Garden Color and Fragrance - Early June Delights

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My garden is full of promise...the promise of beautiful things to look at and delicious things to eat.

The daisies are filling in a big spot in the back cutting garden and we are anxious to study them as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge later in the summer. There are coneflowers, sunflowers, and zinnias as well that have buds so stay tuned for some updates on those in a few weeks.


Some things are already smelling like heaven...the star jasmine is in full bloom and already needed a trimming back from the sidewalk. The cats lay under these plants since they make wonderful shade in the afternoon sun. Wouldn't that be delightful?


Last week when I was working with the window open I could smell this rose on the gentle afternoon breeze. It is a Disneyland Rose and it has been a faithful bloomer these past few years. It is loaded with pink/peach flowers. This rose is what I imagine the perfect rose fragrance would be...a signature scent.


The hydrangeas are bursting open this week and the delicate color of the flowers on this particular bush is one of my favorites.


A few years ago, I used my watercolor pencils to capture the pastel colors of this lovely flower and then used a fine tip marker to outline it a bit. Keeping track of my favorite garden flowers in my journal is a wonderful way to pass an afternoon.


This is something new in the backyard this year and it is really taking off. We added this Jerusalem Sage to a spot that gets super hot and dry in the afternoons up against the house. So far it is thriving...I did put it on the drip system until it is established and then I think I can back off with the water. The texture of the leaves is soft and fuzzy which adds a nice layer of interest to this side of the garden. 


The front yard has been joined by the blooming purple butterfly bush! The hummingbirds have been seen enjoying this particular bush...actually fighting over it in the early evening hours. My cat friend Cocoa is like my garden shadow these days. She seems to pop up wherever I go. You can see my sage growing in two spots in the background of this photo. It is just starting to bloom.


Another favorite of the hummingbirds is the Red Hot Poker plant. This is Mr. A's favorite plant in the garden and he has been eagerly waiting for it to bloom. It looks good this year and I may end up dividing up the plant in the late fall to fill in a few spaces in the front garden.


We have started to see quite a bit of growth in our backyard fruit. The apples are looking like apples! Not too many apples on the limbs but enough for each of us to enjoy a crisp apple come the end of the summer.

Someone asked in a comment a few weeks ago whether we had any lawn left in our yard. The answer is yes and you can see it in this photo. We have a small plot of grass left in the backyard, mostly for the dog to enjoy. We use it as her ball throwing spot and she loves to lay in the shady grass on the hot afternoons. Since it gets so hot here and there is very little rain during the summer months, we do have to water this part of the yard. I have it set on a timer and it waters five minutes a day and so far that is enough to keep it green. (I need to write a post showing how we have cut our water usage to a fraction of what it was two years ago and still enjoy a lush green garden.)


Of course the figs are loaded as usual....this is not my favorite fruit but we eat a bit and then leave the rest for the birds and other critters. We have tried several times to eliminate this tree but every time we cut it down it comes back full and loaded with fruit within a year.


I do LOVE blackberries and we have our little patch just loaded with blossoms right now. This is exciting and it really seems like summer now that the berries are maturing. My blueberries are still all plant and no signs of blossoms or berries. I hope to get a bit of fruit from them this year. We shall see.

We have rain today so the garden is getting well watered but tomorrow we are going to see the end of the rain and be back to our warm temperatures. I am grateful for the rain but I am ready for the summer heat.



Just a few reminders to participants of the Outdoor Hour Challenge:
The first of the summer challenges will post on  June 8, 2012..that is this Friday!

Don't forget to send in your June blog entries to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival by Friday, June 29, 2012.

The June (Ocean Beach) edition of the Outdoor Hour Challenge Newsletter has published. You must be subscribed to the blog in order to receive the download link. It is a beautiful and informative edition that I know you are going to want to have in your collection. You can subscribe on the sidebar of my blog. 






Jami's Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!

OHC More Nature Study Book #4 - Cottonwood Tree

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More Nature Study Book #4 
Summer Sizzle
Cottonwood Tree

Inside Preparation Work:

• Read pages 655-658 in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 180). Make note of #6-8 of the suggested activities in Lesson 180 and try to complete these during your outdoor time.
• View information and range maps to determine which cottonwood tree you may have in your area. Start here with this information on the Eastern Cottonwood. You can also view the Fremont Cottonwood and as an alternative the Quaking Aspen which is in the same order, family, and genus. See the Additional Links section for a few videos.
• Print fact sheets if you desire: Eastern Cottonwood Fremont Cottonwood, and the Quaking Aspen.
• You may wish to use the Summer Tree Challenge from a previous year which includes a printable Seasonal Tree Study Notebook Page.

