nature art...

be still.... and KNOW.

-God

Summer's Bounty...
(or a photo tribute to learning to garden as a townie, in smaller spaces. all the bounty and flowers are from my yard, except the berries, which were found along a nearby trail)

Nature Art

(Taken on a Spring hike behind my house....)

Wordless Wednesday

"Children and Nature"...

"Let them once get in touch with nature and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight and habit through life."

-Charlotte Mason

(A great article on what has been termed 'Nature Deficit Disorder' in kids is here..... a worthwhile read, especially for parents and educators. For more Wordless Wednesdays, go here.)

When I took my son to his first day of Kindergarten this past fall, we walked past the school flower beds and I noticed how overgrown they were. I could tell that someone had put a lot of effort into them at some point, but they had been sadly neglected for quite a while. "What a waste", I thought.

I knew I wanted to volunteer in some means at the school, so I asked about the flower gardens. Apparently, a former teacher had started them with her students.... but she had since retired and no one else had continued her work. They told me how she loved flowers and would take the kids on spring wildflower walks and drives, and try to instill in them the wonder of nature, and the excitement of seeing the first spring blooms pop up.

I knew then what my task would be during the fall. I started coming on warm afternoons and tried to sort through what were weeds and what were flowers. When you aren't the one that did the planting, and everything is done blooming and beginning to turn brown, it can be hard to decipher what's what. So I did my best to walk delicately amongst the beds, and took my time deciding what needed to be pulled out, what was choking the flowers..... and what should stay.

And my reward came when I picked my son up from school last week..... when I saw these first delicate little blooms had emerged from the ground. I felt relieved that there was still life in the garden.... that I got to it in time, before the weeds had done irreversible damage.

I still have a ways to go, as winter came a little too quickly. There are several more beds I haven't gotten to yet. But in the meantime, I'll enjoy this little section of cleared bed, where sunshine can now hit and where there is enough room for the flowers that were so lovingly planted by an involved teacher, to breathe and come forth.

It's Here........

That southerly wind blew in our first snowfall of the season. The first snow of the winter always brings out the child in oneself. I think I get just as excited as Sir Laughsalot. His school let out early and he came home and started playing in the white fluff as soon as he got out of the car. And, of course, mama had to play, too.... with her camera!

Morning Visitors......
My first stop every morning (after the potty ), is my kitchen window. I always drink a glass of water first thing in the morning and gaze up at the early morning light playing on the mountain. Today, there was a strange silhouette on the window..... from a distance, it looked like a feather.

I approached and took a closer look and saw that it was a praying mantis.... one of my favorite insects. It brought back a flood of memories as they were abundant on our farm in Kentucky growing up. They are one of the more elegant species of the insect world. He was as curious about me, as I was about him. I don't have a good camera for micro shots, but you can see his little beady eyes checking me out.....

While I was out getting a photo of the little guy, I turned around and looked up at the hill behind us, and saw some of our regular morning visitors...... buzzards. We have two trees on the hill with dead branches, and they love to roost there at night..... sometimes I've seen as many as twenty at a time... their bald, bright red heads tucked into their chests in slumber.

Since I had the camera ready, I thought I'd go see if my other little morning friend had a productive night. I went to the front of the house, to our shrubbery, and saw she had been quite busy last night. She's always by the front porch when I sit and drink my coffee there in the mornings. Sometimes I give her a little treat by leaving the porch light on for a while in the evenings. :)


It seems I am surrounded on all sides.........
Some might find these creatures quite icky, but they all serve a purpose, and keep me company out here in the country....

Fall Fun .....

A taste of what's to come...


Forward Thinker...

Over-achievers...

End of season slump...

Trend Setter...

For some more Fall Fun, head to my new blogging friend, Brandy's, site for a fun fall give-away. And spend some time reading her delightful posts...she lives simply and is very creative and inspiring!

(Mountaintop Removal is an atrocity that is taking place here in my beloved Appalachian mountains. It's a cheaper way to remove coal that basically eliminates the coal miner. But in the process, it is destroying the landscape and lives of people in rural Appalachia. Flying over some parts of West Virginia and Kentucky, you would think you were flying over a war zone. Please help me spread the word. Here is an e-mail I received and ways that you can help.)

Before Mountaintop Mining........After.........

Today, I want to tell you about a place that is ground zero in the fight to stop mountaintop removal coal mining..... a place called Coal River Mountain.

Located in westernmost Raleigh County, West Virginia, Coal River Mountain is under threat from Massey Energy. Massey has applied for two mountaintop removal permits, and is considering a third, that would destroy nearly 6,000 acres of Coal River Mountain, effectively decapitating it. They would fill 18 Appalachian valleys with toxic coal mining waste and destroy the tallest peaks ever to be mined in West Virginia.

But a coalition of grassroots organizations, led by Coal River Mountain Watch, have joined together to protect Coal River Mountain - and bring the attention of the nation to the ongoing tragedy that is mountaintop removal coal mining.

