Went Outside Today

It has been so cold this winter. Last winter in February we were heading down to the Metroparks. This winter, here is it March, and we don't even want to go to the car! 

Today the temperatures got up to 37*F. It truly felt warm today. Right now, at 6:00 pm, it is 35*F. The kids and I tried to do a bike ride but, uh, it's not that warm. It didn't help that we didn't have our hands covered so they got cold quickly. The bike ride didn't last long but we did have one! Tomorrow may be even better for that bike ride.

I went outside after that and took some photos. I heard birds and spotted some greenery. 

That first bird is an American Robin. I tried to zoom in more but the tree was too far away. The other is a Cardinal in the tree in our backyard. Bright red contrasted against the blue sky. And finally- the green of moss. Beautiful. 

Birds, Spiders, Rain, and Food

Photography by Lee (Autumn Lee on the watermark) and me, from April and some of May.

A well traveled path at the North Chagrin Reservation Metropark.

Fuzzy Lamb’s Ear in our backyard (Richmond Heights).

Dandelions are everywhere this year! These are in our backyard.

I don’t know what kind of plant it is but I like the red coloring. This was at the Euclid Creek Reservation Metropark. More from Euclid Creek Reservation Metropark.

It’s never quite as majestic in a photograph as it is in person.

The creek bed is made up of shale.

The kids enjoyed exploring the fragile nature of this rock type.

I love to find hearts in just about everything. My kids pointed this out for me.

The rock layers seep water when pressed. And it may be strange, but I like these two photos showing the scuffed and old shoes of my kids.

Water at some point ran through this spot and moved the rock pieces around.

This is from May at Tinkers Creek Aqueduct.

I like the contrast of the bark and the branches.

The spider…

And the birds.

At Tinkers Creek Aqueduct, where we had some Nature Study and Ohio Study at the same time, there is a falls. Lee captured it quite well in this photograph.

This feeder is less than 5 feet from where I am sitting at my computer. A few days after we put it up, this Gold Finch found it. Unfortunately, the cat likes to sit in this window and it scares the birds. This picture was kindly taken by Fox.

We have two other feeders for birds and one block for squirrels. The squirrels can’t figure out how to get at the block though. A woodpecker, perhaps a Downy Woodpecker, has discovered it and loves it!

I have no photos of the rain but rain it has. The last two or three days it has been intermittent. It looks to be rainy this coming week as well. We don’t plan on going out much when it rains.

Oh, yes, and the food. Sometimes I wonder if I could make a cookbook with all the things I make. It seems I’m always cooking something. Perhaps I’ll make one for each of my kids.

Homemade tortillas. These are for the rest of the family since I can’t eat the wheat. (shh, I ate one anyway- yes, I had a headache later)

Pizza casserole.

Sourdough starter made with rye, oat and garbanzo bean flour. I get to use it today! There is much more now than when I took this photo.

My mix of rye, oat and garbanzo bean flour. The ratio is 1:.5:.5; if that makes sense. For each cup of rye flour, I have 1/2 cup each oat and garbanzo bean flour. Unfortunately, I’m running low on the rye flour…

Well, that is my photo post for awhile. Since I’ve not done a Weekly Wrap-Up for a little while, I thought this would be fun.

Terrariums–Nature Study?

Lee checked out a neat book from the library- Terrarium Craft by Amy Bryant Aiello and Kate Bryant, photographs by Kate Baldwin –and now we have terrarium fever. Our plan was to go to Goodwill or other thrift store –perhaps Dollar Tree even –to find some glass containers for our terrariums.

 

Pinterest terrariums look so neat! They are inspiring and …discouraging at the same time. Fortunately, I looked at them after we made ours.

 

Here are our small terrariums. Lee collected unused little jars and bottles from around the house. I still want to find more ‘suitable’ jars and bottles.

Top pic: mine, in the living room on our ‘library’ bookshelf; Second pic: Fox’s collection (he took to the project quickly –and I do mean quick); Next four pics: Lee’s two creations (one has dirt, moss and a crystal, the other has dirt, a living plant and a screw); the very last one on the right is one of mine.

 

From the book that Lee checked out, we’ve learned about different plants (along with their scientific names), including air plants, mosses, and carnivorous plants. Have you ever heard of Angry Bunnies??