Outdoor Hour Time:

• Spend your outdoor time for this challenge looking at trees and discussing the differences between winter and summer trees. Cottonwood trees can be found in sunny locations, near streams and bottom lands. In the summer their leaves rustle in the breeze. Make careful observations of the leaves. If you don’t have a cottonwood or aspen tree to observe in person, make summertime observations of any tree you have in your yard or neighborhood.
• Advanced study: Make field sketches of your cottonwood tree: shape of the tree (canopy), the bark, the leaves.

Follow-Up Activity:

• Follow up your outdoor time with a nature journal (perhaps completed outdoors under a tree). This might be a good time to share a few points about the cottonwood tree including why it is called a cottonwood. Ebook Users: There are coloring pages for the Eastern Cottonwood and the Quaking Aspen if you desire. You can use the Summer Tree Notebook Page for your journal entry if you wish.
• Summer time is a great time to bring your watercolors outdoors and for this challenge you could try making paintings of your summer tree or some summer leaves. You can also press leaves for your nature journal.
• Advanced Study: Complete a nature journal for your cottonwood tree. Find four summer tree leaves and make careful observations and sketches in your nature journal. Make sure to label your shape, leaf margins, and venation.

Additional Links:
Poplar tree in all four seasons—fun look at a group of poplars
YouTube: Eastern Cottonwood (excellent video). Quaking Aspen.

Updated 6/19/12: Here is our Cottonwood Tree entry.





All the summer challenges for 2012 are included in the new More Nature Study Book #4 Summer Sizzle ebook. The challenges in the ebook are the same challenges that will post every Friday here on my blog. If you want to follow along with notebook pages and coloring pages, click over and learn more about the ebook.






 

Great American Backyard Campout - Nature Study Style

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It's a whole different world...your backyard at night.

I encourage you to open up a new level of nature study, done at night under the stars in combination with the Great American Backyard Campout!



Watch an introductory video!
June 23, 2012 - The National Wildlife Federation is sponsoring the Great American Backyard Campout and you are invited. From their website,"Spend the night under the stars with National Wildlife Federation and take your family’s first step into a lifetime filled with healthy, outdoor fun."



If you have been reluctant to try camping, this is an easy way to test it out with your family closer to home. You may just end up liking it! Who knows where you will take your tent next?

My boys put their tent on the back deck during the summer.

I know that sleeping outdoors can seem scary and unfamiliar but overcoming the fear of being outside at night is worth the effort. You will realize there are some amazing things going on between sunset and sunrise right in your own backyard!

Combine nature study with an overnight backyard campout and you will build family memories that last a lifetime.
Prepare with some nature study ideas from the Outdoor Hour Challenge!

• #2 Using Your Words (Getting Started ebook)
• #23 Moths  and Summer 2010
• #24 Crickets and Summer 2010
• #49 Bats and Summer 2010
• Fireflies (Summer 2010 ebook)
• Stars and Moon (winter study you can adapt - Winter 2010 ebook)
• Sounds (Summer 2010 ebook)
• Night Blooming Flowers (Summer 2010 ebook)

Pick a challenge, read the pages in the Handbook of Nature Study, and then look for an opportunity to apply what you learned. Keep it fun and always, always, always follow your child's lead if they find something they are interested in. You can follow up with a library book or a Google search in the morning.

Bring a few art supplies outdoors and your nature journal so you are prepared if you find something of interest. If you have a nature related storybook or a favorite outdoor adventure book, bring it out for some after dark reading with a flashlight.

More than anything else, be aware of your surroundings and use all your senses, when you can't rely on your vision...listen, feel, and smell the nighttime in your backyard. Try to spend a few minutes just sitting quietly in the dark if your children are able and see what you notice. Even a few seconds of quiet is good for younger children.

If you are new to nature study, you may wish to download and print out my free nature study guide:Nature Study-Three Steps to a Better Nature Experience.
How about a free printable notebook page? My Backyard at Night.
As part of this great event, I am teaming up with five other bloggers to promote getting outside and having fun with your children. All of us have put together some exciting, informative, and easy ideas to get you started planning your own Great American Backyard Campout for this coming weekend.

