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"The average dairy farmer gets up at dawn because he has to go to work in the cow yard. I get up at dawn, too. But it is because I want to find some leaf, hung with dew; or a spider web which the dew has made into the most delicate ropes of pearls...I take may camera with me, get down on my knees in the wet grass, and photograph these exquisite bits of nature. Because I do this I can show these lovely things to people who never would have seen them without my help. They will get their daily quart of milk, all right. Other farmers will attend to that. But I think I am giving them something which is just as imporant." --W.A. Bentey
Today we continued on with our study of snow by revisiting a wonderful book, Snowflake Bentley, which is about a man with whom I can well relate, Wilson A. Bently, a.k.a. The Snowflake Man.
If you've been reading my writings about nature for long, you gotta know that this man speaks to my heart. He had a passion for the beauty in nature, and specifically he found snowflakes to be extremely fascinating.
After reading the book, we spent some time admiring some of Bentley's photographs on the internet (you can click on each one of those photographs individually to see it up close). We also looked at the photograph that I had taken on our Christmas tree hunt. Mr. Bentley would have been very pleased with the flakes that were falling that day!
We also looked at the photographs from another post I did, Snow and Ice Crystals.
We haven't had very much snow so far this year, but each time that we've had a chance, the magnifying lens and dark felt has come out so we could try to catch a closer view.
We also talked at bit more on how a snowflake is formed, which I had discussed back in my post, Whiter Than Snow.
AND, the blue ribbon for lots of fun today goes to when gave the kids the challenge to make snowflakes out of Magnetix and Legos.
We also watched an excellent quick video from a news report on Wilson Bently which I first found the link to from Candace at His Mercy is New, but then found it again on YouTube. Please visit Candace's post too, she's got some more great resources.
Here are some other applicable websites and books I found at our library:
Snowflake Bentley
Vermont Snowflakes - a shop for Snowflake Bentley items
Snowflakes in Photographs, Wilson A. Bentley
Snow Crystals, Wilson A. Bentley
The Snowflake, by Kenneth G. Libbrecht
My Brother Loved Snowflakes, by Mary Bahr
I have some great Poetry, Art, and Music things planned for our snow study that we will be doing tomorrow and Wednesday. Also today, we got reacquainted with our feeder birds by making a acorn squash suet bird feeder and spending some time just observing our feathered friends. I will post about that soon too!
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Jan. 5, 2009 - Snow study
Yes, I need to drag my self out with the boys when they eagerly race out to play in it--hmm, that statement just shows that I need that attitude change, too.