On this visit to our favorite vernal pond, we found that the water level had risen a good five feet thanks to a weekend of heavy rains. This day wasn't actually rainy, but we all still got pretty soaked and muddy! The sun hadn't come out yet, and dew blanketed the fields. We waded through wet grasses hunting for wildflowers...
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| american vetch, aka hairy vetch, aka winter vetch |
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common vetch, aka spring vetch
( i always forget which is spring and which winter because they both bloom in winter here!) |
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| wild onion |
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| triphysaria eriantha |
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| sky or dove lupine |
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| popcorn flower |
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| owl's clover |
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| blue dicks |
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| two-toned tidy tips! (with a couple beetles along for the ride!) |
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| don't know this one yet -- there are so many yellow wildflowers! anyone know? |
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| bladder parsnip |
The dew also highlighted the spider webs that stretched across the tips of the field's grasses. I hadn't realized there were so many there! My friend drew our attention to the funnels, now visible with water droplets, and we waited a moment to see if a spider would pop out of the burrow. No luck.
The kids did plenty of running, climbing, wading, and tree frog catching...
...and let's just say more than one kid in my family came home with their rain boots full of pond water. Ahem.
They left happy and with a handful of specimens for our nature tray.
We had to hurry off that morning after a couple hours out because my big kids were heading to daily Mass with my husband, but all of us would have liked to linger a bit longer.
The dew really brought to life the
shapes of these wildflowers rather than their bright colors, which are usually what first catches our eye. I have
Botany in a Day and this trip motivated me to get it out and start a routine study of some sort so I'm able to group a bit more confidently by family now that we "know" some of these so well. As we have gone week in and out looking for our favorites and taking notes on where and when they bloom, I'm inspired to mentally make sense of all the little features we notice as we get more and more attuned to the size, shape, and structure of these plants, in addition to their lovely shades.
And I'm always surprised by how consistently we find flowers we have never seen before, even in places we go to weekly. The variety is simply amazing! God is good.
I love reading your posts. There is something very calming about them. Not that I think you could possible have a calm household with all your littles, but you certainly have a gift of keeping it all running smoothly. You make me smile.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Melanie! I think the same way about all your creative pursuits with your girls--you make it look so easy and delightful. :)
DeleteWow! So many lovely finds, Celeste! I love your dew photos. Swoon. I agree, God IS good.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amy! It is always a treat to see an ordinary place with new eyes. :)
DeleteDid you bring one of those frogs home to watch for a bit? =) That would have been the first question my children asked. Please Mom, can we?
ReplyDeleteThose Two Tone Tidy Tips, too cute and a great name. A dew filled nature walk, lovely.
We didn't, but you can bet my kids ask eeeevery time. ;) Our friends always bring a terrarium so that we can keep a couple while there to observe, then release them before we leave. They are soo fun to watch and it's adorable to see all the preschoolers chasing after them! :)
DeletePretty flowers!!! They remind me, that, YES!, Spring will come! (We just got more SNOW this morning! *sob*) Love the web pic, too! :)
ReplyDeleteI loved your podcast, btw! I've been trying to figure out how to eat breakfast before my kids. What do you guys usually eat? I make eggs, oatmeal or an oven pancake (really...that's all!) and I can't imagine making it twice every morning? But I love the idea of staring MT while the kids are eating.
Thanks! I don't usually eat the same thing as the kids. On weekdays, they alternate among just a very few menu items: oatmeal (with berries), baked oatmeal bars (usually with coconut and cranberries), peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and tortilla roll-ups (with lunchmeat and cream cheese). That's our rotation right now. On days we have oatmeal (probably twice a week), I start the oatmeal when I come downstairs so give it time to cook and then cool. Oatmeal bars Gianna and I make for the next morning when we have a free afternoon. Roll-ups and sandwiches are made by my older three kids right before we eat. I, on the other hand, make myself a bowl of oatmeal or have a couple pieces of toast just about every day. (Unless we have some kind of dessert leftover, in which case I have that. Ahem. ;))
DeleteI eat breakfast while I'm teaching math to my Y1 and kindergartener, first thing after I wake up, and I make my own--so I don't usually eat what the kids are eating. So on an average day, I come down when the kids do and start my coffee, then have my coffee and make a bowl of oatmeal or a couple pieces of toast to eat at the table while I sit with the littles. (My big kids are working on their own math and "binder work" at this time.) The kids then eat about an hour later, and I usually have my second (third? LOL) cup of coffee while I read.
Hope that helps!
First, I'm glad Amber had the same question! I almost didn't ask b/c I felt silly! :) Thank you for telling us the minutia of your breakfast routine!! LOL Seriously though. Sometimes logistics are hard to figure out!
Delete"...dessert leftover, in which case, I have that." I knew I liked you!!
Dessert-for-breakfast moms unite! LOL
DeleteClearly I need to be leveraging my big kids more! Well, my daughter has one morning a week where she's responsible, and the kids make breakfast together on Saturdays... and on other days the older three all have things they do to help. But still, something to consider. Having more details helps me try to brainstorm how I could improve things in my home. Thanks! And thanks for asking, Catie, I was thinking about it too but it was easier to chime in on someone else's question.
DeleteI don't think it has even occurred to me to have dessert for breakfast. Now what does that say about me? :-D
It says you obviously haven't been breakfasting with the right crowd, Amber! LOL Remember the fruit crisp I was telling you about? My favorite breakfast. ;)
DeleteI was wondering the same thing as Catie! I would love to start morning time during breakfast, but I've never quite managed to pull it off well when I've tried it.
ReplyDeleteThat frog picture is great, and what an abundance of wildflowers. A few familiar ones, and many different ones too... there is such an amazing variety, isn't there.
Morning time during breakfast is a lifesaver for us. I definitely wouldn't get quiet, uninterrupted time to read in the morning if my littles didn't have their mouths full. ;) I can imagine at some point in the future being able to do Morning Basket as our block right after breakfast, but this just works for us so well and has for so many years that it would be a real adjustment for me. :)
DeleteI love the time efficiency of it too, as well as the doing something while they are busy eating!
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