Thursday, November 27, 2008

Catch Up Week for the Outdoor Hour Challenge and Giant Sequoias Again


There will be no new Outdoor Hour Challenge this week but your family can take the opportunity to pick a challenge from the last few weeks to complete and post about.

How about the Seasonal Tree Observation in Challenge #36 or the Weather Observations in either Challenge #39 or #40?

These are some of the easier challenges that are great to complete during autumn so when we get to winter and spring you can compare the changes if any.

If you didn't complete the first five challenges, why not pick one of those to work on this week?

Your family can look down the list of challenges in the right sidebar of the Handbook of Nature Study blog to choose one that fits your area and needs.

We will be starting a short flowerless plants study next week, December 5th. I have already started collecting photos of flowerless plants in our area and I am amazed how many we have found so far.

Here is one fungus we saw today on a hike.

Can you see how it grew up with the leaves on top? Really interesting! I took so many more photos to share but I will wait until the flowerless plant challenges. Suspense is always a good thing.

Here are a few more shots from today for you too enjoy.

We were still looking for clouds...look at that sky and the few puffy clouds.

Later in the afternoon, the clouds came in and made it a little cool under the sequoias. These trees are so tall and we always have fun trying to capture them in a photo.

This photo my son took and I think it really shows how tall these giants are.

How about this giant sugar pine cone? The hike we took had a mix of all kinds of trees....pines, sequoias, and lots of deciduous trees too.

How can you help but become refreshed both physically and spiritually after a hike where the trees tower over you and there are interesting things around every corner if you take the time to look for them?

Have a great weekend.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom