Part 2, The Nature of Love and Laughter

In honor of April Fools Day I'm posting this again for the final time! I've tried since I returned from the wonderful 'bisit' with my grandsons to post 2 videos, with no luck and my followers having to endure assorted email notices of new blog. Unless I become more technologically savvy, I'll stick with pictures.

In honor of April being National Poetry Month and to cheer myself up after all my video tries, here is a poem about an event that took place today.

Quail pair in the yard!

His black chin and top knot bob.

Her brown dress hides her. 

And finally my love and laughter published once more to really cheer me up!

Brothers and Sisters

Good Genes

'KK! I'm glad you finally got here!'

'I take your picture.'

A merry heart does good like a medicine!

I can't get this video to upload to the blog!
If it did, it would go 'viral!'

This is the final installment of the nature experiences of my cross country visit to see my grandsons and their parents, my daughter and son-in-love. You might say I've stretched the Nature connection, but those who know me understand that I see nature in just about everything.

With a Full Heart

Feeding the Birds and Listening to the Cicadas

Several of my posts have been about this Little Girl and her grandmother Moga keeping a Journal Book  about their discoveries together. This practice that my dear friend has encouraged me to start a nature journal with my grandson when I visited him. I'll have to be creative with our long distance discovering.

She sets out seed for the birds and writes about who comes to dinner.

Circles make good eggs.

She makes peanut butter feeders.

The discoverers heard cicadas this year. It's marvelous to hear them sounding like a never-ending chorus of saws. These particular cicadas emerge from underground every 13 years to make a family.

The next time they emerge, the Little Girl will be 15 years old. I hope the 'Journal Book' will still be around so she can see how beautifully she decorated the cicada pages. Not only has this journaling nurtured some storytelling skills, it will be a treasure at the next cicada emergence.

Check out this clip of a single cicada and its song at YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mah26og11ms

Check out this great resource that Moga sent me!

Thank you dear friend.

In Awe of My Natural Friends
With Heart

Rainy Season

Our rainy season has finally arrived! 

This morning after biscuits and tea and a good newspaper article about the women of Taos, New Mexico I absentmindedly looked out the kitchen window pondering the story. When I saw twinkling lights in the bare branches of the trees, I did a double take. All the branches were hung with tiny drips of water that caught the sunlight just perfectly. 

The sparkling 'lights' were a beautiful reward for getting wet from our 1 inch of rain during the previous 24 hours! My Louisiana followers are probably laughing at this point.

The hills have turned emerald green. 

In a couple of months they'll revert to gold.

Smiling 

With Heart

White Squirrel

See that white spot on the ground between the mailbox and the tree? That is proof of the albino squirrel my son-in-law has been telling us about for a few weeks.

It found some of the acorns my grandson had been getting a handful of and rolling down the driveway one by one. The squirrel carried one in his mouth across the street, into the yard, and on into the back yard.

We thought it would take the acorn to a nest we'd seen up in the canopy of the woods, but it went up one tree, across to another, and then down. With the binoculars I saw that the eyes were pink, confirming that the squirrel is albino.

The trees that were so green and luxurious during my summer visit were beautifully bare and some just budding out like this one. On this visit I loved looking through the woods and seeing whispers of  pink, or white, or red showing up so pretty against the gray bark and blue sky.

Before we leave the yard to go inside, I'll get KK, the fantastic the photographer of little boys and their family, to point out to you some of the wonders we discovered.

Ah! Nature!
With Heart

Pipes and Rainbows

Even though this is an indoor experience, it has to do with our senses. For me that fits in with the theme of this blog, sharing the wonder of nature.

Imagine the floor vibrating as well as my ear drums vibrating while my very gifted son-in-law gave us an  impromptu organ concert at a beautiful chapel on the campus of Ole Miss where he's acquiring his PhD and working. My heart strings were vibrating also.

My grandson couldn't resist getting closer to his daddy and the beautiful instrument he was playing.

The windows of the chapel were edged in vibrant colors, making a great frame for Aunt KK to photograph her adorable nephews.

I couldn't get enough of the rainbows made by the noon sun coming through the windows.

Standing in the light

In Joyful Wonder

With Heart

Ah! Nature!

One warm summer day my 2 year old grandson ran into his room after playing outside to cool off. He sat in his rocking chair, looked out his open window and said, 'Ah! Nature!' When my daughter told me about it, I laughed with a full heart and felt I'd done something right to make nature opportunities available to my daughters. His mother in turn had done the same for him. 

I just 'bisited' with Mr. Ah! Nature! He's now a 3 year old who still has the wonder of nature. We caught a June Bug in the bug box his mother bought him. 

He used the 'snips' to put grass into the box for the brown beetle to have for food. He decided it was easier to use his fingers than the tweezers.

The magnifier in the top of the box helped H. to see the furry underside of the bug.

My grandson, the future entomologist, enjoyed the experience so much that I was concerned he wouldn't agree to release his catch. We talked about it; rather I talked about it. You can imagine my surprise when I later found he and his mother had released the beetle near the bush where we found it. 

That night before bed we journaled about our find. With my help H. traced the net he caught the beetle with. Then he glued this picture of us into the journal along with an internet picture of the June Bug.

 Finally, I wrote for him, 'I put him in myself.'

'Out the bush.' (I let him go by the bush.)

Then he drew the beetle in the net we traced. He also drew an uneven line on the side of the page and said it was the beetle crawling.

The journaling idea is from my dear friend who is the grandmother of a 3 year old that I've posted several entries about.

Missing the Grandsons

With Heart

Trout Release Day!

It was a beautiful day to release our trout fry into Lafayette Reservoir.

Each student carefully released a fry into the safe shallows among the reeds.

After a heartfelt farewell to our fish, the biologist educated us about the new phase in their life cycle. Connor liked learning about what they'll eat and how they'll survive.

We took notes in our Trout Journal.

We learned that they will eat algae and small bugs.

Fish and Game were adding hatchery fish to the reservoir this same day. 

That's their truck full of trout.

I enjoyed sharing this wonderful experience with two families who have been long time neighbors.

Cole absorbed the nature and the beauty, for example the tall green trees and the sparking blue water shining against the sun. 

Blake said our last fish to hatch, Hope, is in a reservoir where she can be free to swim and grow where the reeds hide her.

One of the joys of my life is sharing this trout raising experience with my dear friend Nancy.

Colleen, a parent, enjoyed seeing the students' excitement as they identified with their fish, naming them. She appreciated knowing the process from the training of Nancy and me to the final release today.

Remembering With a Full

Heart

Strawberries and Squirrels

Do you remember the Little Girl and her grandmother Moga who make nature discoveries and journal about them? Check out the blog archive to the right for posts on 2/5 and 2/12 for the story.

They planted strawberries and waited for them to grow. 

                                     

After these two discoverers kept finding stems but no berries, they made a game of wondering who ate them.

After sending her out to look for strawberries,  Moga would ask, 'Who ate our strawberries?  Was it Daddy?'

'No.'

'Was it Mama?'

'No. Maybe it was Granddad!'

The Little Girl finally decided it was the 'square.' So they journaled about that sneaky squirrel.

Sharing
With Heart