Forgotten Lunches and Nature Gathering

The middle Bowerbird forgot his lunch last week, unfortunately it coincided with a drizzly day that I was without a car.  This is despite me reminding him to take his lunch,  and him putting a banana in the lunch box. He's very day dreamy. After a grumpy mummy moment, the little Bowerbird and I rugged up for a stroll to school.  To keep her enthused about the walk I gave her a bag to fill with treasures on the way.

She gathered all sorts of wonderful pieces from the bush and we talked about what she had found.  We stopped for a while and silently watched a wattle bird pluck blackberries for its morning tea.

The middle Bowerbird was delighted to see us arrive with his lunch box, he had just been looking for his sister, hoping to scrounge a morsel from her. She's never forgotten her lunch and is very organised. He quickly stole off with his lunch box  with a big thankyou but no farewell, he was very stomach focussed at this stage.

Off we wandered home. The little one pulled out her treasures and played with them on the floor. Turning the pieces into  individual sculptures.

  

The orange rocks she described as a "sunset rocks". I told her about the arils on wattle seeds and how ants like to steal them for a tasty treat, carrying the wattle seeds into their homes and accidentally planting them for the trees.

 A ghost leaf

 We got out the light box to see how things looked in silhouette.

 The little Bowerbird told me the stories of her creations, each one had a name and tale to go with it.

I was grateful for the middle bowerbird's forgetful nature by the end of the day, the journey became a welcome diversion from our routine, and I couldn't really be cross, as this character trait comes entirely from me. 

The little one was stealing my flowers for some outside creations today, "this one is a silla mum, can I have some more white flowers?". 

Joining Maxabella's 

http://maxabellaloves.blogspot.com.au/

Cubs, Wildflowers, and The List

I volunteered to do a sunset wildflower walk with around 50 cubs on Monday - my daughter joined our local group about a year ago.  First I went and checked out the site, it's a great year for wildflowers, and they were in abundance.  Then I started wondering how I was going to point things out, and engage 50 kids and their accompanying volunteers. The bush is a big space and kids like to roam and wander - a worthwhile activity in itself but not exactly the evenings objective.

Then I had the small genius of giving them a little list, and telling them to be bush detectives. There were no accompanying pictures.

The list

Bracken

Trigger Plant

Moss

Mushrooms

Yam Daisy

Sundews

Milk Maids

Purple Flax Lily

Happy Wanderer

Blue Bells

Gum nuts

Spider web

Chocolate Lily

Wattle Mat Rush

Wallaby Grass

Cherry Ballart

Those little bits of paper worked! The kids really got into marking everything off and wanted to know what everything was. So they were asking questions of me rather than me trying to convey information to a moving crowd. They had no pencils but were folding or punching a hole by the name with a stick. I had no idea how determined they would become - Wallaby Grass of all things proved evasive until we found some right outside the scout Hall. They really tested my plant identification skills! On the list were a few easy things to make the task achievable, a few things kids might know, and then some things most children wouldn't recognise.  By the end the kids were pointing at things and telling me the names, and the adults seemed to really enjoy the flower hunt too.  It really stopped the group from surging forward in a hurry. The only thing I would change, would be to add a few more things to the list, as some kids were a bit disappointed when they found something new and it wasn't there to tick off.  By the end of the day I felt like I'd achieved the Scout motto -

For more great ideas of things to do with kids visit

Bloom Day Oct 15 Spring

So many spring flowers in the garden -  they are a joy to behold. I'm picking Calendula flowers to dry this year, and will have to get the kids pressing some flowers as well, it would be nice to look back on such abundance. We have a yellow bearded iris about to open that we have never seen in our garden, a wonderful surprise after seven years. Wafts of Wisteria, Jasmine, Lilac and Apple blossom fill the air

All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today. - Indian Proverb

The flowering maples(?) are attracting an abundance of life.  The blue bottom fly has returned along with lots of little ladybirds, they have their work cut out for them, aphids are everwhere.

There are always flowers for those who want to see them. ~ Henri Matisse

There are so many flowers in the garden the kids are even using them for games.  This is flowers as food in the cubby house.

Another nature treasure hunt was requested.

For more lovely gardens around the world check out Garden Bloggers Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens.

Nature Treasure Hunt

Kids looking a little stir crazy.  How about a treasure hunt? What do you mean, what sort of hunt? A nature treasure hunt. Give me 5 minutes, then come outside. 3 egg cartons for three kids - after a quick wander around the garden they were filled with treasures to find - about 20 bits and pieces.  Instruction - when you have two of everything you're finished. Middle one worked in a team with his friend. Little one stuck with me.

 This 2 year old knows her garden really well, she was great at finding things.

 Friends exploring the garden together

 A rest stop

 Eating the treasure - tasty sweet broccoli heads.

At the end of the hunt we checked the treasures matched their original, they took it very seriously and when a mistake was made they studiously looked for the true treasure.  They took a hint when really stuck but didn't want anything pointed out to them. They were keen on knowing the names of things and many objects launched a little story. Have you ever found a four leaf clover? Did you know you can eat calendula? A violet leaf is shaped like a heart, Black currant leaves smell like black currants, Why are forget me nots called forget me nots?......I gave them a chocolate freckle prize and later heard my middle one exclaim to his friend - huh a prize for doing something that's fun! Highly unnecessary chocolate.

They so loved the hunt they were ready for more.   The big one found the treasures this time. She also helped the little one with the finding. Little one filled that wheel barrow with grass when helping daddy with the lawn clean up.

 I've seen a few versions of nature treasure hunts.  You can play it like a memory game, you can paint your egg carton cells different colours and find nature objects to match the colours, you can hold up items to find one by one on a nature walk, you can laminate pictures of things to find.....  The beauty of this technique was the independence it allowed the participants and the simplicity of setting it up. Such wholesome cuteness was a delight to watch, I was sorry to return to the much needed task of cleaning.

A totally unrelated yet profound quote I heard from Steve Jobs today, on the day of his death.

"Almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart".