Garden Update and Nature Journal Tutorial-Window Frame

When we started our front yard remodel in 2010 I had no idea how much joy this space was going to bring to our lives. Each week it is a new palette of colors. The plants are really filling in this spring and new critters are moving in as well. Here are some glimpses into our garden and then a nature journal entry tutorial for you to give a try.

Butterfly bushes, Yarrow, and Lavender - April 2012

Lavender is the main blooming plant on display right now. The bees love it and so do we!


Along with the lavender is the forsythia, which contrasts so well with the lavender.


The poppies are just beginning to show signs of flower buds and they are just waiting to tip their "hats" and show their blazing orange colors.



This is something new this week....a critter is making a home under my big rock! They have pulled the landscape material back and exposed a little space to hide in right there alongside my front path. I wonder who it is?



I still really enjoy watching our butterfly "fly" around in the breeze. It adds a little bit of whimsy to our front yard.

Nature Journal Tutorial- Window Frame

This project may at first appear to be a little complicated but I encourage you to give it a try. The finished project is so fun to look at and remember your nature time.

Supplies:
Nature Journal
Pen
Watercolor pencils and brush


Begin by sketching a frame that includes both pages in your nature journal.


Sketch your subject. I chose this butterfly bush sample to sketch. Just for fun I made it extend outside the frame.


Now you can add water to your sketch, a title, and a little detail sketch if you wish. Add some fun lettering along the one side...add a date (which I did after taking this photo) and you are finished.

I would love to see your version of this nature journal idea. Send them to harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com. You can find more of my Nature Journal Ideas on Squidoo. I also wrote this entry that might help you get started: 3 Tips for Nature Journals When You Think You Can't Sketch.




Jami's Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly - Our July Newsletter Insect Study

Swallowtail at Yosemite National Park 2006

Since we just studied and observed our honeybees (the suggested subject in the July Newsletter), we decided to learn more about another common backyard insect that we see all the time in our butterfly garden....the Western tiger swallowtail.  There are some amazing images on this webpage. There is also quite a bit of information on Enchanted Learning.

We often see swallowtails on our butterfly bushes.

This rather large butterfly is a frequent visitor to our backyard habitat. One afternoon this past week I watched as two swallowtails dipped and swirled around the garden. They are so pretty but they don't stay put very long at all.

We pulled out the Handbook of Nature Study and read the section on Black swallowtail butterflies to get sort of an overview of this insect. (Lesson 70) Here is a little excerpt:

"This graceful butterfly is a very good friend to the flowers, being a most efficient pollen-carrier. It haunts the gardens and sips nectar from all the blossom cups held out for its refreshment; and it is found throughout almost all parts of the United States. The grace of its appearance is much enhanced by the "swallowtails," two projections from the hind margins of the hind wings." Handbook of Nature Study, page 301

We got out our insect field guide and found out some more interesting facts:
Its caterpillars feed on alder, poplar, willow.
Habitat: Mixed and deciduous forests, open ares, even in urban areas.
Wingspan 3 1/2" to 4 3/8"
Yellow wings, single "tail"


I used the Fill In With Color idea from the July Newsletter for my nature journal entry. 

This Saturday, July 16th, is the day that the Great Sunflower Project is requesting that we observe our bees. Read more about how you can participate HERE. I look forward to hearing about your bees as part of the July Newsletter challenge. You can also observe your sunflowers at the same time!

May Mammal Nature Study: Bats...Revisited (+Who gets the Watercolors?)

Sunset - time for mosquitoes and almost time for bats.

We have been on the lookout for a mammal subject for our May nature study. I included it in the May Newsletter suggested study because I was really hoping to see our fox friend in our yard this month.  I have been wanting to do some research on him, but he has only left some scat behind and we haven't actually seen him.

(Note: I know some of you have had trouble downloading the May Newsletter. It seems as if those of you with Firefox have trouble with just getting a blank screen. If you can switch to another browser like Internet Explorer you may be successful in downloading the Newsletter. If you still have trouble, you can email me directly for the May Newsletter.)

What would we study for our May mammal?

