Outdoor Hour Challenge-Signs of Spring Bonus Challenge

I am officially taking a few weeks off from the Outdoor Hour Challenges, but I couldn't resist posting something for today's nature study.

This is a simple one:
Make sure to mention to your children that Saturday, March 20th is the first day of spring. Take your Outdoor Hour time this week to look for signs of spring in your backyard or neighborhood.

For many of us, this past week has brought warmer temperatures and with the time change, more light in the evenings. This is an exciting time of year for all of us as we anticipate the many changes the new season will bring.


Some signs to look for:

• Green grass
• Wildflowers-dandelions
• Spring bulbs like tulips, crocus, and jonquils
• Birds, perhaps nesting already
• Warmer temperatures
• Blooming trees
• Insects

You can use the notebook page below to record your signs of spring or you can use your own nature journal.

Signs of Spring

Please come back and share your official Signs of Spring entry on Mr. Linky.

I will be posting the new Spring Series Nature Study ebook on Monday for you and then you can prepare for our first official spring nature study on April 2nd.

I look forward to reading everyone's entries!
Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Early Spring Wildflowers Part 1

Last year we had a great time keeping track of all our early spring wildflowers. It became a sort of treasure hunt for our family as we hiked every week. Although none of us felt much like getting outdoors for a walk yesterday, except for perhaps our dog, we kicked ourselves out the door and were rewarded with some beautiful wildflowers to look at as we hiked.


The manzanita is blooming now and technically it is a flowering bush...I still think the buds are very pretty and this one with the bright red bud caught my eye.


The Miner's lettuce is starting to bloom as well.


There is a special spot in the canyon that we can hike to that has a slope where as the seasons progress it has different wildflowers. Right now it is starting to bloom with this Popcorn flower.


The saxifrage is starting to bloom now and it is interesting with its red stems.


How about this Houndstongue? Wow! It is so very pretty. Just like it shows in the photo, some of the blooms are almost blue and some are purple.


Okay, so this one isn't a photo of a wildflower but he was hopping all over the meadow where we were taking photos. He was a very spirited grasshopper....let's just say I took about ten photos trying to get him inside the frame. :)

We were very glad that we got out and took a hike yesterday. The sun was warm and the flowers cheered us all up. I hope they cheer you up as well.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Wednesday Flower Study #10: Queen Anne's Lace

Daucus carota

I have been on the look out for the first of the Queen Anne's lace of the season and yesterday I saw it alongside our walking trail.

My local field guide says this:
"Wild carrot, or Queen Anne's lace, is a biennial and its large root distinguishes it from the more common rattlesnake weed. Also, Queen Anne's lace is a common name used for many species of plants with delicate white flowers."

Here is a section of the Handbook of Nature Study, page 542:
"...this medallion flower attributed to Queen Anne is well worth studying. It belongs to the family Umbelliferae, which one of my small pupils always called 'umbrelliferae'because, he averred, they have umbrella blossoms. In the case of Queen Anne's lace the flower-cluster, or umbel, is made up of many smaller umbels, each a most perfect flower-cluster in itself."


"The wild carrot is known in some localities as the 'bird's-nest weed, ' because the maturing fruit-clusters, their edges curving inward look like little birds' nests."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 544




I know that spring is well along now that the Queen Anne's Lace is in bloom. It will be here all summer to enjoy.

Here are a few of the websites I have used in my study of wildflowers this term:
CalFlora.org -specific to California and free to join.
Northwest Common Wildflowers -National Park service coloring book
California Wildflowers -California Academy of Sciences, index by color

I am going to list a few Dover Publications coloring books that we have enjoyed over the years. You might like to have one on hand to include with your study of flowers with your children.



I have also used these field guides in my research of wildflowers:


This completes our families focus work on flowers, both in our garden and with a few wildflowers. We are going to be choosing a new focus for the summer... probably butterflies! Get ready to see what we learn and how we get started.