Effort to stop the Coal River Mountain project is gaining momentum at the local level. Just last week, more than 100 local citizens filled the bleachers at a public hearing held by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection at the Clear Fork Elementary School to speak their minds about the massive proposal.There has never been such a turnout to a public hearing on a mine permit in West Virginia... but even more incredibly, every single citizen who spoke, spoke in opposition to the mine.There are many reasons that local citizens oppose the mine: it will pollute their drinking water, heighten the risk of local flooding, and destroy the mountains and the beautiful landscape that have been their family home for as many as nine generations.The mine, too, would destroy the long-term economic future of Coal River Mountain. As many citizens said at the hearing, for just a few years worth of jobs and a few years worth of coal, the mine would wipe out the opportunity to build a wind power facility that could provide long-term jobs and enough power to meet the needs of more than 90,000 homes forever.

Yet despite the united - and, at the hearing, unanimous - opposition to the plan to destroy Coal River Mountain, local citizens hold little hope that their testimony alone will stop the mine - because the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has never denied a permit application for a mountaintop removal mine. Never.

Even though most Americans would never support the destruction of this beautiful mountain and irreplaceable landscape, the people living near Coal River Mountain believe that their mountain will be destroyed because most Americans simply don't know what's happening in the hills and hollows of Appalachia.

There really is no such thing as clean coal...... to learn more about Mountaintop Removal and how you can help, go to Ilovemountains.org.

Nature's Bounty.......

A recent, overcast day found us picking wild blueberries just a short distance away from where we live. A tip from a local park ranger led us to just the right spot.... a huge blueberry bog in the midst of a nearby designated wilderness area. The dirt road leading to the area was windy and steep and we drove slowly up it. After about 20 minutes of driving through a thick canopy of trees, the landscape suddenly opened up and I was amazed to see the immense, wild bog.

The blueberries were at their peak, and the whole time we were picking, I thought to myself, "How lucky am I?", while gazing out at the misty mountains and harvesting nature's gift. The slight drizzle and low-hanging clouds lent to the magical feel of the day.....

The end results of our harvest proved delicious.......

Seasonal Fruit Muffins

(you can use peaches, raspberries, or blueberries)

- 2 c. flour (i mix wheat and white)

-1 T baking powder

-1/2 t. salt

-1/2 cup sugar (i use raw sugar)

-1 t. cinnamon

-1/2 t. nutmeg

-1 egg

-1 cup milk

-1/3 cup melted butter

-1- 1 1/2 cups fruit

Preheat oven to 400*. Combine first 6 ingredients (for peaches, replace cinnamon and nutmeg with 1/4 t. mace). Beat egg lightly, add milk and melted butter. Make a well in dry ingredients and pour in liquid mixture. Stir just enough to combine and then add fruit. Sprinkle with topping and cook 15-20 minutes.

topping

-2 T brown sugar

-1/2 t. cinnamon

-1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

I was standing lost, sunk, my hands in my pockets,

gazing toward Tinker Mountain and feeling the earth reel down.

All at once I saw what looked like a Martian spaceship whirling towards me in the air.

It flashed borrowed light like a propeller. Its forward motion greatly outran its fall.

As I watched, transfixed, it rose, just before it would have touched a thistle,

and hovered pirouetting in one spot, then twirled on and finally came to rest.

I found it in the grass; it was a maple key, a single winged seed from a pair.

Hullo. I threw it into the wind and it flew off again, bristling with animate purpose,

not like a thing dropped or windblown, pushed by the witless winds of convection . . . .

And now when I sway to a fitful wind, alone and listing, I will think, maple key.

When I see a photograph of the earth from space . . . I will think, maple key.

When I shake your hand or meet your eyes I will think, two maple keys.

If I am a maple key falling, at least I can twirl.

-Annie Dillard

( This photo was found on the web.......but for an incredible, original nature photo and post, check out Fragments From Floyd today...."Carrion Without Me"- It's amazing what comes along when you take the time, like Fred, to lie on your back under the sky and wait.....)

Nature's Playground........

With the advent of the first official day of Spring, came a lovely Spring day. We held our weekly playgroup at a nearby park where all the moms and kids basked in the sun, blue skies, and the opportunity to be outside after the long winter months. As I've said before, I am so grateful to be able to raise my son in such a beautiful part of the world and that nature IS his playground. With the lure that electricity brings- video games, T.V.,

and computers, it can be an uphill battle to instill that love and respect for Creation. And not only enjoying being outside in nature, but learning about it- knowing that the acorns he finds are from an Oak tree, and the little purple flower popping out of the ground is a crocus, and the river that we drive by everyday is the Potomac. Things learned best outside, at play.....not in an artificial environment like a classroom, where many pre-school age children spend their days and learn about nature and their world vicariously. As Charlotte Mason wisely stated about educating children, "Never be within doors when you can rightly be without."

I spent my childhood days out in nature on our 65 acre farm in Kentucky....being inside on a nice day would have been torture for me. I hope to pass that legacy on to my son. Leave No Child Inside is a relevant and thought-provoking article on the loss of outside play for children and it gives suggestions on how we can reverse this trend in our own communities. Take a look if you have a moment.....