Well, remember a few weeks ago we had a bat visitor inside the house? My husband suggested that we learn about bats. Sigh. I don't really like bats and we already had done a quick study with OHC #49. I wasn't convinced until night before last. We were sitting outside eating dinner for the very first time this year...our normal spring/summer routine....and the mosquitoes were driving us crazy! There is an abundance of these pesky little critters right now and I commented that we needed to do something about them. My husband mentioned that we should encourage the bats because they eat lots of mosquitoes and they would help keep the population down.

Aha! A positive reason to study the bats!

We spent some time at dusk sitting outside to wait for the bats and they didn't disappoint us. They came in and swooped at head level, zooming around the yard with amazing agility. We did some reading in the HNS and online the next day and here are some of the points we gleaned about our flying mammal friends.

• Members of the family Chiroptera, meaning winged hand.
• Only real flying mammal.
• Most North American bats are insectivores, eating about 1,200 insects an hour or approximately 6,000 insects a night.
• You can attract bats in several ways- build a bat house and/or leave a light on so the insects cluster, making a dinner spot for the bats.
• We found this website informative for our local area: Northern California Bats

May Newsletter journal idea - Fill In The Circle (bat drawn by Mr. A)

I have had a few readers ask me what kind of nature journal I use to watercolor in and I will give you a link to an entry where I discuss my choice: Autumn Series #1. Well there you go...our May mammal study finished and just in time to start thinking about all our June nature study subjects. Our family is really loving the new format of the Outdoor Hour Challenge and the freedom it has given us to pursue a variety of subjects as they have come up in our daily life.

Don't forget to send in your nature study entries by 5/30/11 for the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. You can submit your entries HERE.


The winner of the giveaway from last week's watercolor sketch entry is Corrine from Boston! 
(I used a random number generator to pick the winner.) Corrine chose the Koi Water Colors Pocket Field Sketch Box! Congrats!

California Poppies - Using the Handbook of Nature Study and a Nature Journal Tutorial

The California poppies are late this year but right on time for our May Outdoor Hour Challenge for wildflowers. (See the May Newsletter for all the May topics to choose from.) We have both wild and cultivated poppies in our yard, hoping that the ones we planted with seed will self-seed for next year's crop.

As the state flower of California, you could expect that there would be lots to see in the spring and this year there are many.



There is a section of our walking trail that has a large garden of poppies in various stages of development. One of the interesting things that we have noticed about poppies are the way the petals unfold when it is ready to bloom. The "cap" comes off and reveals the flower underneath. After the flower blooms the petals fall and a pod is revealed that looks sort of like a bean pod. Here is look at it close up.



We took the idea from Lesson 155 in the Handbook of Nature Study (#7) and looked closer at the pod. We cut the seed pod open lengthwise to examine the seeds with a lens. We observed the ribs and how the seeds were attached inside.



Here is a close-up through the magnifying lens of the seeds inside the pod....amazing! All of us were fascinated with the way the seeds are in the pod like you see in a pea pod. We are going to continue watching the pods as they dry up to see exactly when they become black because we know the seeds we planted were not green but black.



Here is Mr. B's sketch of the dissected poppy pod.


Mr. B and I worked on notebook pages for our nature journals using the California Poppy pages from NotebookingPages.com. I highly recommend the Wildflower, Weeds, and Garden Flowers set because it has every flower listed in the Handbook of Nature Study...perfect companion to your nature study. If you own the Treasury Membership it is included so take a look for it in your files.

Fill In The Circle Tutorial

Many of you asked to have me give you more step-by-step tutorials on how I put my nature journal pages together. Here is one for the Fill In The Circle idea that is found in the May Newsletter. (All supplies are shown in the Amazon widget at the bottom of this blog entry - you may need to click over to the blog to see them.)



I started off with a large pencil circle for my poppy sketch. I also used pencil lines for the poem stanza that I wanted to include in this journal entry. I don't always draw lines so it is up to you whether you need them or not.



I added watercolor pencil to the poppy and then made a larger box with pen around the two pages I am working on. I like the "window frame" look to tie two pages together. I copied the poem onto the page using a black pen. I used Prang Semi-Moist watercolors to paint the yellow background....sort of a wash technique using just a little color. I decided I wanted some funky bubble letters so I added those next.