I hope you have enjoyed this series along with our family. If you are interested in reading all the flower entries, here is a list and the links:

(From original entry)
Flowers Blooming Already or That We Can Study Right Now
Violet (page 476) Finished 3/18/09. Here is a LINK.
Buttercup (page 516) Finished 4/27/09. Here is a LINK.
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) Finished 4/20/09. Here is a LINK.
Mullein (page 537) Finished 5/5/09. Here is a LINK.
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. Here is a LINK.
Bachelor's Buttons (page 578)Finished 5/20/09. Here is a LINK.
Sweet Peas (page 588) Finished 5/27/09. Here is a LINK.

Pick your own flower or you can follow along with our study of butterflies starting in a few weeks. I probably won't post any butterfly entries until June 24th.

I am not going to add Mr. Linky to this entry since no one else has posted in the last two weeks. You can leave me a comment with a link if you complete a flower study this week and would like to share it with everyone.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Spring Wildflowers-Part 7

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.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Spring Wildflowers Part 5 and How I Use My Field Guide

Lisa-Anne at the Berry Patch is hosting a "Spring Where You Are" photo challenge. She asked if I would share one of my spring wildflower posts......always willing to oblige a photo challenge. :)

My wildflower field guide has been mighty busy lately. I am using the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Wildflowers along with two other more specialized guides to my region. The Audubon book has color photos and is much easier to use than the others but they all have helped me with identifying various things over the last few weeks. I mention the guides because I have had some families asking me what particular field guides I am using.

I start off with the Audubon which is organized by color and shape of the flower. If I find the flower then I usually confirm by looking it up on Google images and then following the links to read more about the flower. I will then pull out my Handbook of Nature Study to see if that flower is included in that book.

The boys are learning quickly how to use a field guide and they help me with seeing details that I might miss when we are observing a flower.

This batch of flowers is rather large. As the weeks go by, the number of flowers blooming is increasing tenfold. We also took a new fork in the trail and found some new plants and flowers to observe.

We came across some really large miner's lettuce along the trail. Now that would make a great salad! I have tried eating a long time ago at summer camp and it is much like the texture of spinach and it doesn't have the bitter taste that so many other wild greens have that I have eaten. My dad has a patch at his house and I just may pick some and try it again with the family.


New to us and very excited that I found an identification for it.....hairy lacepod or fringed pod which is an annual herb. This one was not in the wildflower field guide. I did learn that it is in the mustard family.


This is vetch that is really blooming all over the place right now. If you click on this photo, you will see some ants at the top of the plant. I am not sure what they are doing but it made for an interesting photo.


Here is another new one from today's hike. Fringed Indian pink or California Indian Pink...even though it is bright red. This is what I had in the last post and it was just a bud. Now you can see what a great flower it is. This is really the only one we saw blooming so far so we look forward to seeing it along the trail more in the next few weeks.


Here is another shot of the mystery plant from the last post. It is amazingly interesting to examine. I did some research and found something very similar and it was called crane's bill but the size of this plant is way too big. I have narrowed it down to being something in the geranium family so if you have any ideas...please leave a comment.

As a sidenote, I found this explanation of the purpose of the pointy things on the plant. The bottom of the spike is where the seeds are and the spike helps spread the seeds when it is time. Here is how one very non-technical person explained it....I love the explanation even if it is in layman's terms:

"The "cranesbill" for which the plants are named describes the shape of the spikes extending from the fruiting bodies left behind when flowers fade. The seeds are formed in the puffy part at the bottom of the fruiting body. The problem is that the whole assembly was manufactured to serve as a catapult - when ripe, the seeds are flung out of their dry hull using the spring force of connective tissue that runs along the spikey bit (this is not a botanically correct description, by the way)."

This flower is just starting to bloom on the trail side. Miniature lupine. In real life, it is more purple but my little camera has a tendency to turn purple things blue. I will take more photos of this as it starts to bloom more.


