Is this Nature?

We've resumed our nature walks now that the weather is manageable. I had great plans of taking them all winter, but it is hard to see beauty when it is drizzly and freezing.  Last week we enjoyed Jasper's day off with a visit to Storytime at the library then a long picnic and walk on the Mason Dixon Trail. I guess it was about time, since Sapphire posed the question, "Are rocks nature?"

We quickly found a picnic spot close to the water. Ruby hunkered down to enjoy the food while the others enjoyed the creek.  Ruby takes her food seriously and won't let any view--no matter how glorious--disturb her at her work. 


.

Sapphire didn't have time for food with so many rocks to climb (big surprise) and she only partly fell in.  She also began her career as a trail runner by running ahead of us most of the way

We took some special shots of Pearl to commemorate her 1st grade year.  We didn't have any professional school photos taken this year, but what could be better than this?









We ended up using the walk to teach the girls about some local plants.  At first this backfired; Sapphire hugged the middle of the path and nervously pointed to any plant asking, "Is that poison? Is that?"  Soon she was able to identify poison ivy own her own.  Pearl captured these photos.

 

 

Pearl has continued to practice her addition and subtraction, and we finished our weeks of studying the continents with a week on Australia and a few days on Antarctica.  We watched some documentaries about Australian wildlife and I read aloud a very uncomfortable book about Antarctic explorers who at best only got frostbite and at worst didn't make it back to base camp.  We are nearly done our science book, and we are waiting to see how bendy our chicken bone has become during its weeks in the salt and vinegar solution. Pearl has found a series of fairy books she really enjoys reading to herself, and she treated me to a read-aloud this afternoon. She's come a long way in the last year.