and drink some tea while looking through your baskets? :) How awesome are your photos-thanks for sharing!
Heather
Posted by: Heather | October 22, 2008 at 04:47 PM