This past weekend, we were so blessed to be able to take a trip down to Cindy's Farm, and wow does she have a beautiful place!  We had an absolutely fantastic time!  I grew up on a mini farm, but my hubby is from the heart of the city, and we've settled on the suburbs for ourselves, but my heart sometimes aches for the wide open spaces.   During our visit, I was so thrilled to discover and have been able to identify 7 more wildflowers!

However, as the heat of Summer is here and Autumn is right around the corner (can you believe that?), the wildflowers are slowly tapering off, so I am looking at this as a good opportunity to switch Nature study focuses.  I think, because I have been inspired by Kim at From His Treasuries, we may be switching to studying and trying to identify insects during our Nature Study.  I'm not sure, I'm going to be praying and then see what is presented to us and what my kids get excited about!  So I will be removing my wildflowers slideshow off my blog, and then updating our wildflower notebook and of course we will still add to it as we discover any more.

We have studied and identified wildflowers since early Spring, and we have successfully identified 57 wildflowers!  We've really enjoyed getting to know them and being able to call them by name.  We will continue to have an eye-open to discovering new ones through the Fall, and well I know we will always be aware of them now!  But, alas it is time to say farewell sweet wildflowers, thank you for your generosity in presenting yourselves to us and for sharing your immense beauty, and most of all thank you for continually showing us our Creator's hand in your design.

Here are the photos of the new wildflowers we discovered.  And at the top my my blog, there is now a slideshow of our trip to Cindy's farm!

Tall Thistle

Yellow Ironweed

Common Mullein

Round-Fruited St. John's Wort

White Snakeroot

Velvetleaf (Pie-Maker)

Jimsonweed

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

Kidney-Leaf Buttercup (yellow); Spring Beauty (white), and Purple Dead Nettle (purple)

Early Spring 2008

Since the first wildflowers began poking themselves through the spring soil this year, we have been fascinated by them.  So we just couldn't help ourselves but to want to begin identifying them one by one.  On average we have been taking wildflower walks once or twice a week to see if any new ones have emerged.  We are seldom, if ever, disappointed!  Almost always we get to experience the excitement of finding a previously undiscovered treasure, just waiting for us to give it our amorous attention.

So, just how is it that we've been able to identify those wildflowers and begin calling them by name?  The wildflower identification process has been actually much easier than I, at first, thought it would be.  And of course, the process all begins with taking a wildflower nature walk!

The most important thing to do first before taking a wildflower walk is to make sure we have a way of recording what we find.  The best method that works for us is taking a camera.  If we want to do something different that day, we'll bring along pencils, coloring pencils and paper to sketch and mark details of the flower.  And on some occasions, we'll be able to bring one of the wildflowers back home for observation and maybe pressing.  The reason I prefer a camera is simply because you get a "real" picture, and it's less to bring along which encourages more frequent walks!  I also have to always explain "the wildflower walk main rule" to my children:  do not pick a wildflower unless Mom says it's ok!  You never know when it may be the ONLY one there is in the area!

Deptford Pink

Late Spring/Summer 2008

The first thing we do when a new discovery is made is observe and record.  I'll ask the children questions such as:

• What color is it?
• How many petals does it have?
• What do the petals look like (shape, form, notches)?
• Are the petals in clusters, or individual?
• What does the center of the flower look like?
• How close to the ground is it?
• What do the leaves look like?
• Where did we find it?
• Are there any other interesting characteristics?

We will record these observations, as I said above, either by photo, paper journal, or by taking a sample if the flower is plentiful.  Once we've returned from our walk, we will take our record and try to identify it by using our field guide of choice.  As I said before in my post, Nature Identification How-To's, I recommend finding a good guide specific to your state.  My preferred source for Kentucky is the internet field guide, Kentucky Wildflowers, but sometimes we will also use the book guide, Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky, by Barnes and Francis.  There is also a good internet site that is not state specific at My Wildflowers.  Most wildflower guides are broken down by season and/or color which makes wildflower identification a breeze (usually)!

Fire Pink

Summer 2008

There have been some that have been a little trickier to identify, either they are not found in the guides that I have, or as in the following example there may be some that look similar and if your detailed observation skills are not working, well, you may end up like us and identify them wrongly! 

White Avens

Summer 2008

Wild Blackberry

Spring 2008

Multiflora Rose

Spring 2008

Just recently we realized that the Wild Blackberry was not the White Avens.  And we only realized this when a real White Avens actually bloomed down by the creek in our backyard.  We had been calling the Wild Blackberry the wrong thing, for a few months!  And even before that in the spring we thought the Wild Blackberry (White Avens to us then) was the Multiflora Rose!  Clear as mud?!  Was to us too!  So you see, keen observation skills get built over the months and we have gotten much better at it!  But, thank goodness, most of the wildflowers are quite easy to identify.  But it's important to note that building great observation abilities is a very useful thing in life!

We have also, not to long ago, put together a notebook featuring the photos of all the wildflowers we have identified.  It is certainly nothing fancy, just a place other than our computer to keep a record.  I have one of my children write in the wildflower's name.

And Hannah choses to sometimes put a little drawing detail in too.  In the future we would also love to put some of our pressed wildflowers in here too.  We haven't pressed many this year (just the ones we found in abundance), but perhaps we'll add more to it through the years.

It's not too late in the year to begin identifying wildflowers, even in the "four-seasons" part of the world.    So far this year we've identified over 37 wildflowers!  And we expect that we'll be frequently finding new treasures all the way through late fall!  Happy wildflower discoveries!

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 Wild Blackberry.  Notice the whitish anthers, largely separated and rough oval-shaped petals?

Observe the next photo of Wild Blackberry 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.