Summer Sky: Learning as I go

When I'm not here, I'm over there...

If you visit here, you've probably notice that as much as I intend to post often, it doesn't quite happen that way.  But sometimes, that's because I'm posting over here.

And if you don't go over there, you have likely missed entirely the fact that we've been watching an eagle's nest just half a mile from our home. Which to my mind is still amazing. We need to get over there again...I imagine they will have a hatchling any day if they don't already.

 

And then I wrote about the Dawn Redwood . . . a tree that was brought here from China, but that is in fact an ancient (like dinosaur ancient) native of our country. A "living fossil" they call it.  Something I learned when I first moved to this town and have always found fascinating.

so if you were wondering, why so silent? that is why.

Happy Valentine's Day! oh, and it's Bird Week at TMG + Giveaway!

 
Over at The Magnifying Glass, it's Bird Week!  Our contributors will be talking all things bird in honor of The Great Backyard Bird Count coming up Friday, February 18. Plus, we have a giveaway at TMG--a lovely Charley Harper poster--details over there--go check it out.

 

 

Meantime, over here,

felted thrifted sweaters + embroidery floss = a little happiness

D has not said a peep to me about Valentine's Day.  I wonder what he has up his sleeve.

 

That was then.

Summer seems so far away now. I suppose it should, with autumn nearing its end. But there were a few things we did this summer that I never got to share, and I might as well start now.

Way back in June, my sister and her husband paid us a visit. They live in Texas, which is quite far away. We don't get to see them nearly as often as we'd like.

I often wonder about the happenstance that led my sister to Texas and me to Virginia. It was as simple as where we each chose to go to college. It can also be explained by the fact that we don't have a 'home state.'  Oh, but everyone is from somewhere, you say. And I guess, after living in Virginia for 26 years, I am from here. I don't feel like I'm from here, but I am. I wonder if my sister feels the same way about Texas, although she's lived there 25 years. 25. Years. (Words you never thought you'd say.)

Anyhoo, the point is, they came to visit us. And we did several things I've always wanted to do, but never had. That's what their visits, and my parents' visits, are for; we save up things just to do with them.

These photos are from our visit to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in June. Prime water lily time. There are acres of them--you never knew there were so many kinds. It's an other-worldly place; I just wish we had gone a little earlier in the morning, when the light wasn't quite so shiny-bright.

After lunch, we watched N and E frolic in the shade, just out of earshot. I can't recall what game they were playing. That's what I get for blogging about it 6 months later. 

You can see the mysterious jumble of water lilies just beyond the edge of the trees in the picture.

On our way home, we stopped by a small pond. There was this algae-covered log in the middle, and boy did we get a surprise when it started to move. Another family watching him high-tailed it out of there; I guess they thought that snapping turtles can launch themselves right out of the water and getcha.  He certainly threw a few threatening looks my way as I snapped his picture. Oh yes, I was brave.

This week I will be attending to blogging duties of various kinds that I've woefully neglected--finally revealing the lovely things chosen and sent by my summer (summer!) vintage swaps partner; and a nature gift for TMG.

Chasing the rainbow

The other morning, a rainbow came to visit us. 

The light from the front window was shining just so. 

We've lived here quite some time and it's never appeared before.

It started out small.

Then it changed its shape, and wandered past the craft table

until someone managed to catch it.

It stayed just long enough for everyone to play with it, and then it was gone.

If we had hurried out the door, we would have missed it.

If we had noticed, but moved on, we would never have seen it take so many different forms.

If we had not stopped to contemplate and enjoy it, it would have been forgotten.

Calvert Cliffs and treasure hunts.

I really am trying to get some sewing done for the Kids' Challenge. Let's just say it's been, an, um, challenge.

I treasure every minute my parents are able to spend with our family. They live thousands of miles away, but they manage to come and see us twice a year. When they visit, we always look forward to at least one 'new to all of us' outing.

Monday was a beautiful day--cool but sunny. It was a perfect day to take my parents and the kids to a place I've always wanted to see--Maryland's Calvert Cliffs.  The beaches below the Cliffs are known for their abundant, easy-to-spot fossils.  (Not to be a tease, but I've posted about the fossils over at The Magnifying Glass, if you were curious.)

 
  

For a 30 mile stretch along the Chesapeake Bay, there are various places where you can access the beaches under the Cliffs; Calvert Cliffs State Park, where we started, is probably one of the longest ways to get to down below the Cliffs to hunt for fossils. 

It took us about an hour each way (you can see us running for joy at the end of the trail above!). Truthfully, the kids hardly noticed the long walk, and I can only owe it to the scenery along this trail.

Near the parking lot at the head of the trail is a terrific (no other word for it) kids' playground made almost entirely of used tires. These photos don't do it justice and only show a tiny portion of the park.

