Frogs and Forsythia in February

We have a little creek across the street from our house and this time of year it has quite a bit of water in it. We walk past it when we walk the dog and we noticed last week that the frogs have started making their call! I pulled out my camera and took a video so we could share.

They are Pacific treefrogs....here is a link: Pseudarcris regilla

From the website:
"Despite the name, this frog is chiefly a ground-dweller, living among shrubs and grass typically near water, but occasionally it can also be found climbing high in vegetation. Its large toe pads allow it to climb easily, and cling to branches, twigs, and grass."

I also wanted to share this image with you today to encourage you to give this activity a try in your family.


We brought some twigs from our forsythia bush a few weeks ago and they are already starting to blossom out. Look at those yellow flowers....now that feels like spring!

Here is a link to some specific tips and suggestions:
Forcing Flowers

Hope you are all enjoying a little winter nature study.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Keeping it on the Wild Side

We have a section of our yard that I like to keep sort of wild just to see what will happen there. It borders our neighbor's yard and sometimes he gets a little zealous and mows the "weeds" down. He doesn't see the beauty in dandelions, Queen Anne's Lace, Spring Beauty, Chickweed, and California Poppies. Well, maybe he enjoys the poppies, but it is nearly impossible to mow without cutting them all down.

I had a chance to get out there and make some close observations, capturing some of the flowers and plants before our neighbor gets back from his vacation and gets antsy to mow.


1. Blackberry vines, 2. Wildflowers Spring Beauty, 3. Wild grasses 1, 4. California Poppy, 5. Close Up Dandelion, 6. Wild grasses 2, 7. Widlflowers yellow, 8. Wildflowers blue, 9. Wild side

If you have a spot in your yard that you can let the "weeds" grow, I highly recommend taking the time to check out what you have right there in your own yard.

Amazing stuff.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

More Spring Wildflowers

Another day, a few more wildflowers. This time of year we take walks just about every day and with the weather warming up, all the flowers are blooming in succession.


The Blue dicks or Wild Hyacinth are really blooming in our area. This hillside near our walking trail is just covered in them.


Here is a close-up look at these lavender colored flowers....my favorite color. The stems are a reddish color and even though they look sort of flimsy, they are rather rigid and hold the flowers up high.


I have been thinking this is fennel but now looking in our field guide, I'm not so sure. It must be a member of the parsley or carrot family: Patterns of the Parsley Family.



We also noticed the Miniature lupine is blooming all along the path.


Here is a little bit closer up look at the Miniature lupine.

It is such an exciting time of year to be outdoors! The birds, the flowers, and the sky are all so wonderful to experience. It is out there waiting for us if we put out the effort.

Birds we observed:
Soaring turkey vultures
California towhees
Western scrub jay
White-crowned sparrows

Birds we heard:
Downy woodpecker
Mourning doves
Finches-don't know what kind
Steller's jay

Hope you have a great nature study week!

OHC Spring Series #2 Weather Observations

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Spring Series #2
Spring Weather Observation
(Please feel free to grab the OHC Button above and put it in your blog entry or on your blog...thanks to all who have asked about it this week.)

Inside Preparation Work:
Read pages 851-854 in the Handbook of Nature Study. This section is not exactly about weather, but it ties in nicely with some springtime observations of the sun and its path. You might like to construct the Shadow Stick (page 852 #13) and make observations over the next few weeks and months with your children. At the very least, look up your sunrise and sunset times to calculate how much daylight you have now that it is spring in your area.

If you have the older edition of the Handbook of Nature Study, you need to look in the section "The Relations of the Sun to the Earth" for this week's reading. If you are using the free download from Homeschool Freebie, you need to look in Earth and Sky PDF on pages 99-102..


Bodie State Park

Outdoor Hour Time:
Your Outdoor Hour time this week can be spent making observations about the weather. Enjoy whatever spring weather you are currently experiencing and spend 15 minutes outside looking at the sky, clouds, wind in the trees, dew on the grass, mud puddles after a rain, or whatever else you can experience in your part of the world.

Suggested Observations

• Have your children describe any clouds they see in the sky.
• Notice how hard the wind is blowing by how things are moving: leaves rustling, trees bending, etc.
• Notice the wind’s direction. Where is it coming from?
• Describe the temperature of the air and/or look it up on a thermometer.
• Notice any precipitation that you may have this week: sprinkles, rain, mist, sleet, snow, fog, hail.

