Imagine Childhood : Magic & Memories That Last a Lifetime

... signs of the season

Bare branches are beginning to show their colors again and daffodils are in full bloom... the advance and retreat of spring is finally shifting to a steady growth. There is nothing quite like the vibrant green of new tree leaves.  Trees have a way of highlighting each of the seasons.  They help us mark the passing of time, they give us shade and lend their limbs to little hands for climbing...  and they give us fresh clean air. This Friday is National Arbor Day.  Celebrate trees by planting one with the kids in your life!

Did you have a special tree as a child or do your children have one now?

... barn stories: spring snow birds

On Earth Day what better way to celebrate than by honoring our fine feathered friends that we share the earth with.  These finches are waiting for the sunrise after a spring thunder storm.


There were flashes of blue lightning and barn shaking thunder as well as wonderful moisture in the form of a heavy blanket of spring snow.


As the sun rose they came in to eat. First the finches.  I once had the surprising honor of having one land on my shoulder, wings dusting my neck. I later discovered they were out of food. Another time as the farrier was trimming the horses hooves a finch landed on the rafters of the barn filling it with a riot of song- they needed more food again! The woodpecker pecks on our house, but when there is food in the feeder they leave the house alone. The blue bird lands by the front door and his magnificent color reminds me to put out the seed. Over the years they have awakened me to their interplay,  the communication that they have with all of us.  Each day they remind me in one way or another of what they need me to do... feed the birds!


A joyful Earth Day to all, with all the gifts nature gives us!


Many Nature Conservancies have wonderful public spaces to explore.  To find one near you visit this amazing interactive map, and for other Earth Day activities near you try this great resource too!

... soundscapes

For most of us this is what we call to mind when the word "nature" comes up... images... snapshots of the serene and the sublime that transport us to their rocky shores, glacial rivers and open expansive desert landscapes. We keep scrapbooks of photos from our camping trips and hiking expeditions and even from our outings to the park or the zoo.  But what about the other components that make up those spaces?  What about sound?

Although we each experience soundscapes when we go out in the world, few trips are planned around them.  Usually they are organized around making our way to the "vista"...  to the view of a mountain range, a pristine lake or a waterfall at the end of the trail.  All of these are amazing and well worth the trek, but sometimes it can be just as amazing to go there and close your eyes.  To listen. How does the desert sound? What can you hear besides the rushing currents by the river?  What do you not hear? Asking kids to "see" the landscape with their ears is a great way to open up a whole new conversation about exploring the great outdoors. The best thing about searching for soundscapes is that you don't have to go far to find them.  All you have to do is close your eyes and open your ears.

If you would like to go on a quick trip right now try this amazing Sound Walk Across California or this great collection of sounds from the National Park Service.

And here are a few great books full of wonderful nature sounds:

The Call of the North Woods

250 Bird Songs

Call of the Wolf

... nature walk: livermore, california

This week's lovely nature walk comes to us from the Morgan Territory Regional Park in Livermore, California near the San Francisco Bay Area.  There Annie and a group of three families, each with a three year old, explored all there was to see!  They loved using their binoculars and magnifying glasses to "take pictures" (as the kids were calling it!) of the lizards, feathers, moss, sticks, mud and birds they saw along their way. Thank you Annie for sharing such a fun trip!

If you would like to contribute to our weekly Nature Walk series, you can learn more about submitting photos here, or you can also visit our new Nature Walk Group Pool on Flickr to add your adventures to the collection.

Thanks again Annie for sharing!

 

... pages

Pages.  They’re full of news, history and stories.  They take us to fictional worlds and remind us of the one we’re standing in.  They wake us up, and they help us coax our kids to sleep. With so many of them around it’s often easy to forget their importance... but that’s a fact that is already changing.  Maybe just a little bit each day, but steadily it is.  Newspapers are drifting to the virtual world, and the classics are making their way to the Kindle. Some mourn this change and others celebrate it, but if there is one thing that is becoming clear, it’s that physical books will slowly but surely become less commonplace.

There was a time when books were treasured objects.  Each one existed only as the result of hours, days, weeks, and sometimes years of work.  They were cared for and collected.  They were admired and coveted.  Although for many this is still the case, the sheer abundance of printed matter, has taken a little of the shine off of the tiara so to speak.  In some ways, the move away from the printed page is bringing it back. Because we don’t need physical media to acquire information, the books we collect are the important ones.  The ones we read over and over again.  The ones we like to look at.  The ones that remind us of someone or something. 

What more precious and irreplaceable books are there to collect than the ones filled with the stories children tell us about the way they see the world. The only catch is that you have to make sure to write them...