Outdoor Hour Challenge #2

Barb's new ebook (info available if you click on the button) has given us just the gentle push we all needed to resume nature study this month. We each have journals filled with sketches from past walks, but the kids are enjoying a change by using the notebooking pages included in the ebook.




This week's challenge focused on describing words related to what they observed and heard. We all needed to brush up on our listening skills. What an exciting time to really be listening!. We heard geese overhead, robins everywhere, running water from the continued snow and ice melt.

Truly, an enjoyable hour or so outside.

Up! up! my Friend, quit your...computer

Typed up this morning by oldest dd, one of her poetry readings this week. She thought it very appropriate for the blog and that it made for a strong case to go out for a walk. It is and we did. :)

The Tables Turned (An Evening Scene on the Same Subject)

Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you’ll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?

The sun, above the mountain’s head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! ‘tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There’s more of wisdom in it.

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless--
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
True breathed by cheerfulness.

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:--
We murder to dissect.

Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.

~William Wordsworth

Outdoor Hour Walk

Just a few images from our time outside one day earlier this week...we enjoyed being able to explore icy ponds while not having to wear coats. It was in the 50s on this particular day.

Surprise Visitor

(Click image to enlarge.)

We spotted it at about the same moment, husband and I, from windows on different floors. Robins, though here for several days already, had our attention trained to the backyard when I heard my husband call out from upstairs:

"Bluebird! Backyard, in the grove!"

I had caught a glimpse too, but quickly dismissed the idea. Too early. But the robins were earlier this year...

I didn't hesitate this time and ran for the camera and the binoculars. Camera was in its place, binoculars were...in the car.

I headed out to find them and while trying to free the case from underneath the front seat, I looked up and out of the window in time to see him fly to a nearby tree. Then he came closer, flew around to a tree behind the car. I quietly slipped out of the car and snapped pictures, focused binoculars, smiled. He gave me three minutes then had somewhere else to be.

Three minutes: still not enough time to change the settings on my camera for better pictures. I have got to read that manual.

Welcome

Pictures of our nature studies to come.

In the meantime, if you are interested in doing nature study but are unsure how to get started, I suggest you start at Barb's wonderful site, the Handbook of Nature Study blog.