The boys and I are having a great time participating in Dawn’s Everyday Nature for Families workshop! It’s a ten day workshop and every day we receive a pdf with different ways of connecting with nature, easy ways to connect in our busy world. Even though we are often outside I found that doing this workshop has me thinking about what we do and what we see in new ways.

Today Dawn encouraged us to take another perspective and imagine what it must be like to be a bug out there in the world. Life is completely different from their point of view. So, tonight we all went outside and got down low to the ground or up close to the plants and trees and we found some very cool things!

Forget Me Nots have hair on their buds!

A bug walking on lichen on a tree must be like us walking barefoot on gravel. I recently planted grass seed and it’s begun to sprout! Moss everywhere! I love moss! Samaras are just beautiful. After the rain… The bark was peeled off a downed tree and this was what was underneath. It looks like skin to me. The beginnings of moss or lichen in the medicine wheel garden. I think it’s lichen…we shall see… Love those dandelion seeds! This sowbug looks like it’s traveling in a dense rain forest! So, so cool! I found this as well in the medicine wheel garden. It was attached to a downed twig and when I moved it it release some spores into the air and on me! A fern frond with…eggs? A columbine bud. Such rich colour and all those hairs! This wee little guy was in our herb garden walking on legs that look very translucent (and a bit hairy). I was surprised to see dew from this morning still hanging on the Lady’s Mantle by dinnertime. Can you imagine being an aphid trudging through those hairs? I had to see up close how our Virginia Creeper holds onto our maple tree. Amazing! Prickly raspberry buds! Our first ladybug larvae of the season! Yay! A busy ant. I love how cute it looks..and that fuzzy body! Soil still clinging to the new grass. 

If you would like to learn more about getting outside yourself or with your kids you can visit Dawn’s website as well as Mud Puddles to Meteors, run by both Dawn and Annie, where you can sign up for newsletters and join their Facebook group.