A yellow walk

The weather today was actually spring-like, surprising considering the spring we have had! Kutey wanted to go for a walk. Knowing the forecast for the next couple of days is cold and rainy, I thought it was a fantastic idea!

The very first thing we noticed?



Dandelions! The first of the season. I know many people think they are a pest and spray to get rid of them. They are Kutey's favorite, though. She would happily spend hours picking them. It is one of my favorite images of summer, my little girl frolicking in the dandelions. You can imagine the glee when they were discovered. Kutey wanted to pick them on the spot, but we were literally a block from home, just starting our walk. I didn't want to carry them all the way back. So we picked them on our way home.

A little farther along our path, we saw these:



Daffodils! A sure sign of spring. There are oddly very few of these in our area. They really brighten up the landscape! I admit, I have not planted any in my yard to add to the color. Maybe I should!

Then there were the not so natural yellow objects that crossed our path:


Don't you love when some company comes through and leaves leaflets all over that no one wants? And then they just blow about the neighborhood? Yeah, it's not my favorite, either. This one was a bit too far out in the marshy, swampy area to retrieve.



Not really sure what this is. It looks like a ball, but it had tape wrapped around it, and seemed to be covered in fabric. We left it where it was. But it IS yellow, so there you go.

This lovely bush rounded out our yellow hunt. Beautiful!



In addition to hunting yellow (which was mostly imposed by me), we had to get past numerous grumpy old trolls, some terrifying snow bugs, and even a Yeti! Yep. Our neighborhood is dangerous. These things are around every corner, or at every other driveway, as the case was today. Getting past them requires a great deal of skill and wit. They also have well developed communication. Each time we came across a new troll, he already knew our trick from the previous troll.

We also climbed Mount Everest, which seems to be a lot closer to my house than I thought, and much, MUCH easier to climb than I thought it would be!

I know these walks probably don't appeal to a lot of people. I just feel so lucky to be able to spend this time with my kids. We had so much fun!

Nature walking

Since the weather is slowly but steadily improving, I decided it was time to start walking again, looking for signs of spring. Kiddo and I have done walks like this for years. Kutey only remembers doing it last year. She has a cold, so I wasn't sure a walk was the best plan. Kiddo, however, needed to get out and get moving. He has been bouncing (somewhat literally) off the walls this week. So we determined we would go for a walk, but that we would take a route that allows for a shorter walk or a longer walk.

We started out, listening to the birds as we walked. We heard one call we didn't recognize, nor could we see the bird. First thing to look up when we get home. Kutey ran for about 2 blocks, which made me think perhaps she was feeling better than I thought! But then she hit a wall. Her leg hurt (stop running!), she was tired (walking isn't as hard as running), her hair wa staticy and in her face (if you would ever let me put something in it, this wouldn't be a problem!) and she started whining. At this point, we had two choices, turn around and walk home, or continue on. It was only a smidge closer to turn around and go home. So we kept walking.

Kiddo noticed a crow, and we commented on how big it was. Since we have studied birds in science, though, we knew it likely wasn't heavy. And since we studied weight in math, we decided to guess how much it weighed, to be checked when we got home. Second thing to look up when we get home. Our guess? Less than 2 pounds. By then we had reached the park (this is where Kutey truly began whining and I made the choice to keep walking).

Two weeks ago when we walked through the park, we saw red-winged blackbirds. Early arrivals getting the best spots for their nests, we thought. It seems, however, that they did not stick around. We saw no red-winged blackbirds this time. I told the kids to listen for them, too, because we might not see them. Kiddo couldn't remember what they sounded like, though. Third thing to look up when we get home.



Kutey paused in her whining long enough to do some more running with Kiddo, then resumed as we turned the corner to leave the park. I was able to distract her by spotting a ROBIN! We have only seen a few, they are just starting to really arrive here, so it is very exciting every time we see one. Last year by this time we had seen flocks and flocks of them. We had also seen flocks of cedar waxwings, which we haven't this year. We watched the robin as it hopped about in the grass. I told the kids I guessed it was a male, because they come back first. But we have never really looked at the markings of female versus male robins. Fourth thing to look up when we get home.

It is about three blocks from this point home, but there are two routs you can go. One is the hypotenuse of a triangle, the other is the opposing sides of the triangle. Kiddo likes the latter, particularly now because there is a lake covering part of the sidewalk and he likes the challenge of getting around it. Kutey, however, just needed to get home. So she and I went the short way and Kiddo went the long way. We met at the other corner. Kiddo loved the independence of walking 2 blocks by himself, since normally our walks are together. He had lots of sites to report from those two blocks!

We (finally, according to Kutey) made it home. In spite of the whining, it was a wonderful walk, full of things for us to research further.

I forgot

When we first started our homeschooling journey, two and a half years ago, one of the things we did was a daily walk. Sometimes it was just around the triangle--a three block area near our house. Other times it was through our park, and others it was out and about somewhere. But we tried to walk daily. We stopped when the weather turned foul, as it does here in Minnesota. We never really got back into the habit.

Yesterday was very nice, so we went for a walk. It was the second walk we have been on in as many weeks, what with the weather improving and all. And I was reminded of the simple joy I found in those walks. We didn't go far, a little over a mile and a half, but it was beautiful. The fresh air was wonderful. The kids running and smiling and laughing was bliss. I forgot. I forgot how nice a daily walk can be. I need to try to remember. It did wonders for my attitude!

(Of course, today the weather was absolutely foul. There was no walk today.)

Spring is in the air!

A friend in the south mentioned that they are expecting 80's this weekend! We are nowhere near that. We still have snow on the ground (especially in the big piles), but the weather is improving. I'll take 50's over teens any day!

Yesterday it was warm enough that the kids and I went for a walk. We saw all sorts birds! Sparrows, finches, crows, a blue jay (which was screeching!), a possible robin, ducks, and red-winged blackbirds. This is the first sighting of red-winged blackbirds this spring for us. I love red-winged blackbirds. Kiddo remembered this when we heard them, which touched my heart. I love them because my mother loved them. My mother loved them because her father loved them. Maybe my kids will love them because I do.

Later in the day, we stepped outside and heard the creek behind our house rushing. We HAD to investigate, of course. Our creek is really just drainage, so melting snow and rain make it flow much more than normal. It flows into a small river that is just a bit away from our house--the yard two houses over touches the river. The river is expected to flood in the next few days.



It was beautiful. Kiddo explored closer to it than Kutey and I. He loved it. Awesome. Nature is awesome.



We saw a fairly new looking woodpecker hole up in one of our dead trees. Kiddo noticed all the older holes first (they are numerous). But this one looked fairly fresh.



We also noticed deer tracks in the snow. We see them sometimes in the summer, but I haven't seen them this winter. Obviously they have been around, though!

It was refreshing to be able to be back in the great outdoors. I was born and raised here, but the cold of winter still gets me. I don't tolerate it well, so this day, this warmth was a gift.

A Mother's Day Nature Walk

For the last couple of years, I have made it my Mother's Day wish to go hiking with my kids. I grew up camping and hiking, so I want my kids to have the same experience. While we live in the burbs, opportunities abound nearby for nature walks.

Today we drove to a nearby lake that has a path all the way around it. The path is over 3 miles long, so Kutey rode in the stroller, but Kiddo walked almost all the way around. As we walked, we identified a multitude of things from the landscape. We tried to remember what we had identified, but I am not sure we got all of it!

Here is what we remember:
Aspen trees
Norway (red) pine tree
Dandelions
Ants
The song of a red-wing blackbird
The call of a crow
A turkey vulture
sparrows
Sumac (with the seeds from last year still attached)
Great blue herons
A duck (we think it was a coot)
Canadian geese
Beaver cut trees
Huge rabbit
Dragonflies
A swarm of little bugs
A crow
The song of a cardinal
A cardinal

I know there was more. I also know that we walked past a lot of things that we did not identify. It took us plenty of time to get around the lake as it was! But it is so much fun to see kiddo so interested in identifying things. At one point he said "Let's identify EVERYTHING!" obviously that wasn't possible, nor is that what he really meant...he meant let's identify everything I want to identify :)

Daily Walking

When we started school last fall, one of the things we did was a daily walk. Some days we went to the park, but most days we just went out and walked around. When the weather got colder, and ickier, and eventually snowier, we stopped walking. It takes too long to get us all dressed to go out only to have it be so cold you can't walk more than a block anyway. I am the first to admit that I don't like cold. So we stopped walking.

But the weather has started to turn. It was 44 degrees yesterday, and about as warm today. Even when it was only 37 degrees on Wednesday, it was warm enough to walk to our craft day outing. And Kiddo started saying "now we are having our daily walk again!" So we went for a longer walk today. And we looked for signs of spring. The melting snow was everywhere! There were several places where I picked Kutey up because the water was pretty deep. We also heard a number of birds, not just crows! Our biggest observation though was all the ripples in the flowing water. Kiddo liked to figure out what was causing them, and watch the water find its way around objects blocking the path.

But the best part was that neither kid complained. Not once did they say they were tired. Not once did they ask to be carried. Not once did they ask if we were almost home. If that keeps up, daily walking could be the high point of every day!