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100 Species Challenge

Weekly Wrap-Up: Nature, Learning, and Books

In my life these weeks… Spring, gardening, walks, playing in the ice cold river, wild flowers, a March for Life, and more.  It has been a busy time, but we’ve enjoyed so much.  We even visited an organic farm that had cows, sheep, and goats with bells on! In our homeschool … Mr. 18 is [...]

Red Water Pompom: Hydrachna geographica

This morning, after a bit of garden work, preparing for the next batch of meat chicks, and filling the dehydrator with lovage, Mr. 17, Miss 9, and I went for a walk down the almost-dry river bed.   We took the dogs along, which was fine until Miss 9 wanted to catch tadpoles in one of the [...]

Halfway Through the Summer: Some Highlights

We’re halfway through the summer, and rather than moan about it, we’ll celebrate by sharing a few highlights of the past weeks.  I’ve got all sorts of beautiful, cute, and funny pictures of the kids, but since my husband doesn’t want any of our pictures online, I can’t share them.  That’s too bad,  but I [...]

Red Admiral Butterfly on Apricot Blossom

Over a dozen Red Admiral butterflies, as well as Tortoise Shell butterflies, honey bees, and bumblebees were drinking nectar from the blossoms of our Manchurian apricot tree.  The entire tree was buzzing and fluttering.  What an incredible world our God has made! For more photos of winged creatures, visit Nature Footsteps Winged, and for more [...]

Goldfinch Nest in a Purple Loosestrife Plant

One of the simple little things our homeschool does for the environment is to keep the invasive plant purple loosestrife off our three-acre property, about half of which is wetland. Although purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) is beautiful, it can harm native plants as well as wildlife.   Purple loosestrife was introduced into North America over 200 years [...]

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

When the shy bloodroot flower peeks out from its one protecting leaf, we know that spring has come to stay.  The amazing single leaf can wrap completely around the flower!  We’ve always been fascinated by it. Years ago, before we knew it was endangered , the children dug some plants up and we were all startled [...]

A Ducky Walk, Almost to the End of the Rideau Trail

This was it,  the big walk in which we would reach the Ottawa end of the Rideau Trail.  Miss 8 had chosen sparkling peach-grape juice and we had little plastic wine glasses for a big celebration when we reached the marker at the end.  First, though, we watched the ducks.    Mr. Mallard was not [...]

A Woodpecker Walk

Our eleventh Rideau Trail walk, the longest yet, covered snowy terrain through woods, along a railway, and into a residential area.  The theme of this walk seemed to be woodpeckers, but we noticed a lot of other interesting things, such as this tree.  We found fairly large skeleton with extra bumps on the spine toward [...]

Nature Study: Giant Puffball

Recently we found an enormous puffball in the woods.  It was old and brown and the skin had cracked. At its prime, the giant puffball is a white, spherical, edible fungus.  We have seen them as small as an inch in diameter and as large as this one, a foot in diameter.  I do not [...]

Nature Study: Horsetail or Scouring Rush

On our first Rideau Trail walk, we saw several colonies of amazing green stems in a ditch.  Each plant is, in fact, just a stem consisting of long finely ridged sections.  Each section fits into a lower one and is held in by a fringe of darker or lighter vegetation.  I remember this unique plant from the prairies of [...]