I printed one poppy photo to include on the left page and used watercolors to paint the bubble letters. I added the date to the bottom corner. You can use this idea with any topic you want to include in your nature journal. I would love to see your results so post them in your entry and then submit it to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.

This couldn't be a better time to get started with NotebookingPages.com and their Treasury Membership. Not only do you get access to every notebook page, you will now receive as part of her 5 Year Anniversary:

5th Birthday Sale-A-Bration Details:
1) All new treasury members receive an extended 3 month membership, bonus e-package worth over $70, and a chance to win one of several prizes.
2) Current treasury members may renew their memberships and receive the same deal.
3) All bundled products are 25% off.

Plus!
Use discount code = discount5 to save $5 on your $10+ purchase at NotebookingPages.com
Use discount code = discount10 to save $10 on your $20+ purchase at NotebookingPages.com

Autumn 2010 OHC #10 November World-Familiar Spot and a Giveaway!

Autumn Series #10
November World

“Yet, with all my familiarity with this brook, I did not know it in the winter. Its pathway up into the winter woods was as unexplored as the arctic regions. Somehow, it was not a brook in the winter time. It was merely a dreary waste, as cold and as forbidding as death. The winter was only a season of waiting, and spring was always late.”
The Nature Study Idea, L.H. Bailey, contemporary of Anna Botsford Comstock.

Inside Preparation Work:
Read pages 1-2 of the Handbook of Nature Study as a refresher. Mark and highlights points that you want to keep in mind before you embark on this last of the Autumn Series Challenges. How have these challenges awakened a love of nature study in your heart? What changes have you seen in your children as they have participated in a regular course of nature study? What practical and useful knowledge has your family gleaned from the “comprehension of the individual life of the bird, insect, or plant that is nearest at hand”?

Outdoor Hour Time:
Sometimes it is fun and interesting to revisit a familiar place in a different season. Perhaps you have a certain park you go to in the summer but you have not explored there in the autumn or winter months. There may be a trail or creek you explored as part of a previous Outdoor Hour Challenge and it might be interesting to go there now that the seasons have changed. If you are just starting out with the challenges, choose a place to visit this week that you can go back to in a future season.



Spend 15 minutes outdoors in your chosen spot and enjoy the November world. Use all your senses and let your children find something to show you. Remember not to talk too much or lead them but rather try to see what your children see. Sometimes it is nice to just to let something interesting come your way without a particular focus.

“The author can think of nothing she would so gladly do as to spend days and months with the birds, bees, and flowers with no obligation to tell what she should see. There is more than mere information in hours thus spent.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 7

So this challenge is really for the parents. Let the nature study unfold and then enjoy the time with your children. Be refreshed.

Follow-Up Activity:
For this challenge, leave the nature journal or notebook page as an option. If you child is inclined to complete a follow-up entry, make an opportunity for one but if they are content with just having spent time outdoors, there is no obligation to complete an entry.You might like to use my free Signs of Autumn notebook page.

As always see if they have any questions about their nature study time. Follow their lead by looking up the answers in the Handbook of Nature Study. Skim down the table of contents to see if there is a lesson covering what you child found interesting. If not, check your local library for a book to use as a resource. Last year we made a list of things to research during the winter. You can find a notebook page on which to list your things in this set of free notebook pages that I put together last month on Scribd.com: Autumn Series 2009 Notebook Pages.

Now for the giveaway details!

As a way to celebrate the end of another great season of nature study, I want to offer a nice giveaway to all those that complete the November World Challenge outlined above.

Complete your challenge by November 30, 2010, put your link in Mr. Linky and you will be entered to win a random drawing for one of two gifts.  
Giveaway has ended! Thanks to all the participants!

1. Moleskine Plain Notebook- Perfect for nature journaling!

or

2. A $10 gift certificate from NotebookingPages.com

If you do not have a blog but would still like to be entered in for the giveaway, you can email me with the details of your study and what your family discovered in your November World. I will be happy to enter you in if I receive your email before November 30, 2010. Please send your email entries to: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com.