The tips in these posts will apply to any camping you do with your children so make sure to bookmark, Pin, and promote these links! We even started a Camping With Kids Pinterest board for you to follow and glean even more ideas as the summer goes by. I know for my regular readers the list below includes a few new faces and I encourage you to click over and visit these awesome bloggers who take getting outdoors with their children seriously. Leave them a comment and let them know you popped over from the Handbook of Nature Study.

1. Adventure Tykes – Melissa
2. Go Explore Nature - Debi
3. Hodgepodge – Tricia
4. Spell Outloud – Maureen
5. Tales of a Mountain Mama – Amelia

Summer Tree Study - Following Up on Cottonwoods

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This week we were determined to complete our Cottonwood Tree Study as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge. It is hard to get motivated when it is really hot outside but we persevered....most of our study was indoors anyway so we had no real excuse. Once we started it was very enjoyable, gleaning much from our reading in the Handbook of Nature Study and then direct observation.

Our neighbor had a cottonwood tree in their front yard until a few years ago when they cut it down to make room for some other landscaping. I remember there were certain times of years I did enjoy having that tree next door. It was MESSY. The "cotton" would cover our deck and yard as it blew over in our direction.

So without a specimen nearby, we had to travel across town to view another cottonwood tree that I noticed along the edge of a big field. It really is a very pretty tree with a nice shape and growing sort of tall. The trunk is easy to recognize once you know what to look for.

My treasures from my walk at Anna Comstock's cottage.

We had the chance to observe a cottonwood tree when we visited Anna Comstock's cabin in New York last May. I gathered a bit of cotton to include in my nature journal. I wrapped it up in a paper towel and folded into the front of my journal for safe keeping. We took the opportunity with this challenge to examine the cotton closely.


We examined the seeds with our magnifying lens and it was truly amazing to see the structure of this catkin with its seeds.

"The little pointed pods open into two or more valves and set free the seeds, which are provided with a fluff of pappus to sail them off on the breeze; so many of the seeds develop that every object in the neighborhood is covered with their fuzz..." Handbook of Nature Study, page 656

Pappus was a new word to us so we looked it up. A pappus is the flower-like structure on the top of the akene. (Remember your dandelion study?) You can see a variety of kinds of pappus on this website: Who's Your Pappus? I also found information at the bottom of this page on Backyard Nature. I need to add the word to my journal entry so I don't forget it.

My new nature journal has a larger page size and I am finding it more difficult to work in.

So here is my journal after I finished with it. I found an envelope (glassine envelopes for scrapbooks) for the cottonwood seed fluff sample and the pressed flower that I had collected from the woods. I watercolored around the edges to give it some color and used my metallic gel pens to make a title. I printed a photo of the cottonwood cotton since it is a part of the memory of that early morning walk that I will treasure for a long time to come.

We are going to go back to our local cottonwood tree and take photos for the Summer Photo Challenge and as a guide for our watercolor project for the week.  Mr. B is working on his notebook page from the More Nature Study Book 4 challenge using his field guide for the cottonwood tree. We think ours is a Black Cottonwood so he is doing the research on that species for his challenge.

Another great tree challenge to add to our nature journals...hope to see some of your trees in the upcoming Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. Remember that every entry into the June Newsletter carnival is an entry to win the Your Backyard Monarch Butterfly DVD and Study Guide. Last day to submit your entries is June 29, 2012.

Don't forget the Great American Backyard Campout!


And my Camping With Kids link-up from yesterday.

First Day of Summer 2012 - Get Outdoors Ideas

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Join us for a First Day of Summer activity!

New Idea for 2012: First Day of Summer Photo Walk - take a camera outdoors and find some special First Day of Summer subjects, take a photo, print a few out, safely tuck them into your nature journal. You can combine this with the Summer Photo Challenge if you want and post your photo on the Pinterest board.

First Day of Summer notebook page - done after a nature walk, preferably under a shade tree with some fresh lemonade in hand.

Summer Nature Walk - Using Your Senses - take this one along with you on a nature walk, try to get outside early! Thanks Hearts and Trees!

Additional Links:
National Geographic: Find out why summer starts today and why it's the longest day of the year-but not necessarily the hottest.

Don't forget! 

If you missed my post, here is my promotion of the Great American Backyard Campout!
It is a linkup with five other bloggers to encourage participation in the Great American Backyard Campout on 6/23/12!