 

We ate our picnic lunch, and then we set off in search of the beach.  The easy, wide trail (covered with boards in places--full of mud in others) winds through a fairly thick forest.

 

Some of the fir trees along the trail had very interesting, perfectly symmetrical holes (while others were left untouched); the work of a woodpecker--likely a sapsucker of one kind or another from what we've researched--because the holes are so even.

 

Next to the trail, the forest suddenly opened up into a large swamp or pond, filled with dead trees

 

and all sorts of interesting sights.

 

 

 

 

And then we found ourselves on the beach, at the foot of the Calvert Cliffs.

All those rocks you see in the sand? The cliff you see on the horizon? Chock. full. of. fossils.  They were pretty amazing. Still, somehow, they paled in comparison to the treasures we saw along the way.

Wetlands walk.

Take a moment to pay a visit to The Magnifying Glass--I posted today about a kestrel (a type of falcon) that we met on this outing.  Annie recently posted about a good book for spring, Eliza and the Dragonfly; and Eren has posted about starting a moss garden.

As I started polling my friends about a good outdoorsy haunt that we haven't seen yet, the one place that kept coming up again and again was Huntley Meadows, a wetlands and forest preserve surprisingly close to Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.

I'd heard that each time you visit Huntley Meadows, you are sure to see an interesting creature or three. 

Before we even entered the park, we spotted a small booth set up by the Raptors Conservancy of Virginia. I posted the photos and interesting story of the kestrel falcon that we saw over at The Magnifying Glass.

We then strolled through the lush green woods, towards what, we did not know. N started to beg to be carried, but all complaining was forgotten when we went onto the boardwalk laid out through the freshwater wetlands (formed by a meander of the Potomac River). 

There were a tremendous number of frogs, tadpoles, snails, dragonflies, and birds in the water and mud around the bullrushes.

A Green Frog. Yes, that's really the name of this species, and no, I don't know why he's called "Green" when his top side is mostly brown.

We rounded a bend, and there were two volunteers, showing the kids that what keeps the water from simply draining into the ground is lots and lots of clay.  They were extracting clay with a soil core sampler.  They even had some lumps fashioned into small clay pinch pots to show visitors how native tribes had used the clay.

Then we rounded another bend, and there were some more volunteers with large telescopes set up so visitors could view a turtle sunning himself on a stump, and a wood duck way out on the water.

The red wing blackbirds were everywhere among the bullrushes.  We last saw some on Currituck Sound, but these were much closer.

We rounded another bend, and there was a mother mallard with her baby ducks.  Mama stared fiercely at us as we quietly watched her paddling in the shallow water with her little ones.

E took some photos of her own with our family's point-and-shoot; I will showcase them some other day.

 

We're going back to Huntley Meadows, because we saw only a small number of the many, many animals that other people saw that day!  I wonder what kind of critters these two are?

This wonderful website is incredibly useful for identifying native animals and plants at Huntley Meadows.

 

Hope you're getting out into the wild this week ~ it's closer than you think!

At the arboretum.

N and I made our annual trek to the National Arboretum to play amongst the azaleas.  This year we brought along a little friend and her mama.

I was surprised to find that the azaleas were rather past their peak.  That's never happened to us before. I always make an educated guess based on how the azaleas are blooming in the neighborhood--they are usually a bit ahead--but this year that was misleading.

Still, there were some bushes in full bloom. 

 

After our long walk through the forest trails amongst the azaleas, we headed over to the old Capitol columns for a picnic.  These corinthian columns were originally on a portico of the Capitol Building in downtown Washington, D.C., but they were moved (if I understand correctly) because they weren't visually large enough for the dome that was completed in the 1860's some 35 years later.

 

Behind the columns is a small cascading stream of water that pours into the pool. N and his pal had the best time running up and down the stairs, dipping their hands in the stream up to their elbows and getting rather wet.  Then they ran and hid in the tall grass on the hillside--we had some trouble finding them.

Can you believe that most people I know around here have never been to the Arboretum? They are missing out!

Do you have a favorite annual spring time excursion? Please share!

Going all outdoorsy on you (at The Magnifying Glass)

I am very excited to tell you that I've been invited by two of my favorite bloggers ever, Stefani (who blogs at Blue Yonder Ranch), and Eren (who blogs at This Vintage Chica), to be part of a group of contributors to their collaborative blog, The Magnifying Glass.

This is my N, a few days ago, running through a bit of woods not far from our house.

Stefani and Eren each have three boys and are always up for exploring nature, big and small. Together they started a nature journal devoted to kids' encounters with the outdoors.

They've decided to reinvigorate the blog by adding a group of regular contributors, guest contributors, and interviewees.  Expect to see posts about nature in our backyards and nearby natural habitats, along with nature-inspired crafts and book reviews.

