It was a gorgeous day today. We went out to a playground in the early afternoon, but when we got home it was still really beautiful weather so we decided to go for a walk in our woods. Kris was wanting to scope out our property to see if there were any rotting logs we could use for mulch along some pathways. This led into a discussion about why we might want to clear rotting logs off our property (mostly in case of fire), but not from the rest of the forest in our area (because they provide habitat for all sorts of living things, plus nutrients for the soil, etc).
We kept an eye out for newts or frogs or snakes, all of which we have seen in the past around rotting logs or sunning themselves on the path. We didn’t see any of those today though. We overturned a few rocks to see what kind of insects were hiding underneath. Meredith was very careful to make sure the rocks got turned back over again afterwards.
Under one rotting log we found these odd looking… eggs? Mushrooms? I’m not sure. It is something we want to look up and find out more about. Sorry for the blurry picture, I had a baby on my front waving her arms around as well as the rotting bark these were on was blowing a bit.
As we walked, we listened and could hear all sorts of sounds. Frogs croaking, the creek running nearby, our rooster crowing, leaves rustling, the neighbour’s chainsaw roaring occasionally. Mostly it was very peaceful.
At some point on the walk, Meredith noticed the leaves had started to change colours on the trees here already. We were less than five minutes from our house but the ones at our house are still fully green. I’m assuming because it doesn’t get as much sun in the forest it must be a bit cooler. Enough to make a difference. I expect our leaves will be changing soon.
The girls were quite enamoured with this colourful leaf we found.
The creek behind us is quite low right now. I thought I’d take a picture, as it will be neat to compare it to what it will look like in 6 months when the snows further up start melting and after all the rain. The area on the far side is actually a little island. The creek splits and runs around each side of it.
When we got home was when I remembered about the Outdoor Hour Challenges and went to the site to check out the starting ones. They mostly involve picking things to study, starting to listen and look, starting some collections, and starting a nature journal. We have done all of those already (Meredith has already said she wants to study local plants, especially edible or medicinal ones), except the journal. I have been wanting to start my own journal. The girls can each start their own, or they can just add to mine if they like when they feel like it, or they may want nothing to do with it. I do want to do the starting challenge #9, as I think it would be really eye opening for all of us! I think I will try that out later this week. Then I think I will use the site to get some new ideas and inspiration for future walks, though of course most of our walks and outside time will still be completely unstructured.
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