I will announce the winners on December 1, 2010.

What is in store for winter nature study? 

I am working on enhancing and supplementing the Winter Wednesday Challenges and making a Squidoo page to go along with them and I hope to have it all wrapped up and available in December some time. In the meantime, if you have not worked through the Winter Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges from the beginning of this year, you may want to check that ebook out and get prepared to work through those when you have the opportunity.


See this entry for a description.

You can see all the challenges listed under the tab at the top of the page labeled Winter Nature Study-Outdoor Hour Challenge. Have you see seasonal tabs at the top of my blog? I have worked hard this week to get the seasonal challenges moved and linked on the tabs so it is easier to navigate through the blog and find things that will help you in your nature study.

I want to thank all the Autumn Series participants for a wonderful season of nature study. I appreciate the community of like-minded families that have shared their experiences and encouragement with others. You are truly the best set of blog readers and supporters on the internet. 

Bats: Helpful Mammals

We have bats in our backyard. My daughter Amanda hates it when we are out in the evening and we start to hear the squeaking of the bats. Sometimes if we are out and the yard is dark, they will come very close to our heads as they swoop to eat the insects. Many times they are flying over the pool if we are taking a night swim and that is a little creepy.


On the local walking trail there is an old train tunnel and apparently there was a bat colony that wanted to roost there. (Note this photo is from last year during the warmer months...hence the short pants.)


A group of people got together and made a bat house for them and as far as I know, there has never been any bats in the structure. Amanda has to walk fast through the tunnel because she knows there is a chance of there being bats in there. I have yet to see the bats.

Last summer one of our cats actually caught a bat and tried to bring it into the house. It sounded like a mouse squeaking but when I got up close to shoo her away from the door, I realized it was a bat. She eventually let go of the bat and it flew away. I was amazed that she was able to catch a bat. I talked to our vet about it and she said that since the cats are vaccinated and the bat didn't bite the cat that we should be fine. I was pretty concerned but she has never captured another bat as far as I know. We bring our cats in for the night because we do have so many critters that could cause trouble...skunks, raccoons, bats, foxes, and who knows what else is out there at night.


We studied bats a few years ago when we were interested in learning about different kinds of flying creatures.

"Although the bat's wings are very different from those of the bird, yet it is a rapid and agile flier. It flies in the dusk and catches great numbers of mosquitoes and other troublesome insects, upon which it feeds."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 243

If you ever get a chance to watch a bat fly, you will be amazed at their flying ability.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom
Who is trying hard to catch up on our Outdoor Hour Challenges and Winter Wednesdays

Outdoor Hour Challenge #38 Elm, Hickory, and Chestnut

After much deliberation, I have decided to make this week’s challenge a multiple choice challenge. Since it looks like those that voted on the poll have an equal number of elms, hickories, and chestnut trees, they are the winners of the final challenge for trees.

I honestly have no idea if we have any of these growing in our neighborhood so I will be among the crowd that reads the information in the Handbook of Nature Study and then sets out to discover both on the internet and in real life if we can find some of these particular trees. I am sort of looking forward to the challenge since most of the first trees were readily available in our area and provided no direct challenge at all except to get out and complete the nature study.

I would love to hear your personal feelings about trees since starting this focus study on trees. I know my thoughts have rambled around and I shared a bit of that earlier in the week but truly I have come to have a different appreciation for the variety and complexity of trees and how they have each come to live in their own habitat.

Some quotes about the trees we will study this week:

American Elm
“Because of its beautiful form and its rapid growth, the elm has been from earliest times a favorite shade tree in the eastern and Middle States….Moreover the elm is at no time more beautiful than when it traces its flowing lines against the background of snow and gray horizon.”
Handbook of Nature Study, pages 634 and 635

Shagbark Hickory
“The shagbark is so busy being something worth while that it does not seem to have time or energy to clothe itself in tailor-made bark, like the beech, the white ash, and the basswood.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 643

Horse Chestnut
“By October the green, spherical husk breaks open in three pars, showing its white satin lining and the roundish, shining, smooth nut at its center….Very few American animals will eat the nut; the squirrels scorn it and horses surely disown it.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 649

Outdoor Hour Challenge #38 Focus on Trees-Elm, Hickory, or Chestnut
1. Read pages 634-638 on American elms, pages 643-645 on the hickory, and pages 645-650 on chestnuts in the Handbook of Nature Study. These pages will help you to identify if you have any of these particular trees in your area. The pages will also include suggestions for things to observe for each type of tree during your outdoor time. You can see my suggestions in step two.

