Full Circle

For The Birds

 

Being National Bird Feeding Month and all, the kids and I thought we'd make something special for the birds visiting our backyard. We seem to have so many more this year than we usually do.

I used a utility knife and cut out letters from cardboard to spell the word "WELCOME". I also poked holes in the top of the letters for stringing. Then, we spread peanut butter on both sides and coated it well with bird seed.





The letters are surprisingly heavy after you're finished. We strung twine through the letters to make a garland, then hung them in the trees.


It wasn't too long before the word got out!


If you want to make some similar at home, I have a couple of suggestions...

This is a very Messy project (note capital M). Protect your surface and your floor if you need to. We went through a jar of peanut butter to finish all the letters. You'll definitely get bird seed in your peanut butter jar, so, if you have any left, reserve it for later projects, not for eating ;)

I used thick cardboard cut from boxes for the letters. It needs to be thick to hold up to the peanut butter and seed.

Use a good heavy twine, light-weight rope or something similar for the garland. I thought our twine might not be strong enough to hold all the letters and the birds that would land on it, but so far, so good.

We've had a LOT of birds already, sometimes I'll look out the window and see it covered up with customers. Makes me feel like spring isn't too far away!

What We Did This Summer, part 1

Wildflowers

I spent the early part of the season trying to collect photos of all the wildflowers in our area. I managed to identify a little over fifty of them. Here are a few of my favorites...


Swamp Black Gooseberry


Wild Peony


Sugar Bowl


Horse Mint


Ballhead Waterleaf


Meadow Rue

Geocaching

The adventure of geocaching! I'd read about it a few times and seen other bloggers enjoying it and figured it was time for our family to give it a try. We found several caches over the summer and next year we want to make a few of our own.





Out and About

We went on lots of hikes (this one at Fox Creek)...


made some nature-art inspired by Andy Goldsworthy...


looked for mountain goats...


went to the lake...






and found fun almost everywhere... (even in a patch of sand!)

Crocs Repurposed

I'd been doing some spring cleaning recently and came across this pair of red Crocs that used to belong to my youngest, but don't fit anymore. (Well, I actually only found one, but I'm sure the other is around somewhere). I thought it was cute and didn't want to toss it and couldn't give it away because I only had the one. So, I tucked it away and moved on to other stuff. In the meantime, I was at the nursery and noticed a cute planter hanging on the side of the greenhouse. When I looked closer, I saw it was someone's old Croc getting a new life as a miniature flower planter! I immediately thought of the little red one I had at home and couldn't wait to do the same thing with it.



The Croc at the nursery was larger and had several plants in it, but our smaller one could only hold one . I put some moss in first to cover the holes a bit and not have the dirt falling out, then put the plant in. Easy!

It looks cute nailed to a tree...


or hanging from a branch...


I'll make another one as soon as the mate turns up. They look so cheery and bright in the garden and of course are known to be durable, can't ask for much more than that!

Funny Food and Nature Art

Lots of busy-ness going on around here!
We're participating in two blog events that are sure to be
a good time:
the Funny Food contest at The Crafty Crow and
the Take Only Pictures, Make Only Art challenge at Kidmade.
Check them both out and join in the fun!

Photo Fun at Picnik

inside...


outside...


I brought some cuttings from one of our May Day trees in the house and took the opportunity to take some photos and play with them on my new favorite website, Picnik! You can upload a picture and get started without registering or paying anything. You can edit photos, apply a variety of cool effects, add text and frames and then save back to your own desktop or send it to a photo management website like Flickr. Be careful, it's addicting, so don't say I didn't warn you ;)

A Solitary Plant: How We Homeschool

I was thinking for a homeschool blog, I don't write very specifically on how we "do" school ;) I suppose it's partly because it's so entwined with our regular day that it's a little hard to separate and describe, and partly because it's always evolving and morphing to suit our whims. But, I thought I'd try to devote a few posts explaining how we do things around here.



Since spring hit and with all our recent trips to the river, we've been concentrating on our Nature Journals. Little Brother likes this plant because of its soft, furry leaves so we decided to learn more about it. Boy, were we in for a surprise! This little plant supplied lots of lessons and connections to previous discussions that I never would've imagined. I have to admit, I'm somewhat obsessed with this flannel-like weed now. From this solitary plant, we were able to discuss science, art, Latin and a bit of history, not to mention exercise our brains with observation skills. I enjoy researching on the internet first so I can introduce a few facts to the kids, then as questions come up, we do further research together. Besides the internet, we used several wildflower references guides and the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Comstock. Following is a condensed version of of our most recent Nature Journal study.



Mullein is what you'll usually hear this plant called, but it has many different names including Beggar's Blanket, Hag's Taper and Quaker's Rouge. It's a biennial. A large velvety rosette of leaves define its first year and in its second year will grow a tall stalk tipped with yellow flowers. Mullein has a long history and a cornucopia of medicinal uses associated with it. It's very hardy and prefers a sunny location in dry, sandy soil.



(I've written the facts we learned first, then highlights of our discussion are following in red.)

LITERATURE:

Thoreau refers to mullein in Walden, chapter 5 "Solitude", with this passage...

"I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls. Let me suggest a few comparisons, that some one may convey an idea of my situation. I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself...I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bumblebee."

I loved being able to bring up Thoreau again. We had talked about him briefly when we went on a tangent studying the Civil War. In 1846, he refused to pay taxes he knew would go to support slavery and the Mexican-American War (he was against both) and was put in jail. He didn't believe one should have to obey a law that wasn't morally just and wrote an essay outlining his thoughts titled "Civil Disobedience". We had discussed him again when we studied Gandhi and nonviolence. Even though the mention of mullein is a small literary reference, it's a nice tie-in to Thoreau and a chance to talk about Walden which we previously hadn't focused on very much.

In Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey", mullein is believed to be the magical plant given to Odysseus to protect him from the enchantress Circe.

"Perfect!" I thought when I read this. A lucky coincidence, since we had read The Children's Homer earlier this year, it gave us an opportunity to go back and re-read the chapter about Circe. There are numerous references on the internet to mullein being the protective plant given to Odysseus, but looking at translations, the plant is described as having a white flower and black roots (not the description of mullein) and called "Moly". More research shows the herb may have been garlic or even rue. So, while our mullein plant may not have been the actual plant referred to in the poem, it was still nice to have the reference to The Odyssey.

LATIN:

The scientific name of this plant is Verbascum thapsus.

The genus name, Verbascum, is thought to be a corruption of the Latin word "barbascum", meaning "beard". (Appropriate because of its furry leaves.) The common name mullein (pronounced MULL-in) comes from the Latin root "moll-" meaning "soft". We looked at other words derived from these roots - barber, barbed, mollify, emollient, mollusk...

SCIENCE:



Mullein plants were used by Native Americans to stun fish to make them easy to gather.

Mullein contains the phytochemical saponin. Saponins are also foaming agents and have been added to a variety of products including toothpaste, shampoo, beer and soft drinks. (We put some torn leaves and water in a jar and shook it and could see some foam created). A toxic saponin is called a sapotoxin. The sapotoxin in mullein is rotenone and is a piscicide (fish poison). Apparently you can toss the crushed seeds into a fish pond and the fish will be temporarily paralyzed and float to the top, making them easy to gather. As soon as fresh water flows through their gills though, they will recover, so you have to work quickly. We're planning an experiment with this later in the summer when the plants have flowered and we can gather some seeds.

Mullein has been used for centuries as an herbal remedy.

Flowers and leaves from mullein have a large amount of mucilage. Mucilage helps the plant store water and allows it to grow successfully in dry, sandy soil. As an herbal remedy, the saponin in mullein acts as an expectorant and the mucilage soothes inflamed mucous membranes so the combination is effective for any respiratory problems including coughs and colds. A steam inhalation using torn up mullein leaves and boiling water help relieve a stuffy nose. A tea can also be made, but it must be strained first to get rid of the little hairs as they can be irritating.

I'll try and write more about the homeschool part of our life, but I hope this gives you a little insight for now!

I Can't Help It... More Rocks

It's addictive, I tell you, ADDICTIVE! We've been back to the same spot on the river several times now, always coming home with a bag full of rocks. But as soon as we've dumped it out and gone through our treasures, all I can think of is "I wanna go back!" Rock-hunting may be the poor man's treasure hunt, but it's still an obsessive quest. Especially when you look down in the dirt and find a dark, tomato-red stone looking up at you....



My heart jumped when I saw it! I feel pretty confident it's
red jasper...



Idaho is nicknamed The Gem State because it has such a large variety of gemstones. According to this source, "Idaho has seventy-two kinds of gem stones. This is more than any other state, and second only to Africa in the rest of the world." That statement really adds more fuel to the rock-hunting fire, if you know what I mean ;)

A little research on the internet shows red jasper to be a strong protection gemstone which sends out calming vibrations and absorbs any negativity, and it's good for balancing energy in the body - I can always use that. It feels so incredible that the earth offers up such amazing bits of itself. Whether it's micro-striped, crystal-embedded, heart-shaped or tomato red, each rock is truly unique and a wonderful lesson on the magic of Mother Nature.

Patterns

The kids brought home bones and flowers and such, I brought home some of nature's patterns to play with...

black and white stripes and zebra swirls



vertical ocher shades and flowing organic circles



I'm trying to copy these in my sketch book for practice.

A Sunday Afternoon

I marked the calendar today. Our first day getting out, rock hunting, rock throwing, sitting and enjoying the sun and the reflections of the water as it bubbled past. The elements fell into alignment this afternoon, warm, sunny and only a slight breeze, so we jumped into the car and drove to one of the nearby rivers for some casual exploring.



It's all still pretty bare, hardly any signs of green shoots coming up and only the faint sound of birds, but the sun was shining and it was WARM and it felt like a celebration.



We looked for items to bring home and draw in our Nature Journals. Little Brother found an animal bone, Middle Brother brought home a dried flower, Big Brother found a beautiful twisted branched and Sister brought home a leaf that reminds me of Lamb's Ear.



And, of course, we found rocks, lots of rocks. Looking for rocks with white lines through them...



looking for ones to make the colors of the rainbow...



and looking for heart-shapes...



Yellow-branched shrubs lined the highest parts of the riverbed, making a stark contrast with the otherwise drab surroundings.



The kids found sticks that became swords or guns or simply for dragging through the sand.



We heard some geese overhead and I managed to get a quick shot...



Faces were beginning to feel rosy and our rock bag was getting too heavy to carry so it meant time to go home. But, I felt content, knowing we're done with winter and that we have many rock-hunting river days ahead of us!

Golden Picnic

Initiated by a request from my daughter that we do something outside and my own desire to take some fall foliage photographs, we decided to go on a hot chocolate picnic. Dad came with us and we headed out one of the canyons to see what we could find. Sage and dry grass covered most of the mountains, but there were pockets of color from aspens and maples dotting the hillsides. We drove up a dirt road, then hiked a ways until we were surrounded in yellow.How is it that the colors can really be so bright and beautiful it almost hurts your eyes? It seems to be Mother Nature's last big hurrah before her long, achromatic winter's sleep.