The group of regular contributors (of which I'm one) includes a bunch of interesting women with lots to tell at their own wonderful blogs: 

Annie, of Bird and Little Bird;

Lucia, of Dim Sum, Bagels, & Crawfish;

Dawn, of To the Outskirts;

and Lisa, of 5 Orange Potatoes.

I'm honored to be joining these talented women as we share our love of nature with the kiddos.

In our family, we are big believers in learning through play, and what better way to learn about nature than to get out in it? You will often find us looking for adventure, even in our own back yard. 

Already I have some ideas percolating that might show up in posts on The Magnifying Glass, so I hope you'll stop by there to see what we (and everyone else) is up to!

These photos of N were taken when we were getting some out-of-doors time as part of Lisa's Great Outdoor Challenge at 5 Orange Potatoes.  The official challenge is drawing to a close today, but Lisa may continue it as a weekly feature.

P.S. A special note to locals (you know who you are):  if you live within a two or three hours' drive of Washington, D.C., and you have a favorite nature park or other place you love to visit, or if you are curious about a natural phenomenon from your yard or our area and want to learn more, feel free to speak up, ask, suggest. I'm always ready to explore new places and learn new things and would love to share them with a broader audience.

Contemplating Earth Day

For Earth Day, I thought I'd share our visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  It's a magical place for kids, my favorite aquarium by far.  You are reminded at every turn that the Earth is a miraculous place.

 

Anchovies.

 

When you're confronted by an amazing diversity of life, it does get you thinking.  We still haven't figured out how to make one of these:

let alone one of these:

Leafy sea dragons.

Compared to the powers of the ocean, we are pretty puny and small.

How to get hit by a wave without getting wet.

 

We can't create life. We can only sustain some life some of the time. So it's rather remarkable...and ignorant? arrogant? to think that we can do whatever we want and that it has no impact on others.

1. African black-footed penguins; 2. Black-tip reef shark (?) and bluefin tuna; 3. Kelp forest; 4. Anemones

 

 

From where I sit, the sooner, and the younger, that we figure that out, the better off we will all be.

 

 

Pacific sea horse.

 

We found a wealth of information at the Aquarium on which seafood to eat and buy if you're trying to eat sustainably and you don't know much about how seafood is caught, farmed, and marketed.  And here's the page we plan to bookmark and refer to often when we're wondering about the state of the oceans.

Happy Earth Day!

On our walk to the aquarium

While staying with our dear friends in California, we had to pay a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's a pretty incredible place, and I'll share our visit another day. But who knew that our walk to the aquarium would also include an encounter with sea life, and quite a bit of drama? It wasn't until we came home and did some research that we realized how special this experience was for us, as visitors to the area.

It's such a scenic stretch of seaside, from Pacific Grove to Monterey. The clouds were sputtering a bit when we started out on our walk.

The water is this unbelievable blue-green color, and flowers cling to the short cliffs.

Two of these little guys enjoy this view all the time, but they never tire of it.

Along the way, we kept our eyes wide open for sea otters (although the water was a bit too rough for them here), sea gulls, cormorants, and seals.  At times, the larger rocks on the shore give way to bits of  sandy beach.  As you stare at the boulders on the sand, you start to realize that the boulders are alive: these are seals "hauling out" and taking a breather.

At one point, we looked down into the water, and saw this pair of seals

and as we watched, they emerged from the water onto a tiny wedge of sand.

Their position seemed a bit precarious

but they just crept a bit further up the beach.

The water would catch up to them again, and mama would reassure her little one over and over.

The water seemed to rise higher and higher. Mama was tired and it didn't seem to bother her.

But she would still turn after every wave to check on baby.

 

And then--it happened: a huge wave swept baby completely off the beach and out into the water. I stopped taking pictures, watching to see what would happen. We knew, of course, that the baby seal could swim; that everything would probably be okay; but still...

and then mama seal, in a flash, heaved herself into the water and swam up to her baby's side.  They headed out into the water and we lost sight of them.  The kids, right next to us, saw the whole turn of events, and were spellbound.

 
After we came home, we did a bit of reading and discovered some interesting facts. The mama and baby in these photos were harbor seals, commonly seen on the coast of California.  (We  found some of this information here; this page had some great tips for observing harbor seal pups.)

Harbor seals don't migrate, so the seals you see are the ones that live in that locale year-round.  In Monterey, female harbor seals typically give birth (on land) to one baby seal in the months of April or May.  Their babies are born with the ability to swim.  Mama seals are very attentive, nursing their pup every few hours for four to six weeks.  After that, she weans the pup, and their bond is broken.

I'll admit, it was a bit disconcerting to learn that we had seen a mama and her baby during a rather narrow window of time, when the baby was no more than two or three weeks old, at most. It was amazing to think that within another three weeks or less, the baby would be off, exploring all on its own.