 

Here are some images from Google search page:

 

So with that, is the making of terrariums nature study? Well, we counted it as such.

In Our Backyard- Photos

(It really was quite tiny)

(do you see the lamb?)

Warm Weather- Yes!

Although I have no photos to show {yet} of our wonderful warm weather, I am so glad that it is here! We are finishing up indoor schooling so that we can hang outside. It is supposed to be nice all week.
Last night was horrid. Absolutely horrid- rain, wind, thunder and lightning. *shudder* But we awoke to blue skies and chirping birds! The grass looks greener and the sun is shining.

Beautiful!

Our plans for today at least are to hit a few libraries and then find a nice park or two to investigate. We are trying to find places that we have not gone to thus far. There are a lot of them around so we are guaranteed to not be disappointed!
I will be taking our Nature bag {includes bird book or two, our nature journals, colored pencils, drawing pencils and erasers, watercolor crayons, and binoculars} on our jaunt. We really enjoy putting in entries. I like to look back on them. It’s like seeing it again for the first time.
I am hoping that the nice weather sticks around; I’m ready for Spring. I may even change my blog background- regardless if it snows again.
Oh, and I caved in and purchased a paperback of The Handbook of Nature Study. I cannot wait for it to get here! It is in Denver, CO, as we speak {well, write type and read}.


I hope to have some photos to share either later today or tomorrow.

Love warm weather!

We Love Nature

Yesterday was beautiful and warm. We wanted to go to the park to enjoy the day. Packed up ourselves and headed out… The first one we wanted to go to was actually right next to a school but we thought that was the park {which had the nice play area}; it wasn’t. The second one we went to was closed for some reason {it has an awesome play area} so we went to the one close to our house. It was squishy and by this time, driving around, it had turned somewhat chilly and I had to go to work.

Our day outside was foiled. {Oh, yes, I know, we could have hung out in our backyard}

Today is cold. It’s overcast and somewhat drizzly {or is that snow?}. But we decided to head out again in an attempt to do some nature study. We stopped by McDonald’s for some hot cocoa, grabbed our journals {I also grabbed my colored pencils and water color crayons, just in case}, and set a course for one of the Metroparks.

 

Euclid Creek Reservation, one of the Cleveland Metroparks, isn’t that far from our house and we often pass by it on our way home.

This is one of our favorite places now! The kids were too busy having fun near, around and in the creek to worry or think about their journals. I sat by the creek and tried to sketch out the view. It was so cold. My fingers stopped cooperating, though, so I had to continue after we got home. The kids attempted to make a ‘bridge’ {it was more a path than bridge} to the other side of the creek. In the process they got their feet all wet and their hands were pretty much frozen.

I tore them away {they didn’t want to go although they were obviously uncomfortable from the wet and cold} from their project and we headed home. I took a chunk of rock that we thought was possibly the same as what made up the creek bed. As soon as we got here, we all made an entry in our journals. We talked about what we saw and what we liked most about the area.

It is a place that we will go again, that is for sure! There is another place we like but it is more than 30 minutes away. I’m sure we will go to both of these and more as the weather gets warm.

 

Day #108 & 109- History, Nature Study, Home Ec, Science, and P.E.

Monday I worked until 4pm and the kids did…nothing Well, that isn’t entirely true. They read. A lot. Percy Jackson books mostly. Would that count as historical fiction? They are well versed by now in mythology.

It was a pretty ‘lost’ day in regards to school. We watched a show on the Greeks. More ‘history’

Today, Tuesday, really hasn’t been much better. We did some grocery shopping and the kids picked out fruit {weighed it as well- does that all count as home economics??}. The weather today is amazingly warm. Right now the kids are outside playing- and scrounging apparently {physical education?}.

They brought in a buckeye seed (not the one pictured, my batteries are dead) and so we looked up some info about that. {nature study??}

I think we will watch some How It Works (or is it How It’s Made?- well, whichever) later tonight, after dinner. {Would those fit in with science??}

So…can I count them as school days? Yes, I certainly can and will. They just were not as good as I’d planned {by that I mean not as full of actually doing school- learning always takes place}.

That’s been our last two days of school. Tomorrow might be better