Hepaticas

Today’s nature calendar task:

Search for opening buds of hepaticas.

This task was easy since I have a sharp-lobed hepatica in my garden. The buds are almost open. I think they would be very difficult to find in the wild if they had not opened yet.

Transplant seedlings

Today’s nature calendar task:

Transplant indoor seedlings when the second leaves appear.

I think they mean to transplant them into a larger pot, since it is still too cold here to put them outside.

milkweed seedlings awaiting transplant

Our milkweed seeds and our mystery seeds are coming along nicely. Only a few have their second leaves. I am afraid to transplant my seedlings, I'm pretty sure they will die. I'm glad I still have some milkweed seeds left so I can sow them directly in the ground when it is warmer.

Updates on past nature tasks:

April 4th: Build a toy windmill.

After my first disastrous attempt with wood and nails I came up with this much simpler version using a plastic bag. Instead of a windmill or weathervane I decided upon a windsock. I cut out a lid from a plastic container to make a ring. Then I cut a large piece of plastic in a triangle and taped the whole thing together. I tied on a piece of string and put it out on the tree. It works great!

Shrub branches

Today’s nature calendar task:

Place more shrub branches in water in the classroom.

We are on our second set of flowering branches. The first set we tried were some forsythia branches from our backyard. They bloomed a beautiful yellow. We noted that the flowers came out first, and then the leaves.

Currently we have two different shrubs in our vase on the table. The first is from a decorative crab apple. The leaves came out first, and the flowers are just about ready to bloom. The second is a decorative plum. It has small white flowers first, and then the leaves appear.

crabapple blossoms on our kitchen table

My kids have taken a liking to the Red Osier Dogwood shrubs that we see everywhere while we are hiking. The bark is a striking red colour. That will be our next shrub branch cutting. I'll just have to remember to bring my pruning shears on our next hike.

Willow tree cuttings

Today’s nature calendar task:

You may start new willow trees by placing cutting in water.

We happened to do this last fall. Willow branches root very easily in water. We will go and visit the willow at our park and do it again. We didn't plant our willow in our yard, since it would take up the entire space in a few years. I love the long, drooping branches of the willow.

Click here to read about our experience in October growing the willow roots.

April birds

Today's nature calendar task:

Birds to look for this week or soon: Kingfisher, Loon, Flicker, Vesper Sparrow.

We have heard the flicker calling in the small woods near our house a week or so ago. He has a beautiful laughing call.

Last week we saw a kingfisher swooping over the water at the marsh we visited. He has a very loud and interesting call. The kingfisher dives into the water to catch fish. The one we saw did not dive, but he certainly was looking for fish. It was a delight to see him, he is not a bird I see very often.

I just looked at a photo of the Vesper Sparrow. He looks an awful lot like a female House Finch. I'll have to take a closer look at my field guide to find out how to tell the difference.

The links on the birds listed above will take you to the species accounts at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All about Birds pages. They have lots of information about each bird, good photos, distribution maps, habitat and behavior descriptions. Click on their link to hear the songs of each bird.

Water your seedlings

Today's nature calendar task:

Be sure that you water your garden seedlings thoroughly as soon as they are dry looking.

We have two sets of seedlings growing right now.

Our milkweed seeds have just sprouted.

Our mystery seedlings have been growing for a week.

I have the seedlings set on the kitchen table. They are taking up valuable space, but if I put them anywhere else I will forget to water them.

Skunk cabbage

Today's nature calendar task:

The first wildflower - the skunk cabbage - a cousin of the calla lily.

The skunk cabbage likes to grow in wet, swampy places. I haven't seen them around here, but that's not to say they aren't there! They are a very unusual looking plant. They are able to raise the temperature of their surroundings. Apparently they smell bad, releasing a scent to attract flies and other bugs that would be attracted to carrion.

Tree branches in water

Today's nature calendar task:

Place twigs of cherry, apple or plum in water.

I've been enjoying the forsythia that we put in water from March 5th's nature task. I think I'll have to find a new container for the apple and plum, we're not done watching the forsythia yet!

I've found it very interesting how the flowers and leaves are coming out. First the flowers, then the new branches are forming. Not just one leaf has come out, but a series of leaves along the new branch. I suspect that when the flowers die the leaves will come out along the old growth.

We have a nice litte crab apple tree in the backyard, and some ornamental plums. I'll trim a bit of both and put them in water.

Pruning roses

Today's nature calendar task:

Prune back your roses 6 to 8 inches from the ground.

I have only one rose bush, and it is a climbing rose. The rules for pruning climbing roses are different from normal roses, and are a bit confusing, as it depends on which kind of climbing rose you have, and how often it blooms.

I think this year I will build a trellis for this rose, until now I have been tying it to the railing of our porch.

I pruned my climbing rose. The kids watched and pointed out all the thorns. I took off any smaller side branches, and then trimmed 6 inches off the ends of the remaining branches. It looks good.

Starting garden seeds

Today's nature calendar task:

Start garden seeds indoors.

We started a few seeds this week.

Last week we went to a gardening show. We picked up some free mystery seeds. I had the dish covered with plastic wrap to keep the soil moist and a bit of white mold started to grow. If you've experienced the white mold, and know what to do about it, please leave me a comment!

We also picked up some free milkweed seeds. I had wanted more milkweed in my garden.

We will plant our tomatosphere seeds this week. There are two packages. One package contains regular tomato seeds, and the other package has seeds that have been exposed to a simulated Mars atmosphere.

I'm still planning what to do with my garden this year. I tried some vegetables last year, but my garden is too small and shady. This year I think I'll try a bog garden. I also want to put in a water feature to attract the birds.

Maple syrup

Today's nature calendar task:

From maple sap to maple sugar.

On Monday we visited a local conservation area that runs a sugar bush. We had a lovely day in the forest, and the sap was running! The kids saw some old ways of making maple syrup, as well as the more modern methods.

Last year it was too cold for the sap to be running on the day we went. Not so this year!

They were heating the maple sap in a log using rocks heated in a fire. You had to use the right type of rock or they could explode! They used sticks to lift the rocks out of the fire and drop them into the sap.

The Chickadee had a sample of maple syrup. She savoured every drop. She licked the bottom of the tiny paper cup. I think she contemplated eating the paper cup, but thought better of it.

November flowers

It seems that nature is not quite ready to close up shop for the winter. We went for a lovely walk today at our local botanical garden. It was a balmy 20C, one last warm week before the chill sets in. The changing of seasons always makes me a little shutter happy.

Structure of roots

This week we took another look at our tree seedling to examine its roots. For their nature notebook I had them draw the roots. We talked about the main tap root, the side roots and when we looked very carefully we could see the light fuzz of the root hairs.

I took out our magnifying glass to try and see the root hairs better but for some reason they were easier to see in the vase. Perhaps when I transferred them from the water in the vase (where they have been sitting for about a week) the root hairs might have flattened against the root.

I would have liked to talk more about the function of roots, but we were rushed and it didn't happen today.

A few weeks ago I pointed out a very large willow tree on one of our walks and gave each child a long branch to play with. They enjoyed the flexibility of the branch, using it as a fishing pole, and pretending it was a very long piece of hair on their heads. Since then they have been pointing out willow trees to me as we drive around town.

That evening I read about the willows in my copy of 'The Handbook of Nature Study', and I was intrigued by this part:

Although the seed of the willow is produced in abundance, it is hardly needed for preserving the species. Twigs which we place in water to develop flowers will also put forth roots; even if the twigs are placed in water wrong side up, rootlets will form. A twig lying flat on moist soil will push out rootlets along its entire length as though it were a root; and shoots will grow from the buds on its upper side. This habit of the willows and the fact that the roots are long, strong, and fibrous, make these trees of great use as soil binders. There are few things better than a thick hedge of willows to hold streams to their proper channels during floods; the roots reach out in all directions, interlacing themselves in great masses, and thus hold the soil of the banks in place. The twigs of several of the species, notably the crack and sand-bar willows, are broken off easily by the wind and carried off down stream, and where they lodge, they take root; thus, many streams are bordered by self -planted willow hedges.