If you made a Shadow Stick, make sure you spend one day marking the board every half hour from 9 AM to 3 PM. This experiment will need to be repeated again in June, September, and December if possible. (see page 852 #13)

Follow-Up Activity:
Be sure to complete your Seasonal Weather notebook page from the Freebies Tab or from the Spring Series ebook. If you completed previous weather notebook pages, pull those out and compare the scenes you recorded in Autumn and/or Winter. Note that your days should be getting longer and any other differences you can find between the observations made in the past and now.


Mono Lake Sand Tufa with Wonderful Clouds

Extra Information on Clouds
If you observed any clouds, you might like to download this lesson plan and cloud identifier activity for your children: CloudKey.pdf. This is a handy tool to use in our cloud identification.

Weather Videos on YouTube:
Water Cycle
Our World: What is Weather? (NASA)

Please make sure to come back and post your link on Mr. Linky after completing this challenge and writing your blog entry. I always love to come by and see what you are up to!

If you would like all the Spring Series Challenges in one place, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. The ebook also contains art and music appreciation plans for the spring months as well as custom notebooking pages for each of the challenges. Please see this entry for more details:

Spring Nature Study with Art and Music Appreciation

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Of Mice and Snow

Last night my boys were going down after dark to put our cats in their basement room for the night. They have to walk right past our bird feeder along the way and this night they saw some kind of creature inside the feeder eating.

They ran back up and had me go outside to see and by the time I got out there the creature was climbing up the supporting rope and up into the tree. I got just a glimpse and I actually saw two critters climbing up. The boys were sure it was something like a possum or rat but I didn't think so from what I had seen.

We pulled out our mammal field guide and started paging through. What was the tail like? How was the head shaped? How big was it? What color was it? We went through all the pages and decided it had to be some kind of rodent.

I crept back to the door with the flashlight and quietly tiptoed out to the deck rail. I flipped on the switch and there in the feeder were the biggest mice I have ever seen. They looked straight at me a few seconds and then made a leap from the feeder to the tree, out onto a branch, and then hopped over to another tree and out of sight.

As long as they stay outdoors I can live with a few mice in my feeders.


This morning we woke up to snow on the ground and more coming down as daylight broke. I was so glad that I had gone out yesterday and cut a lot of my tulips and daffodils to bring inside. The ones left outdoors look so sad.


Our dog thinks this is perfect weather to be outdoors. It brings out the Labrador in her.

We are off to enjoy our very snowy day....I think hot cocoa is in order since this will more than likely be the last of our snow for the season.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Spring This and That From Our Yard

Maybe it is in anticipation of starting the Spring Series of Outdoor Hour Challenges, but I am very much alert to the signs of spring around us. Mr. A and I were in the backyard doing some clean up and we noticed the winged parts of the sweet gum tree for the very first time ever. How could we have this tree in our yard for over a decade and not notice them before?

Does anyone know what these actually are?

Edit to add 3/31/10: After a few comments and some investigation on my part, I have come to the conclusion that this is not a sweet gum as we thought but a maple. I would like to thank those of you who commented about it being a maple this morning and helping me.

Here is what I wrote to Amy in an email:
I guess what has stumped me about this particular tree is that my husband is dead set that he planted a row of four sweet gums. I was thinking that this tree had the sticky balls on it but after going outside this morning, I might have been wrong. The other three in the row still have remnants of the sticky balls but this one doesn't. This one is the only one with the helicopter seeds on it and the other three still have buds and no leaves. I still never noticed the helicopter seeds before so it just shows how we really don't "see" until we stop and take the time to really "see".


My most favorite things in the garden right now are my blueberry bushes. We planted three bushes last fall and they are bursting out with blossoms right now. I have never had blueberries growing in our yard and it is something that I have wanted to try for a very long time.


The tulips are in full bloom right now as well with their pretty colors all in a row. These are definitely going into my nature journal again this year.


Aren't they pretty? We started this tulip garden last year with ten bulbs and I added ten more this last fall. There is a row of pansies behind it and when the tulips die back the pansies fill in for the summer.


This is a volunteer plant from seeds blown in from another part of the yard. We call it Money Plant but it is actually called Annual Honesty. It is really easy to grow and it has wonderful pods at the end of the season.


One more photo that is not from our yard but still really fun.

This turtle was on the loose at the flower nursery last week. My hubby and I were getting some garden inspiration by browsing the aisles of plants and this guy was walking down one side. There is a pond at the nursery and somehow he had taken a wrong turn and ended up in the wrong place. One of the nursery workers picked him up and carried him safely back to his pond and friends.

