Due to getting behind on practically everything this week, I've tried to combine challenges #13 and #14.  We've certainly been out in nature when there was an opportunity, but downpours of rain and cooler temperatures have kept us inside too much.  We had already accomplished flower pressing in recent weeks, so isn't wasn't hard to combine the challenges.

This morning, before even more rain came, we headed down to the wood's edge with old clothes and muddy shoes on determined to spend some "quiet" time in nature (well at least "I" wanted it to be quiet lol).  And have nature time we did!

This was the view from where we were looking up at the back of our house.

We went to the kid's "secret place" that they play in the woods at the edge of our backyard.  We had moved an old plastic seat down there to have a nice comfy place to sit and draw and look at our field guides and also to enjoy the fantastic views. 

There was honeysuckle bushes all around us, so the air smelled sweet and thick with it.  So we decided to use one of the honeysuckle blooms to observe and try to find the plant parts.

We quickly found out that with this delicate flower, it as going to be detail work, but surprisingly we were able to identify most of the parts using this great flower parts guide that Barb had pointed us to.

The little, flattish yellow things are the anthers on top of the skinny filaments; the roundish green/yellow balls are the stigmas (we think); and we even think we saw where the nectary is (where the sweet nectar is produced).

We also observed a Philadelphia Fleabane wildflower, they are in great abundance around us now too.  After reading a little about them, we talked about how the flower buds stay bowed down until they bloom and then stand up tall!  Neat!  If you look closely at this picture, hopefully you can see the ones that are not bloomed yet, bowing down.

SInce these are in such abundance right now, Hannah's chose to do a nature journal entry on this beautiful wildflower.

Alex spent part of his nature time working on his pretend farm and turning over rocks in the creek which made Mom flinch each time (yes, I had warned him about the possibility of finding snakes)!

He chose to draw some of the trees we observed while out there.  Which lead to a great conversation.  We discussed about the veins in a very large maple leaf we found and how they carry water to the whole leaf.  Then he asked how old the big maple tree was, to which I replied I'm not sure, but it is definitely older than me.  He snickered at that!  And then that lead to him asking me if the Earth was 2,008 years old to which lead to a whole discussion about the timeline and when Christ came, when man was created, etc.  See...nature study leads to all sorts of discussions, including History!  I can't tell you how many times this has happened.

We also saw lots of Eastern Tent Caterpillars.  They are all over the place right now, one even tried to hitchhike back in the house on my shirt!  The kids have recently collected a few, one of which has already gone into it's cocoon.  They turn into Eastern Tent Moths.  You can click on the image and hit enlarge to get a better view.

Hannah spent some free time collecting materials to make a "fairy house".  I will post some detailed pictures in another post.  She did a great job and had so much fun using her imagination!

Alex and Gabby spent some sweet time together exploring.

Challenge #14 is about pressing flowers and over the last couple of weeks, we have been collecting wildflowers from the edge of our backyard and woods and pressing them.  They are still currently in my recipe books being pressed, but they will soon be added to our nature journals.  I absolutely love the homemade press that Barb made, so we will be certainly making one of those for our future pressings.

We were able to be outside for 2 hours today!  It was great therapy!  Just as we started to pack up our stuff to come back inside, the rain started to come down and it's not stopped since!

To join in on the Green Hour Challenges, visit Barb at Handbook of Nature Study.