Our first day back to school went very well!  The first half was, I admit, rather rocky, but once we worked through our "boundaries" all seemed to straighten out.  We started off our day with listening to a Jonathan Park Adventure for Bible and then we headed outside for our nature walk and to catch up on the Outdoor Hour Challenge - Seasonal Tree Study (I will post on that later).  It was so nice to get back to the challenges!

Backing up a bit, last night we had an absolutely furious and very scary storm come through.  There were many funnel clouds reported around our area and lots of wind damage.  We, thankfully, fared well through it.  Here is a photo of the approaching storm facing from our front porch.

The good news is though that we got some MUCH needed rainfall.  So the plants all over were very thankful for this.  So this morning, while we were on our nature walk we were so excited to see that two new wildflowers had popped up, I suppose due to the wonderful rain!

Alex discovered them both, my little hawk-eyed nature boy!  He found them both down by the creek.   First he yelled, "A new orange flower!"  I immediately yelled out the warning command, "DO NOT pick it!"  We've had much trouble with this in the past you know.  I came over to find one solitary beautiful orange flower.  Take a look at this beauty (click to full size if you'd like)...

It is called a Spotted Touch-Me-Not (or Spotted Jewelweed).  Now, funny story, I didn't know it was called this until after I took photos and had handled it a bit to adjust it for a better picture.  So when I first saw the name I thought, "Oh Lord, why is it called touch-me-not, am I going to break out in a horrid rash or something!?"  So I immediately searched the internet for information, and was relieved to find out that I was going to be just fine!  And I also found out just how cool this wildflower is!

They are called touch-me-not because of their little seed pods (in the first photo above, notice it just to the right and below the flower right by the leaf, it looks like a little leaf itself).  If you even barely touch this with your finger (I obviously did not), it will explode like a balloon and spread seeds in multiple directions.  The technical term for this ability is called dehiscent.  Also the stem contains juices which are known to be an antidote for poison ivy in some people.  And this could be really handy because while we were observing this beautiful flower, Gabby was over giving a tree a hug that is covered in it!  Ughh!  This poor wildflower may become a "sacrifice" soon!  Also another cool thing, if you enlarged the first photo you may have noticed the little water droplets standing on the leaves...the leaves are covered in a waxy substance that makes them waterproof.

Before we were finished observing this one my nature-boy calls out again, "Mom, more new wildflowers!"  This time he had found the Heal-All (or Self Heal) wildflower; also known for their healing abilities on wounds.  There were about 7 of these all popping up just right down a ways from where we found the Spotted Touch-Me-Not.  You can also click on this photo to enlarge it.  Notice the delicate purple/white blooms?  They look like little miniature snapdragons.  And there's the most beautiful violet color just inside the middle. 

This was truly a special gift today to find both of these beautiful new additions to our wildflower discoveries!  I distress though that it was hard to come back inside to finish the rest of our table studies!

And one more thing...the rainbow promise after the furious storm last night was a pretty special blessing too.  Thank you Father for remembering your covenant.

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.  Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."  - Genesis 9:12-16