Our First Week of Nature Walks

We went on our first nature walk Wednesday around our yard. It was a nice warm spring day--perfect for exploring. We do not have Handbook for Nature Study or Pinecones in My Pocket yet to read, but I did not want to delay getting started.

Daffodils and cherry blossom trees are in bloom. Our backyard was overrun with bumble bees flitting from flower to flower. After our walk we sat on the patio with our nature notebooks to draw and talk about what we had seen. The children enjoyed their new notebooks and colored pencils. We finished the afternoon by weeding our herb garden to get it ready for new spring plants.

On Thursday we went out for about an hour, this time to our subdivision sports complex. Here the young boys found sticks that quickly became light sabers. The cherry blossom trees were beautiful (see banner photo). Under the pine trees everyone found a small pinecone to take home. We did find a beautiful yellow bush that we'll have to find out the name of (gotta get that book!) so we can plant one in our yard.

Back at home we planted morning glory, salvia, petunia, sunflowers, and zinnias from seeds. For our spring vegetable garden we began from seed cantaloupe, zucchini, romaine lettuce, and cherry tomatoes.

Today's (Friday) nature walk was spent running around our yard and putting out solar landscape lights. The daffodils are at the end of their lifespan and beginning to shrivel and droop. The young boys thought if we picked the flowers and put them in water they will perk right up so our counter has several plastic cups of daffodils for their experiment.

"I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze." ~ William Wordsworth, Daffodils