Here is a really interesting grass. I have spent some time looking through plant and wildflower books lately and I have become interested in how many different kinds of native grasses there are in our area. This one caught my eye and we spent some time examining it up close.


Another mystery flower for today. this one is growing on a vine in a shady spot alongside the trail. What would my wildflower posts be if they didn't include a "mystery flower"?

Edit 4/8/09: This is the flower of a wild cucumber. We saw the fruits starting to form and that made it much easier to identify.

Anyway, that is it for this batch of spring wildflowers. I already have a few more lined up for next time.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Early Spring Wildflowers (Part 3)

Popcorn flower
(found in the meadow, sunny location)

"There should be from first to last a steady growth in the intelligence of the child as to the places where certain plants grow. He finds hepaticas and trilliums in the woods, daisies and buttercups in the sunny fields, mullein on the dry hillsides, cattails in the swamp, and water lilies floating on the pond. This may all be taught by simply asking the pupils questions relating to the soil and the special conditions of the locality where they found the flowers they bring to school. "
Handbook of Nature Study, page 458

We are adding a few new flowers to our list of early spring wildflowers along our walking trail. I am also updating a few photos to ones taken with my older camera with the better macro lens.


Chickweed.....now I see it everywhere! Even in our backyard!
(along the trail)


Spring Beauty
(along the trail)


Unidentified as of today.
(along the trail in the shade...very low to the ground with interesting leaf shape)


Fiddleneck
(sunny areas)

Here is another photo of Fiddleneck


And another Fiddleneck.


We found a whole patch of Miner's Lettuce.
(growing in patches along the path...moist areas)


The California poppies are just beginning to bloom on our hiking trail.
(sunny hillside, along the trail)





Common Owl's Clover
(Note to self: This was on the walking trail and not the Red Shack Trail. Growing along side the trail and on a sunny hillside.)

These flowers are all from last week's hikes. I am trying my best to keep current.

We had a snowstorm yesterday morning! It all melted rather quickly though and today we were back to our spring like weather.

Tomorrow I will try to post about our bird study and then on Wednesday we will share a garden flower study from the Handbook of Nature Study.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Early Spring Wildflowers (Post 2)

The hillside is beginning to burst open in flowers this week making our daily walk such a feast for the eyes. Everyday now it seems that there is something new to discover.


This unique white flower has me puzzled.
EDIT: Vera helped me out with this one...it is chickweed!

Here is another photo of the plant and its blooms.

The petals are so interesting.


This tiny white flower is blooming right in the middle of the pathway. It is about 1 or 2 inches high at the most. I really need to take my field guide with me and try to identify this one as well.


This one has me stumped....grrrr. I know it has to be something fairly common because I notice along the trail in a couple different of areas. I am going to take a better look today and see if I can figure it out.
Edit: Georgiaberry suggested that this may be Spring Beauty and I am going to check it out today.

Okay, this has been one frustrating post for me. I really want to identify all the flowers this year and so far I have more questions than answers. Maybe I should hire myself a botanist to go on the trail with me and have them teach me all the names of the plants. Wouldn't that be nice?

Expect a garden post soon...our yard is waking up. I read through the pages in the Handbook of Nature Study on plants....wildflowers, weeds, and garden flowers and I made a list of those flowers were are going to study this spring. I will share those plants that we have included and maybe you will like to join us over the next few weeks or whenever you have these particular flowers blooming in your area.

I just had a great idea.....how about since we finished our Winter Wednesday activities, we start a Wednesday Flower Day study? That will hold me accountable to keep up our family's studies and anyone can join us that wants to have a little structure. I will post about it tomorrow.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

April Showers of Photos: April 25 Arrowleaf Balsam Root

Just a fun photo from today's wanderings. I always love seeing Arrowleaf balsam root (Balsamorhiza sagittata) in the spring. It reminds me of sunflowers and that makes me smile.

Thanks to Jennifer for hosting an April Showers of Photos challenge on her blog S/V Mari Hal-O-Jen.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom