Imagine Childhood : Magic & Memories That Last a Lifetime

... the land of moss

What happens when a tree falls in the forest?... a lot.

Contributing greatly to forest ecosystems, fallen and dead trees are habitat to thousands of animal species as well as countless microorganisms and plants. While there is importance to managing the amount of dead material in a forest (to ward off wildfire potential), clearing all of it away would have serious effects.

Find great information and a very interesting public artwork about the subject here:

This website put together by the US Forest Service talks about the benefits of fallen logs in the forest and even has a number of great activities (here and here) for families and kids to do to learn about all an old tree has to offer. This wonderful work by the artist Mark Dion (great interview about the piece here) showcases how beautiful, diverse, complex and irreplaceable the natural systems of a forest are.

... nature walk: birmingham, alabama

This week's wonderful nature walk comes to us from Birmingham, Alabama where Tracie and her family explored the 5 acre plot they call home.  With all sorts of wildlife on the land there is lots to see and hear and sometimes, if they are really quiet, they can snap a photo of a fox or a beautiful hawk.  Thank you so much Tracie for sharing!

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 Tracie for sharing!

 

... a summer in plants

Summer is a season for the senses.  From splashing through cool creeks, to building forts and sandcastles, to smelling sweet honeysuckle and making head wreaths out of dandelions.  It’s a time filled with muddy toes, floral scents and imaginary adventures.

Because much of it is spent so wonderfully in the moment, it can also sometimes be hard to remember the details of each individual day.  That’s when making a book filled with the mementos and stories of summer can be a great idea. Since we always seem to end up with leaves and flowers in our pockets at the end of a walk, we started to make our book of summer out of pressed plant herbarium sheets and stories we made up about the plant or recounted from the day we found it.

Although it's fun to make up stories about plants and to talk about your favorite parts of the day while sitting in the grass under a tree, we've had quite a few rainy days lately, so we opted for the wonderful tap... tap... tap of our typewriter. 

Whenever we pull it out of the closet there is always a lot of excitement and anxious fingers. Perhaps because of the wonderful sound, or because it seems so "official" to write at a typewriter, or maybe because you can type on any material as long as it fits through the rollers.

After pressing our plants under some books for a few days we glued them to acid free notebook pages with normal white glue.  You can either paint it on the back side of the plant, or spread a thin layer of glue on a sheet of foil so you can simply lay the flower or plant on the glue sheet to coat one side and then transfer the plant to your notebook sheet.

We also made little envelopes with simple drawings of the pants on them (a great activity all on its own) to hold our plant identification cards and our stories.  They would also be good for pieces of bark or feathers, or whatever else you might have found that day.

And since this kind of collecting can get a bit bulky, we glued two cotton ribbons around the book so we could tie it shut and keep anything from falling out. Now anytime we like, we can be right back in the golden days of summer, read about our adventures and see all of our treasures.... even if it happens to be during the winter next February.

Happy collecting!

** Important note: Please remember to only take samples from plants that have more than ten stalks, and know which plants are endangered, and which are poisonous.

These great plant guides can help you learn more:

Botany in a Day

A Guide to Wildflowers

A Guide to Familiar Mushrooms

A Guide to Familiar Trees

...tell me a story: borrowing from friends

Finding a great children’s book can often be a lot like sifting through the racks of a gigantic thrift store.  Some days you can brave the harsh buzzing florescent lights with purpose in your eyes.  You can jump into a world, thick with fabric and history, sure that when you make it to the other side it will be with unimaginable treasures - only all you manage to bring home is a headache and a t-shirt you bought solely to mark those four futile hours with some sort of victory. Then some days you can be walking down the street, and without even stepping foot inside the store, you see it through the window.  The exact make and model of typewriter that your grandmother had on her desk... the one that you spent hours sitting in front of making up stories and planning the adventures of your life... the one that was given away years before you knew how much it meant to you. Some days, you find just what you need.  That’s how we felt when we found The Turtle and the Deep Blue Sky.


In this book, stunning illustrations accompany a beautiful text that asks the reader to try the world on for size... literally. One day an uncomfortable little turtle decides he would like to borrow the wings of a flamingo, which leads to a chain of animal bartering transactions that is beautiful, quirky and humorous in the way most truly great things are. Full of curious experimentation, the book moves through the adventures of each animal and their newly acquired traits.  As the turtle soars in the sky, a sheep enjoys frolicking in the shimmering scales of a fish, while the usually prickly porcupine rolls in delight with his soft woolly fleece. It's important to see the unique beauty in the world and in all the people, places and things that rumble around inside of it.  The Turtle and the Deep Blue Sky does an insightful and poignant job of celebrating this and it also asks the reader to notice something else.  That even though we all have those traits we admire in others, ones we might like to try on for size every once in a while, we also have some amazing qualities of our own to share, even if we might have to take a step outside ourselves to see them.


{Although we do appreciate our own unique traits (well at least most of the time...),  after reading this amazing book it made us wonder if Phineas were to come back to the farm this summer, would he mind if we borrowed his feathers for the day?}
"... tell me a story" is a new series we are starting where we will share reviews of books we love, unpublished or new children's books in audio or written form,  and stories parents or kids have made up themselves and would like to share.  If you would like to participate, we would love hear any and all of your tall tales! Simply send submissions to [email protected] We cant wait to hear from you!

... barn stories: on the land right now

This year our fields are full of blooming yucca.  After each bloom dies a hard shell follows, loaded with fingernail sized black seeds that I will be able to harvest. The southwestern Native American tribes used the yucca root to wash their wool after shearing.

Wild moon flowers only open at night and are gone by noon the next day.

There is a profusion of yellow in the fields now.

The thistle has not bloomed yet, but when it does it's a feast for the finches.

The wild lamb's ear is much more like a donkey's ear and sends a stalk three feet high. They say that in the Middle Ages the stalk was dipped in beeswax and made into torches.

We are going to have a great harvest of sage this year. It will be bundled and sold at the end of the season.

The hummingbirds like any flower that is purple.

... and the Indian Paintbrush stands out for all to see.


Each flower and plant has a purpose.   Wild flowers and native plants need our help in preserving them for generations to come.

The Wildflower Center

Wildflower Preservation Committee