What have I loved most about our wildflower walks over the last several weeks?  This...

Getting out together in the fresh air, going on a hunt for something new, admiring something old, finding unexpected things, hearing my children shrill with excitement, and most of all forming bonds and memories for a lifetime....this is what I have loved best about our wildflower walks.

And did I mention learning to work out our disagreements?  Today before embarking upon our walk and right before snapping the above photo, my children were in a tug-o-war over who gets to carry the prized bucket.  We worked it out, and you see who won the admirable position of Bucket Carrier.  Really, we had a plan, all take turns, it's elementary.

Would you join us on our walk?  Perhaps, we'll let you be the Bucket Carrier too :)

Our first discovery, along the edge of the woods, was the Virginia Creeper.  It vines along the ground or up trees as seen in this picture.  Evidently it has a beautiful bright red fall color, we'll be sure to come check that out then.

Next on our journey, we discovered another patch of the previously identified Yellow Wood Sorrel.  My Dad said that as a kid he used to sit in a patch of this and chew on the very sour stalks!

And right next to it, the kids immediately shouted out "Philadelphia Fleabane!"  I'm truly amazed every day at how much they are remembering.

Next, we have a little "wildflower lesson".  These next two I mixed up until recently.  This one is a Multiflora Rose.  Notice the heart-shaped petals and Yellow anthers and stamen?

Now, next on our walk, let's look at the White Avens.  Notice the whitish anthers, largely separated and rough oval-shaped petals?

Observe the next photo of White Avens and enlarge it...do you see our busy bee friend? 

Next on our journey was our most exciting new discovery for today, a Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly, taking a sip from the mud.

Up the hill a bit we go, and we take time to help spread the Dandelion seeds around...

Gabby's turn to carry the bucket!

This is one of our most recently identified wildflowers, Yellow Hawkweed.

Hannah snapped a photo of a very nicely camouflaged grasshopper.

Yippee!  A new wildflower to identify!

Does anyone else see the immese beauty in clover?  And it smells pretty good too!

There are so many varieties of clover, including this Hop Clover.

And this one, which we just found today (not sure what kind yet), and we all agree that it smells so sweet, like cherry Kool-Aid!  And isn't it the most beautiful combination of pink and white?

And what better to wrap up a wildflower walk, than to have your sweet son pick you a beautiful bouquet?  Which fit very nicely into the paper mache spring vase Hannah made from the instructions at Hearts and Trees.

This morning was such a simple and beautiful morning.  The air was still a bit crisp from the cool night, fog was hovering in the valleys, dew was still dripping from the grass, and the sun was just beginning to creep it's way through the trees in distance on the horizon bringing with it the promise of a stunningly beautiful day.

And little did we know, it would be more alive with nature than we've ever seen before!  First thing after breakfast, my coffee cup had barely rested on the table for a moment, when Alex, fully dressed (including gardening gloves), asked begged to me to go and observe his vegetable garden.  I managed to hold him off long enough for Mr. Sun to rise a little higher, and then we set off into the backyard to check on our little plants.

After checking on our plants, which were doing quite good (well most of them), we headed down further in our yard by the landing at the creek.  I can't quite explain it, but there was just something different out there this morning.  Two days of spring rains had made everything the most beautiful green I think I've ever seen.  And the birds seemed to be singing in perfect tune, a simply mesmerizing song.  It was quite an inspirational scene.

That's when Alex and I began looking around and noticing new things.  First we found that a newly identified wildflower was sprouting up all over.  We gathered some Philadelphia Fleabane which we brought in with us after our walk.

Then Alex, before I even knew what he was doing (I was too busy being mesmerized), turned over a rather large rock and began jumping up and down with excitement.  He had found a really large cricket, and a neat looking centipede which we later, after observation, identified as a Stone Centipede; quite commonly found under rocks in Kentucky.

Then something super neat caught our eyes.  There was a small colony of ants with their eggs that were in panic mode trying to move all their eggs.  I took a quick video on my camera.

No sooner than we had returned the rock to where it was, we noticed the cutest little Eastern Chipmunk sitting very close by on a dead tree trunk in a brush pile.  I was amazed that he let me get pretty close to take a photo before he ran off.  Click on the below image and hit full size to see the cutie closer. 

So next, two friends of mine, Cindy and Melissa, had both recently seen Baltimore Orioles.  And I was just saying how I do not ever see them around my house.  Well, you guessed it, a male and a female both landed just about directly over me in a tree for just a split second belting out their beautiful songs and then flying off.  I sure wished they would have hung around long enough for me to get a picture!  I just kept seeing flashes of orange flittering from tree to tree in the distance.  You can imagine my son was nearly waking up the rest of the neighborhood with his unbridled excitement through all of this!

And the ultimate icing on the cake of the morning, was when we headed back inside to upload our photos and videos, I was looking out our side window at the edge of the woods and saw what I thought was a medium to small-sized dog standing there.  Well, I was wrong, upon closer observation, look what it was!!!

A Red Fox!!  I only saw him at a distance, but oh how cute!  Without realizing that the window was opened I screamed for the kids to come see.  Well, evidently he's got pretty good hearing because he took off quite quickly before anyone else had a chance to see.  This was the first time I was the one responsible for scaring off nature and not my kids!  And this is the first time I've seen one of these, but I now know they live back here in the woods.

My husband was at that point, from all the noise, thinking somebody must be hurt! LOL  I simply said, "Nature is alive this morning!"

I've been taking so many nature photos lately I just have to stop and make one post full of some of my favorites!

Our first male Ruby-Throated Hummingbird of the season

 (click and hit full-size for a better view of this little fella)

The landing in our backyard by the creek donning is lovely spring green!

Wildflower: Blue Phlox

~ These are so amazing beautiful and have the most sweet smell.

Wildflower: Purple Dead Nettle

~ The absolute most abundant in our backyard.

Wildflower: Spring Beauty

~ Lining the bottom of the woods floor.  Named so appropriately, they are truly delicate and beautiful.

Wildflower:  Field Mustard

~ Quite frequently seen in great numbers painting whole fields yellow.

Wildflower: Garlic Mustard

~ Also quite common.  Take the leaves and rub them in your hands and smell and you'll find out why it's called garlic!

Wildflower: Common Blue Violet

~  Dotting the earth with little purple dainty beauties.

Close-up of Common Blue Violet

We have been busy pressing every new wildflower we find.  They are currently still in their books now!  When they are finished we will be adding them to our nature journals complete with labeling.

Pressing Violets and Garlic Mustard

American Robin's nest with one little "robin-egg" blue egg.

Magnificent old oak (on my parent's property)

Wildflower:  Dandelion

My favorite "flower"

Garden Flower:  Purple Phlox

~ Champion spreader!

Beautiful creek after a spring rainfall.

Wildflowers of Kentucky:

Kentucky Wildflowers

Wildflowers of Kentucky

At least the Cardinal is still afraid of me!

Eastern Fox Squirrel

I sure wish I would have had my camera more handy today, the squirrels have been quite entertaining to the kids and I.  Evidently the words out among the squirrel community that I not only have squirrel feed, but also prime bird seed and homemade suet.  I'm not joking, I must have 15 or more Gray Squirrels and Eastern Fox Squirrels.  While they love the corn and bird seed, they have made it plainly obvious they would absolutely do about anything to get a nibble of my suet!  I love watching them, but they are eating me out of house and home.

Anyways, because I have such a large community of them, they are an almost constant source of entertainment for us.  Today especially!  First we watched one trying to get ahold of my suet basket; picture one little paw on the edge of the green seed feeder and one wrapped tightly around the black shephard's pole, straddling in a "t formation" between the two attempting to swing his hind legs up to the basket.  All the while, looking at us through the window quizzically as if to say 'whatta ya' looking at?"

Ok, but the best was one actually jumped up on our schoolroom window ledge, stretched up and put it's paws up on the glass and stared in at us for several moments.  They are getting more and more daring; no longer are they running from us when we beat on the window pane to try and get them off the feeders. Imagine a mother and three children all yelling at the top of their lungs while beating upon the glass, and three little puny squirrels staring at us completely unthreatened.

In addition to the squirrel antics, we were blessed to get a great view of a Pileated Woodpecker flying through the woods and landing in the trees right in view of our school window.  This bird is so big, you just can't miss him!  And we don't get to seem them very often.  Too fast for me to get a photo.

Today, has just in general been a great nature watching day.  The birds have been especially vocal today.  Funny how, when the sun is shining all of nature seems more happy!  After days of terrential rains and cold temps, I sure know that I am.  I was looking for a poem to read this morning and found this perfectly fitting one.

The Rainy Morning

by James Whitcomb Riley

The dawn of the day was dreary,

And the lowering clouds o'erhead

Wept in a silent sorrow

Where the sweet sunshine lay dead;

And a wind came out of the eastward

Like an endless sigh of pain,

And the leaves fell down in the pathway

And writhed in the falling rain.

I had tried in a brave endeavor

To chord my harp with the sun,

But the strings would slacken ever,

And the task was a weary one;

And so, like a child impatient

And sick of a discontent,

I bowed in a shower of tear-drops

And mourned with the instrument.

And lo! as I bowed, the splendor

Of the sun bent over me,

With a touch as warm and tender

As a father's hand might be;

And, even as I felt its presence,

My clouded soul grew bright,

And the tears, like the rain of morning,

Melted in mists of light.

Rain, rain, and more rain is the theme of this week.  Add that to 14 inches of melted snow, you get a LOT of water!  But we'll have a beautiful spring because of it!

This video of my backyard was taken this morning before the rain got really heavy, the creek has such a pretty sound. Before you watch it, click on this THIS LINK and listen to the Red-Belied Woodpecker's song, and then turn your volume up and see if you can hear him my video.