2. Spend 15 to 20 minutes outdoors this week with your children in your own yard or on your own street. If you have an elm, a hickory, or a chestnut tree, spend your time observing the details of the tree as well as the overall shape and form. If you do not have access to any of these particular trees, please feel free to observe and study *any* tree that you have in your yard that we have not covered in a challenge already.

Suggestions for each tree:
American Elm: Page 637 suggests observing the tree in autumn and making a sketch of the autumn colored foliage. It also suggests looking at where the tree grows, noting the shape of the tree, observing the trunk and the branches and how they divide, and taking a close look at the texture of the trunk.

Hickory: Page 645 has specific suggestions for autumn tree study. Some of these ideas are to observe the trunk and branches, note the shape of the leaflets, and to describe the outer husk of the nut.

Chestnut: Describe and sketch the horse chestnut tree.

3. After your outdoor time, spend a few minutes talking with your child about any trees you observed. Ask if your child has any questions that they would like to research over the next week. Make note of anything they are interested in learning more about and then look it up in the index of the Handbook of Nature Study. Read more about it if it is covered in the book or check your local library if you need additional information. Make note of any trees you would like to study again in the spring as a way of comparing the changes made over the winter.

4. Make sure to give time and the opportunity for a nature journal entry. If you would like to complete a notebook page, see the link below to choose one for your child’s journal. A nature journal entry can be as simple as a sketch, a label, and a date. Press any leaves you collected this week and add them to your nature journal later on. Taking a photograph of your tree and then printing it for your journal is a great way to document the seasonal changes.

5. If you identified a tree this week, add it to your list of trees in the front or back of your nature journal. You can also use the Running List notebook page from the link below.

6. Post an entry on your blog sharing your experiences and then come back to the Outdoor Hour Challenge post and add your blog link to Mr. Linky. All the challenges are listed on the sidebar of the Handbook of Nature Study blog.

If you would like to print this challenge out, here is the link to the pdf file.
Outdoor Hour Challenge #38 Elm, Hickory, Chestnut
(all the tree challenges in one document)

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Pine Cone Time

Just a pretty pinecone I saw this week.

"The pines are among our most ancient trees. Their foliage is evergreen but is shed gradually. The pollen-bearing and the seed-producing flowers are separate on the tree. The seeds are winged and are developed in cones."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 674

More on pines in the Handbook, pages 670-675

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge #29: Sunflower Study

“ Probably most people, the world over, believe that sunflowers twist their stems so that their blossoms face the sun all day. This belief shows the utter contentment of most people with a pretty theory.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 576

I completely enjoyed reading this section of then Handbook. I actually learned many things that are now firmly implanted in my memory thanks to Anna Comstock and our own investigation of our garden sunflowers.

This week I hoped the challenge would be a follow up to our early summer’s planting of sunflowers. I know many of you have sunflowers happily growing in your yards so this challenge is for you.

If you didn’t plant sunflowers or they didn’t grow for some reason, check you local florist for a sunflower you can purchase and then observe in your kitchen and then dissect as the week goes by. I saw loads of sunflowers being sold at our local farmers market so be creative and see if you can find an actual sunflower to observe this week or next week.

“The sunflower is not a single flower, but is a large number of flowers living together; and each little flower, or floret, as it is called, has its own work to do.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 576

Outdoor Hour Challenge #29
Sunflower Study

1. This week we will complete a study sunflowers. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study about sunflowers on page 574-578. I can’t think of a better way to study sunflowers than to follow Anna Comstock’s suggestions in this section of her book. Read the narrative and then go over the observations suggestions and decide how your family will complete this challenge.

