A MOMENT

A moment that touches my heart. 

Inspiration from Soulemama

happy day!

ONE WORD WEDNESDAY

~ balancing ~

                                happy day!

PLAYING WITH POKEWEED

Do you have Pokeweed growing at your house? 


 The plant is poisonous to humans, from its roots to the leaves and berries.
Did you know it is only in the very early spring, that the very young shoots are edible? 
But you need to know exactly where the pokeweed grew to be able to identify the new growth. You will notice the hollow dried stalks turned white and bent over from the winter and the new shoots will be emerging right there. If you are not 100% sure, never never eat it.

We love watching the transformation of this perennial plant. It can reach 10 feet tall and leaves can be 12 inches long. The stems starts out green and turns a gorgeous magenta color, 
The berry cluster starts as white flowers then green to dark purple berries.

Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana)

Even though the plant is poisonous, with awareness and caution, children CAN come in contact with this plant. Tell them all about the plant and why they shouldn't touch it. When children know the reasons why, it all makes sense to them.

Pokeweed is a value to wildlife and quite attractive in the landscape. It would be a shame to rip it out in fear of its poisonous aspect. 

Pokeweed berries are an important food source for wild life. American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, Mourning Dove, Gray Catbird, Eastern Bluebird, Northern Cardinal, Great-crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Phoebe, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, European Starling, Brown Thrasher, Cedar Waxwing, Red Fox, Virginia Opossum, Raccoon, and White-footed Mouse all eat the berries.

We drew the plant in our nature journals. It was fun coloring the bright colors of the stems and leaves.


Then . . .we donned disposable gloves, picked the leaves, scrunched them and made designs on paper. The berries were the best part, we squished them and drew with them noticing which berries made the brightest color.

                    

Some other fun activities with Pokeweed: 

• make dye from the berries and dye wool roving, yarn or muslin
• make ink from the dye and write with a quill pen. It is said they wrote the Declaration of Independence with Pokeweed ink. 

happy day!

OUTDOOR EDUCATION

The best education a child can have is in the outdoors -
exploring . . . discovering. . .observing. 

And Mother Nature provides it all.

Sometimes it's enough to just sit and be . . .with all your senses.

Nature helps children develop powers of observation and creativity and instills a sense of peace and being at one with the world              
~Wm Crane


happy day!

A SWEET SURPRISE

She had a surprise. It was something she discovered on her own and she seemed proud.

She held it ever so gently as she brought it closer.

Lifting her hand very slowly, she showed us a Wood frog which she found under the shrubbery below the deck.

She touched him lightly and felt his smooth skin. He didn't mind.

She talked to him, with her sweet soothing voice, to let him know he was safe with her.

Even when he started to jump, she stayed calm. A bit surprised, but still calm.

She even let her little brother have a peek and put the frog safely in an empty flower pot.

After a little while, she took him back in her hands, said goodbye and put him back where she found him. She knew it was where he needed to be. 


It was a joyous experience, as each experience with nature is.


As a child, one has that magical capacity to move among the many eras of the earth; to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us; to know a hundred different smells of mud and listen unself- consciously to the soughing of the trees.
~Valerie Andrews


            happy day!

WORDS

A quote for Monday . . .

Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. 
~Nathaniel Hawthorne


happy day!

EAT YOUR VIOLETS

Violet flowers and their heart shaped leaves are edible. They are full of Vitamin C.
The flowers don't have too much of a taste but it's fun to eat food collected in the wild. 


Just be SURE to know EXACTLY what you are eating! 

The leaves are delicious in a salad . They are best picked and eaten while the flowers are still in bloom. They become tougher as time goes on, but they can be cooked and eaten like spinach.

Common Blue Violet (viola sororia)

The flowers can embellish the tops of cakes and cupcakes, and also be candied to save for later use. 

Cake and candied violet recipe here!

They can be used to make jelly which has a mild taste but a very pretty color.

Recipe here.

They can also be frozen in ice cubes to adorn iced tea, lemonade and other drinks

And I just love the sight of their glorious color as I open the refrigerator door !

There are also recipes for violet syrup and violet vinegar.

What are you going to make?

happy happy day!

Linked to: Barn Hop #13 and

Farmgirl and Farm Friend and Farm Friday

SCULPTURAL NATURE WEAVINGS

We decided to use chicken wire as the base in our nature weavings instead of the forked sticks that we usually use. You can see the forked stick weavings here.

The children explored and collected bits of nature for their weavings.

The pieces of chicken wire were about twelve by seventeen inches. The children could bend them into any shape they wanted and fill and weave with nature. There are plenty of empty spaces to add any nature they might find in the future.

 Beautiful nature art! They can be free standing on a table or shelf or hung on a wall. 

 happy day! happy weaving!