Early Sunday Described

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Today is a lazy Sunday morning.  Let me describe it for you.   
I got a full night's sleep and am still the only one awake.  Bradley is sleeping somewhat upright on the couch, because he's still sick and sleeping upright helps him breathe.  Bryan is still asleep in his room and has never been an early morning person.  Emily also is enjoying the morning stillness.
Our fish tank is gurgling away as water drops from the filters back into the tank. ( I've never heard the fish make a single sound, ever!)  The birds in our mango tree are all chirping, cooing and such and it can get quite noisy (in a pleasant way though) in the mornings.  The sun is just beginning to warm our roof, so as it expands there's the regular pop of the wood beams expanding.  That sound used to scare me as a kid.
I'm sitting here in the corner, in my favorite spot, on my lazy-boy recliner and every now and then the well worn leather creaks to my movements.  I've finally got the chair warmed up to my body temperature and it feels cozy and comforting.  
Ha!  One of our pet rats (we have 2) just started snoring little rat snores!  It's so cute!  I always laugh at the way they sleep, sometimes curled up in a ball with their forehead on the floor between their legs.  The cage is near my chair so the air is filled with the smell of their redwood/cedar chips.  Nice and clean smelling because Bryan cleaned their cage yesterday.  
The house is in our typical lived-in clutter state.  Family pictures on the wall, lots of light houses about (we were collecting them at one point)...
(Bradley woke up)
Well Bradley has just woken up and his first question out of the blue was "You know E.T.,  The Extra Terrestrial?  Do you know what the inner planets are called? (answer: Terrestrial)"  He then went on to describe the most Earth-like of the planets (Mars) and how if we ever have to leave Earth we'll probably go there.  Good to know.
Thus ends my morning reverie.  The troops are stirring and will soon be hungry.  Sunday has started.  Have a great day!
Peace Love and Relaxing Sundays,
Rich

Life is Full,... and good

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Hey Everybody,

Just wanted to check in and catch you up on what's happening here at the Fewell's.

Bradley just turned 12 on April 4th.  This will be our last year before we have only teen-agers!  We are so blessed by our boys.  I used to dread being the father of teens, but so far I am mostly filled with appreciation and pride for my sons.  They mean the world to me and I am enjoying having a front row seat to watch them develop into men of character.  Nothing could make a father happier!

Our business is humming along.  (FuelUpHawaii.biz).  I have to say that it is amazing how much having these shared dreams and goals have brought Emily and I closer together.  We both have really caught this concept and are enjoying the ride.  It IS a lot of work for now and we are doing our very best with it.  We keep our eyes on the goal of freedom of finances and time and know that all this will payoff for our family in the future.

Emily and I are about to embark on another challenge too... P90X!  It is a workout commitment for about an hour every day for 90 days.  It is a little extreme and we are hoping for some extreme results too.  We start (the whole family) tomorrow morning!  There's no doubt in my mind that I will be sore for the next 90 days!  We've taken our measurements, "before" pictures, baseline fitness tests and we've got our equipment.  We're full of enthusiasm now, but tomorrow will be the real test of our resolve!  Every morning at 4:30am!  We're ready to BRING IT!

On a completely different note, I've been learning and playing with the Linux operating system lately!  It can get a little confusing and as my friend said, "... you have to be willing to get your hands dirty." in a digital sorta way.  Command lines, terminal, ssh, wget, and all manner of new terms are becoming a part of my vocabulary!  The reason I've taken the plunge is I have just become the owner of my own ham radio IRLP/Echolink node.  It is basically VOIP for radio.  It only runs on Linux.  I've lost some of you haven't I?  Suffice it to say I'm enjoying a greater degree of involvement with my ham radio hobby and leave it at that!

Our family has added a new member today!  We now have the rat called "Happy" as a part of our family.  The Mannings have had Happy for a while, but in light of their upcoming departure from the islands, she is joining our rats.  Happy is an all brown rat, unlike the "hooded" ones we've had all along. So far her integration seems to be going smoothly.

That's about it for now.  I just need to read a little before bed then get right to sleep for our workout tomorrow.  I'm trying to make a habit of reading every night.

Peace, Love and "Happy"-ness,

Rich

(P.S. Interested in any smoothie recipes you like!  I'm thinking of having one every morning after my workouts!!)