2. Make sure to spend 15-20 minutes of outdoor time this week with your children. If you planted sunflowers at the beginning of the summer, check on their progress. Observe your sunflowers in the garden. Afterwards, follow the directions from the Handbook of Nature Study for a study of sunflowers. Anna Comstock suggests bringing one sunflower inside for closer observation. If you do not have sunflowers in your garden, check your local florist, farmers market, or with your neighbors who may have a sunflower to share.

3. Give the opportunity for a nature journal entry. Your sunflower can supply the inspiration for this week’s journal entry. You may also wish to check out some of Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings for further inspiration.
Here is a link:
http://www.vggallery.com/misc/sunflowers.htm

4. Post an entry on your blog sharing your experiences and then come back to the Outdoor Hour Challenge post and add your blog link to Mr. Linky. 



This challenge is part of my Garden Flowers ebook. This ebook has ten garden related challenges that will walk you through a study of garden flowers using the Handbook of Nature Study. In addition to the challenges already written, there will be more photos, nature journal examples, book lists, and totally new notebook pages designed to go with each of the Garden Flower Challenges.
Follow the link below to view the ebook! Over 50 pages for $6.95



Note:
Van Gogh's, The Vase With Twelve Sunflowers
Public Domain=http://www.wpclipart.com/art/Paintings/Van_Gogh/Van_Gogh__The_Vase_with_12_Sunflowers.png.html

Outdoor Hour Challenge #22 Butterflies

“If children are terrified of bugs, it’s usually because they caught the fear of adults around them.”
Charlotte Mason in Modern English, volume 1 page 58

Spending time outdoors at this time of the year usually brings us into contact with a butterfly or two. I know for our family we just about every day see some sort of butterfly in the garden. Little white ones, little bluish-gray ones, and big Tiger swallowtails frequent the many flowers and bushes we have blooming in our yard.

Let's take this week to start looking for butterflies to learn about and talk about in our nature journals. If you have never learned about the life-cycle of a butterfly, check your local library for a good book on the topic. The Handbook of Nature Study describes the cycle with words but it is much more interesting to have a picture book that illustrates the most interesting of life-cycles.


Another way to study butterflies is to purchase a kit to hatch your own. This is the perfect way to observe each of the stages of life that the butterfly goes through.


Outdoor Hour Challenge #22
Focus on Insects-Butterflies

1. This challenge starts the beginning of our mini-focus on insects. Read in the Handbook of Nature Study the introduction to insects, pages 294-300. The Black Swallowtail and the Monarch Butterflies are specifically covered in the Handbook of Nature Study. You can read over those sections before your outdoor time in case you encounter those particular butterflies and to give you ideas for observing any sort of butterfly that you may have in your local area.

2. Use your 10-15 minutes of outdoor time to look for insects and in particular butterflies. Spotting butterflies might need to be done as you go about your daily activities and then taking the opportunity to do your observations at that time. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see a butterfly this week but look at this as an ongoing challenge as the summer progresses.

Here is a link to an article on how to attract and catch/release butterflies.
How to Catch Butterflies
http://www.ehow.com/how_2070424_catch-butterflies.html

3. After you have your outdoor time, provide an opportunity for working on a nature journal entry. You might consider drawing a butterfly and labeling its parts as a way of narration of the points you have discussed this week. If you found a different kind of insect, you can make a nature journal entry for that one as well.

4. If you observe more than one kind of butterfly this week, make sure to start a list of butterflies in your nature journal. I like to keep a running list in the back of my nature journal. Keep adding to your list of other insects as well.

5. Post an entry on your blog sharing your experiences and then come back to the Outdoor Hour Challenge post and add your blog link to Mr. Linky. All the challenges are listed on the sidebar of the Handbook of Nature Study blog.


Barb-Harmony Art Mom

You may be interested in more insect challenges listed here on the Handbook of Nature Study:
#23 Moths
#24 Crickets
#25 Housefly
#26 Ladybirds/Aphids
#27 Bees
#28 Dragonflies/Damselflies

Winter Wednesday - Winter Insect Study
Ants (Spring)
Mosquito
Moths and Fireflies
Crickets, Grasshoppers, and Katydids
Leaf-Miners and Leaf-Rollers