The Nature Table

We came through Hurricane Irene with hardly a wound. Our property is high and so we stayed dry although there is some flooding on the shore nearby and in some low-lying areas. The big old trees around our house all held and though we have leaves and few branches to clean up, there were no major collapses. We got lucky and I'll take it.

That said, lots of people were hit harder including the farmers at our new CSA. I was pretty shocked to see these photos of the damage on the farm. Hard to say what the rest of the season will look like as far as food stock goes.

But in our corner of the world all is well and the outdoors is still our friend. We are gearing up for schooltime learning season and my maiden voyage into the world of kindergarten homeschool instructor. One of the big changes we've made in our homeschool room/playroom in anticipation has been the creation of a Nature Table.

We've had a Nature Shelf for years now, (see this post, this post and this post for mentions of it) just a little spot on the bottom level of the corner cupboard, china cabinet but I think we've outgrown it. We are to the point where we can sustain a larger collection because there are some older, more conscious children emerging from the baby/toddler world that used to be our family, not to mention with three small collectors (not to mention a collecting prone mama!) we just make a larger collection without trying. And so A's grandmother's beautiful desk has become our larger space for displaying outdoor finds. We have a Nature Table!

 It's also really exciting to have a place where we stash all our guidbooks and identification manuals, right next to the treasures we're examining. I hope to add some magnifying glasses or jeweler's loops to the stash and a set of binoculars for hikes and bird watching out the window.

 I am trying to get the boys and myself outdoors every day, even if it is just for a few minutes of mania running around the big rock in the backyard before dinner prep. I feel like daily contact means connection and relationship with the natural world and in some tangible way it means stress relief and health too. During the "school year" I am hoping to get out for a serious outdoor outing once a week...a hike, a sledding expedition, a fort building, a long lay on the grass watching clouds, a big leaf raking...something. And I am planning to have take along our new art journals and do some kind of art work that reflects some small thing we saw together....a leaf, a bird, a cloud.

I am planning to pick the medium ("Today use these oil pastels to draw what you see.") on a rotating basis and set a time limit for sketching out our art so that it doesn't get to feel like a huge unwieldy project. I have never tackled anything quite this ambitious before and am not sure I will actually do it, or if I will do only sometimes or if it will be a huge success. We'll just have to wait and see!

Happy Learning Season to all of you perpetual life students out there who will be sharpening your pencils along with us...and if you see a guide on identifying insects, send it our way...we suddenly need one!

Hiking Weather.

 It's hiking season! We went out for a good trek this weekend, warming the boys up for our upcoming visit to Yellowstone National Park. They're good little trailblazers, running in short bursts down the path ahead of us, and always excited to look for "treasures" on the way.

 We have a Nature Shelf in our dining room china cupboard, for just these sorts of finds. The rule is that if you carry it home yourself, then you get to keep it. I haul no booty for the crew, only my own treasures. But I am generous with my shelf space and allow any little feather or rock or stick a place if it is lovingly hauled back in the pocket of a young collector.

 We saw a few live creatures on this hike...like this beautiful little orange Eastern Newt...the only newt we have in our state, apparently! He held perfectly still while we all crept up close to him for a good look and then, Dee even stroked him with an outstretched index finger and he still sat stoically. We'd have stayed longer and tried holding him if the mosquitoes had allowed it.

 We saw a whole bunch of mating pairs of sexton beetles, like this one, on a tree stump. After I little research at home I found out that this meant that the beetles had found a dead animal somewhere nearby and the males had sent out pheremone signals to attract wives and all the new couples would now fight it out for ownership of the corpse where the winning pair would lay eggs and raise young. Just a little woodland drama for you! They are really pretty insects, if a bit macabre.

 Then we saw this snake....just about to cross our path when we startled it into high-tailing back into the woods. It's a rat snake, and was pretty long although very slender. A and I guessed it was between three and four feet in length...longer than Ru is tall. Handily, it is non-venomous, and also shy. I'm pretty certain I saw a rat snake one other time when we lived at the condo, last year or the year before....it was whirling it's way up a tree, looping around the trunk in quick spirals. Apparently this snake is an agile forest dweller that is adept at both climbing and swimming, able to get around cleverly wherever it finds itself.

Just before we finished our walk, Dee sat down to rest on a rock by the trail and found this little, glinting dragonfly wing. Quite an impressive souvenir for a three year old to spot! My inner outdoors-woman was very proud. I'd say the boys will do just fine Out West.