So, we took a piece of our willow branch and placed it in a vase to see if it would grow roots. The children gave up hope rather quickly of its ability to grow roots, but I just left it on the table to see what it would do. I thought it might not grow roots since it was so late in the season, perhaps the tree somehow knew that October was not a good time to try to grow a baby plant.

Just yesterday I took another look and there was the beginning of a new root! There was also a leaf budding out as well.

It would be neat to see the root hairs under a microscope. Do you have a microscope at home? What age were your kids when you got it?

Parts of a tree

For this week's nature notebook we labelled the parts of a tree. I thought this would be a fairly routine exercise, but there always seem to be surprises along the way when we study nature.

Here is the Nuthatch's drawing of a tree (I wrote the words for him).

I asked him to draw either a deciduous or a coniferous tree. He chose to draw an evergreen, and added a Christmas star at the top. He decided to draw spots all over the tree to represent the needles. He was trying to use the word 'stump' for 'trunk', so we had a little discussion about the difference between those two words. On the trunk he drew a magnifying glass and then drew the rings inside, something I had not been thinking about.

He still hadn't drawn the roots of the tree, so I asked him the simple question: "So, what is keeping the tree from falling over?" He looked at me blankly, and then said that the trunk was what held the tree up. I held a pencil up vertically on the table to represent the tree trunk and we watched it fall over together. It was not the trunk holding up the tree. I didn't want to just give him the answer, so I told him to go into the backyard and look at some of our trees. He came back and told me the branches were holding the tree up, because they were leaning on the tree next to it. (Hello? What is this kid thinking?)

Finally, I dug up a tree seedling growing in our yard (it was a weed, it was going to get pulled at some point anyway) and the lightbulb finally went on (finally!). He rushed in and finished his drawing. I've left the tree seedling on our kitchen table in some water so we can look at the structure of the roots in a different lesson.

Apple Cross-section

Our first foray into studying trees was to look at an apple. The Handbook of Nature Study had some interesting observations. I read through the section on my own (pages 667 to 670) one evening, and then when it was time to work on our nature notebook I was ready.

The thing that I like the most about the Handbook of Nature Study is that it has interesting tidbits of information that are things that I have just never thought of before. In the case of the apple, it mentions that "The carpels, or seed cells, are five in number, and when the fruit is cut across through the center these carpels show as a pretty, five-pointed star; in them the seeds lie, all pointing toward the stem." (pg. 668). I always cut my apples in the other direction, and thus have never noticed that the seeds in the apple are always in a five pointed star. Intrigued, I sliced open an apple and lo and behold, there it was!

We made a lot of interesting observations during this activity. We learned that the bottom of the apple is where the blossom used to be and is called the basin. The kids noticed that the seeds were brown on the outside but white on the inside. They discovered that each seed cell contained two seeds. They drew several diagrams of the apple and labeled the different parts.

We examined only one type of apple, but it would be interesting to extend this activity by comparing different varieties of apples. There is more in the Handbook of Nature Study about apple varities, picking and storing apples, and the structure of the apple.

Update:

The following week we tried the same activity with some pears we had in the fridge. The pear we cut open also had five carpels, although two of them had not been successfully pollinated. It was very similar in structure to the apple. The Nuthatch noticed all the tiny spots in the skin of the pear.

Fall focus on trees

After some deliberation I have decided to focus our nature study on trees for the fall. I was torn between focusing on something in particular, or just continuing to explore whatever interested us at the moment.

I have been hesistant to specialize in one area. I have enjoyed looking at anything and everything with the kids for the last 6 months. I wanted to develop their observation skills and their enthusiasm for nature and provide them with a general knowledge base to start building on. At this point though, I think it would be helpful to us all if we delved a little deeper into one subject, and developed a greater understanding of one aspect of the natural world we are exploring.

