Tag Archives: nature

Polly’s Cove, Nova Scotia

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We had a great time this weekend visiting Polly’s Cove with some friends. They had been before but for all the years we’ve lived here this was our first visit. We will be back again!

The boys loved jumping across the huge rocks and finding hiding spots, of which there were many.

I too, loved the rocks, always love rocks (!) but I also enjoyed seeing the different kings of plants that manage to grow in such a rough terrain. It’s just beautiful!

04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_01Pitcher plants!

04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_04 04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_06 04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_0904Jun2016_Pollys Cove_41 Look at that quartz! Wish I could take it home.04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_10 04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_16Finding hiding spots!
04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_17 04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_19It took some work but the boys managed to place this big piece of quartz (size is deceiving for the weight of rocks!) up onto this nice flat spot. They wanted to bring it home but I was not trekking up over rocks and slopes of brush to bring it home…would have been pretty cool though…so we took a picture instead!
04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_21 The trek back to the car. 04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_22 04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_25 04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_26The lighthouse in the distance is Peggy’s Cove. Beautiful spot and great view!
04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_29 A forrest of fiddleheads!04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_31 The beach of Polly’s Cove.04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_32 So many different types of plants growing in this rocky terrain. Love it!04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_35 04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_39 04Jun2016_Pollys Cove_4004Jun2016_Pollys Cove_42The boys found a caterpillar trying to cross the road on our way back to the car. We put it on a stick – no touching fuzzy caterpillars unless you know they are the non-stinging kind! – and put him/her back in the shrubs. I think this one liked seeing everything from a higher vantage point!

 

 

Everyday Nature

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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!

IMG_6010 IMG_6018A bug walking on lichen on a tree must be like us walking barefoot on gravel.IMG_6019 I recently planted grass seed and it’s begun to sprout!IMG_6020 Moss everywhere! I love moss!IMG_6022 Samaras are just beautiful.IMG_6024 After the rain…IMG_6025 The bark was peeled off a downed tree and this was what was underneath. It looks like skin to me.IMG_6028 The beginnings of moss or lichen in the medicine wheel garden. I think it’s lichen…we shall see…IMG_6031 Love those dandelion seeds!IMG_6033 This sowbug looks like it’s traveling in a dense rain forest! So, so cool!IMG_6037 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!IMG_6040 A fern frond with…eggs?IMG_6042 A columbine bud. Such rich colour and all those hairs!IMG_6044 This wee little guy was in our herb garden walking on legs that look very translucent (and a bit hairy).IMG_6047 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?IMG_6048 I had to see up close how our Virginia Creeper holds onto our maple tree. Amazing!IMG_6056 Prickly raspberry buds!IMG_6059 Our first ladybug larvae of the season! Yay! IMG_6063A busy ant. I love how cute it looks..and that fuzzy body!IMG_6071 Soil still clinging to the new grass. IMG_6074

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.

 

 

Nature excursion and search

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We have had a couple of fun weeks keeping our eyes peeled more than usual for fun and interesting bits of nature for our nature exchange. Two wonderful places we went were Lawrencetown Beach and Point Pleasant Park, and also a gravel road to find pyrite!

We had a great time and can’t wait to send our package off and see what we receive in return!

We went to the beach in search of fun things to exchange but spent most of the time enjoying the water – I planned well with the rain boots! What a glorious time we had and the boys can’t wait to do it again.

2013Oct22_Lawrencetown Beach_082013Oct22_Lawrencetown Beach_07Waiting for the water to fill up their boots!

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Out comes the water!2013Oct22_Lawrencetown Beach_16Which makes for very wet socks!2013Oct22_Lawrencetown Beach_18Spotted some wildlife on the way home.
2013Oct22_Lawrencetown Beach_19Some fun flyers!2013Oct22_Lawrencetown Beach_22Point Pleasant Park
2013Oct26_Point Pleasant Park_01Sumac tree berries?
2013Oct26_Point Pleasant Park_04Perhaps some of you remember the Asian Longhorn Beetle passing through the park and destroying many a tree after Hurrican Juan had already thinned out the forest. It is still a beautiful place to go walking but where you couldn’t see from one trail to the next, at times you now can as the forest is much less dense. (sad face)

2013Oct26_Point Pleasant Park_06A short visit to the Prince of Wales Tower to see the canons and the canon balls.
2013Oct26_Point Pleasant Park_07 Permanent resident.2013Oct26_Point Pleasant Park_08Some of the left over stumps from trees that had to be cut down.
2013Oct26_Point Pleasant Park_09 I could not go without finding at least one mushroom!2013Oct26_Point Pleasant Park_15This was the coolest trunk! Look at those amazing swirls!
2013Oct26_Point Pleasant Park_20 2013Oct26_Point Pleasant Park_21Learning how to skip rocks.

2013Oct26_Point Pleasant Park_23 2013Oct26_Point Pleasant Park_24 2013Oct26_Point Pleasant Park_25

I am a few weeks behind with our Homeschool Adventures posts – those will come next, pinky promise! 😉

Make and Listen

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This is my first time joining in on the Make&Listen Along for I am finally starting a new project! I recently knitted a hat for myself, although easy as it was I kept making mistakes. Now onto some fingerless gloves and a hat for the boys which I hope to have done before this wonderful fall season is over (fingers crossed!). Not too long ago we were walking through a forest on a search for some goodies to add to the Nature Exchange of which we are very excited to participate in, and I realized that although I had the convenience and comfort of fingerless gloves for this work, the boys did not. It was due time to make something similar for the boys and after much searching they unanimously decided on this pattern.

There is a pile of books waiting for my attention as I try to finally-with-no-excuses get back into art making and make those dreams a reality! Etsy maybe and art gallery store!

Today as I crocket and learn ‘no-foundation single crochet’ and joining in the round without a gap, the boys are busy listening to a classic Bare Naked Ladies Album and playing Life while the scent of rice and quinoa cooking fills the room.

A good day to be.

If you have something to share that you are listening to as you are making share along here!

hat

minecraft gloves copy

Make-and-Listen-Oct24minecraft gloves copy