Tomorrow the weather man has predicted some light snow. I can hardly believe it. I am hoping he is wrong and we just get some much needed rain to water our garden flowers. I didn't get a photo of my climbing rose that is just beginning to bloom so I will make another post as soon as I can get back outdoors to capture it. Oh, I forgot to take a photo of our strawberries blossoming too. So much going on outdoors right now in our little yard. I suppose that will give me something to post about tomorrow.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Tour of My Early Spring Garden Today

I thought you might like a little tour of my early spring garden since the rain stopped last night and the sun is out this morning. Everything is a little damp from the rain still.

The tulips are all up and promising to give a colorful display very soon. This was my purple garden last year but I added a few new tulip colors so it will be a surprise when they bloom.


I honestly can't remember this flower from last year, but it is bursting with oranges and greens in the far corner of the garden.


There is an explosion of primroses under my other birdbath. These were transplanted from Amanda's garden box last year and they love this spot in the garden.


Ahhhh....this means it really is almost spring here in our neck of the woods. The grape hyacinths are blooming in all their purple glory. Now if I can just keep my boys from mowing them down along with the grass.


Little tiny flowers...can't remember the name of this one....are blooming if you keep your eyes focused for the pretty periwinkle color.


My daffodil patch is ever so close to blooming and since it is by my mailbox, I can see it every day as I collect the mail.


Everyone who reads my blog with any regularity knows that I have a "thing" for lavender. This year our plants promise to give us a beautiful show of color and fragrance. The hummingbirds have already spotted these blooms and in the early morning I have seen them out here sipping at the flowers.


I learned something this year quite by chance. I left my broccoli plants in the ground and in a few pots all winter and this is what happened....beautiful yellow flowers. The hummingbirds have been in these blooms as well. I think next year I will leave a whole bunch of broccoli plants in the ground because they make really pretty blooming plants.


I would call this a true *spring green*. The moss growing between the bricks in my little arbor is thick and soft.


We have a new development in the front yard. We noticed today that the Scrub jays are building another nest in our magnolia tree. They fly back and forth with little twigs....hundreds of times over the course of the day so far. They are very busy. If they succeed in building their nest, this will be the third year in a row in this particular tree.

Hope you enjoyed my little tour and if it is cold and you are having winter weather today, I hope it cheered you up.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

The Daffodils and Violets are Starting to Bloom!

"When the flowerstalk first appears, it comes up like a sheathed sword, pointing toward the zenith, green, veined lengthwise, and with a noticeable thickening at each edge. As the petals grow, the sheath begins to round out; the stiff stem at the base of the sheath bends at right angles."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 550-551

We have daffodils. They started blooming yesterday on the sunny, warm south side of our house. I planted a new bed of daffodils in the fall but they are still just all greenness.....there is the promise of bright yellow blooms soon.



"It is interesting to note the flowers which have impinged upon the imagination of the poets; the violet more than most flowers has been loved by them, and they have sung in varied strains of its fragrance and loveliness."
Handbook of Nature Study, page 476

We also have a bed of violets blooming and when the sun hits the blossoms it smells so sweet and good.


I brought in a handful and decided that the stems are just too short for any vases I could find so I thought this glass butterfly dish would cradle the blossoms just so.

Lovely indeed.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Garden Progress: June

We planted our garden at the beginning of May and these photos show what it looked like just three weeks ago. The above photo shows the beans just popping up out of the soil.


Here were the radishes three weeks ago.


My box three weeks ago.


My garden box now with the beans, peppers, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, marigolds, and lettuce all growing bigger by the day. We have even eaten some radishes and lettuce from the garden.


Yummy!


The hydrangeas are blooming!


The figs are growing plump on the tree and I am hoping the birds don't come and eat them all.


The Black-eyed Susans are starting to bloom.


These guys are in the sunflowers...they look like someone painted them with bright colors and stripes.

That is a quick walk through my garden this week. I enjoy the cool of the morning in my garden and with the Square Foot Gardening techniques I do not spend much time weeding but rather a little time watering and enjoying. :)

If you are interested in starting a nature study project in your garden, why not start with Outdoor Hour Challenge #12? Challenges 12 through 19 focus on garden plants and would provide an easy way to start your own summer gardening project.
Challenge #12

Topics in this series include:

• #12 Garden Flowers-Seeds
• #13 Garden Flowers-flower parts
• #14 Garden Flowers-Flower press
• #15 Garden Flowers-drawing
• #16 Garden Flowers-Sunflowers
• #17 Garden Flowers-leaf parts
• #18 Garden Flowers-pollen
• #19 Garden Flowers-germination

I would love to see how your garden grows this summer!