I thought trees would be a good initial focus area for a number of reasons. They are large and easy to find. They don't move when you're looking at them. The kids won't need any special skills like being able to use binoculars. The leaves will be changing colours soon. They are relatively easy to identify (unlike our brief foray into lichens). We have learned the names of a few trees already, so we're not starting something from scratch.

So, what will this look like? This doesn't mean that we will look at nothing but trees on our nature hikes. I will probably try to point out some aspect of trees on each hike, but then we'll continue on our merry way of exploring and examining whatever crosses our path.

I will ask that the Nuthatch's weekly nature notebook entries have something to do with trees. I'll still follow his lead to some extent, but I would like to start looking at deciduous trees while they still have leaves. We can always look at the conifers in the winter. We also have some firewood in the garage that we can take out to look at the structure of the rings and the bark. And it is apple picking season, that will be a great place to start as well.

The Bluejay on our apple picking trip last year. He even ate the apple cores!

I have put the Handbook of Nature Study next to my bed for a bit of evening reading. I read a section and then try to casually point out some things to the kids as we are hiking. They usually come up with their own things they are interested in. The Handbook has a large section on apple trees and a part about how to do leaf prints.

We were camping this past weekend and I informed the Nuthatch that we were going to study trees. He found some sap oozing out of a tree and we talked about how it is like the blood of a tree, and it comes out of the tree where the bark has been injured. Here is his photo of the sap:

That's our plan for this term's nature study. I'll continue to post on trees as we progress through the term. The Bluejay seems to think that 'Lichen tree' is a type of tree, so perhaps we'll try to clear that up first.

Update:

I've discovered that the Handbook of Nature Study blog is also looking at trees this fall. Here's the link for the first Outdoor Hour Challenge about trees. This is a great source of information if you are looking for ideas for studying trees.

Here are my posts of the tree activities we have done so far:

Apple Cross-section

Parts of a Tree

Structure of Roots

Garden flowers

Echinacea, purple coneflower

Bee on a Daylily

Rudebekia

Rudebekia

Different bee on coneflower

Random backyard photos

Spring is in full force. Along my back fence I have a woodland native plants garden. It is a rather understated garden, I have gradually been filling in the bare patches as my plants produce little seedlings. It also is full of spring ephemerals, which means that it looks really nice right now, and then it dies when the heat of the summer comes along and the trees leaf out and shade the plants.

These trilliums are in my garden. When I first planted it there was only one blossom. One year a critter ate my plant and I was worried it was gone forever, but it recovered the following year and now I have two.

I have several of these small trees in my yard. They are some variety of ornamental plum. I should try and figure out what kind they are.

This is the real reason I was outside with my camera. Every year I give the grandparents a nice 8x10 of the kids for their respective mantlepieces. This year I have been sadly negligent at getting these photos taken, so I was out trying to remedy this situation.

Here is my sweet Chickadee. I managed to take this picture just before she covered herself with sand.

A different perspective

Daffodil

Sometimes a new angle can create an interesting photo.

Spring flowers

Crocus

My yard is still half covered with snow, but I have spring flowers! This crocus is growing in a sheltered, sunny spot next to the house. The warmth of the sun reflecting off the brick melts the snow first in this corner of the yard. This tiny patch is always the first to bloom.

I hung a piece of black velvet behind the crocus to achieve the smooth black background. I used my macro lens and laid down on the half frozen ground to take the shot. I had to wait until the flower was in the shade to avoid shadows and bright highlights.

Snow drops, Galanthus nivalus

The snowdrops are in a more exposed area. The snow melted just this week, and there they were, already grown and ready to flower. The white background is the snow still surrounding the plants.

When the last of the snow finally melts (which doesn't look like it will be soon according to the weather forecast) it will feel like a long winter has abruptly ended and spring is in full swing.