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Late Spring Wildflowers #3

Yesterday we took a hike at the river and this time we found a beautiful new-to-us wildflower.


The color was so striking and so dazzling that I had to take some photos and then come home and try to identify it with my field guide.


Orange Bush Monkeyflower
Mimulus aurantiacus

Figwort Family, blooms March-August, great source of nectar for hummingbirds.

This is the third kind of monkeyflower we have identified this year!


The river was so green and lovely as we hiked along the trail. There were a few people floating down in tubes, enjoying the the cold water and the hot sun.

If you are interested, I have been updating my Yosemite Wildflower blog this week and I would love for you to pop over there and check it out. Here is the link:
Yosemite Wildflowers
All of the photos are from our trips last summer to Yosemite. I am aiming to finish all of the photos I have stored up before we take our next trip in July. I still have quite a few to go, but I am making headway.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Spring Nature Study Reminder

This week there will be no new bird challenge posted for the Outdoor Hour Challenges. Our family has been busy with our nature study this week and something that came to my mind is that for many of you it is now spring where you live.

Why not take advantage of your spring weather and get out and make your spring tree observation and your spring weather observation? I think we will complete both assignments one afternoon this week.

Here are the links to the previous challenges:
Spring Tree Study -start a new tree if you have completed a year long study already
Seasonal Weather Study

Notebook pages to print:
Seasonal Tree Study notebook page
Seasonal Weather notebook page
Spring Nature Walk -Scavenger hunt on Hearts and Trees

If you complete your study and blog about it, leave me a comment and I will come over and enjoy your entry.

Have a great nature study week and if nothing else, get outdoors and spend some time with your children soaking in whatever the season brings your way.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Spring Wildflowers #9: Catch-Up Post

I have been feeling sort of guilty about all the wildflower posts on this blog but after much deliberation, I came to the conclusion that recording things that are important to me is at the heart of why I keep a blog. My goal this spring has been to observe as many of the local wildflowers as I can and try to keep a record of when they started blooming and then identify them as I can with my field guide. This blog is part of my nature journal...a digital version of my paper journal.

In addition to recording my wildflowers on the blog, I have tried to keep current with our Wednesday Flower Study posts and the Outdoor Hour bird challenges. I slipped in a post about our great natural bridge hike last week and I have a backlog of posts to make about our other hikes.

Even though every post doesn't exactly reference the Handbook of Nature Study, I still feel like I am staying "on topic" and helping to encourage other families to get outdoors and explore their own neighborhood. With the exception of the first photo of me taking photos of flowers, all the other photos are within a 25 minute driving distance from my house.

"It may not be practical for every family, but when mothers understand the good that a measure can do, they will often work miracles to provide it. A twenty minute trip with a picnic lunch can make a day in the country accessible to almost anyone, but why do it just one day? Why not do it lots of days? Or even every nice day?"
Charlotte Mason in Modern English, volume one, page 44

So here are April 14th's flowers from our regular hiking trail.


Sweet fennel


I have decided that yellow sunflower shaped flowers are really hard to identify. I need to start carrying my book with me on hikes and not relying on my photos to help make an identification.


This is something rather beautiful and we only have seen it one place in all our travels. I can't find a identification for it but it sort of looks like Purple fritillary...not quite sure.


We think this is a Woodland star.

April 15th's flowers from Cronan Ranch and the American River Confluence
(These are both new hikes to our family and we ended up going back to both places over the next few days to explore some more.)

Lupine. This is the year of lupine in our area. It is glorious and abundant everywhere you go. In a lot of places it is a mix of lupine and poppies and the blue and gold combination is stunning.


White fairy lanterns


Mustard


Purple dead nettle

April 16th at Cronan Ranch again...

Lupines...right alongside the river. Yellow bush lupine and blue pod lupine.


Baby blue eyes

Back to the American River Confluence on 4/17/09

The plant and flower look like Miner's lettuce but I have never seen the heart shaped buds before. Anyone know what this is?


We think these are Ground iris. We saw quite a few of them along the slope on the river side of the trail.

I think that is all of the outstanding new wildflowers that we observed and enjoyed over the last week's hikes. I have a few more to share but I will post about those when I write about each individual hike.

I have developed a huge case of spring allergies. I have not been out for my usual walk in three days and I am getting antsy to break out and enjoy the spring. I am hoping that my allergy medicine kicks in soon and I can get out and explore some more of our local area.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom