Pinecones

We've Been Adopted

A stray kitty has been prowling through our neighborhood, seeking a permanent home.  We saw it at a neighbor's house one evening, and then heard it at another neighbor's house the next day.  It was crying pathetically, no doubt hungry and lost and lonely.  My kids had pity on it, and the short story of it is that it now wears a pink collar and gets fed every day.  We are its Forever Home, like it or not.  (We all like it.  We just weren't WANTING it.)

Snowy Egret

While on family vacation to Tybee Island, GA recently, I stalked this guy along the ocean's shores.  It was early morning, shortly after the sun had risen, and I was taking a walk with my son.  My son darted in and out of the waves, catching fish with his small net.  Just ahead of him was this egret, also catching fish.  Breakfast was successful and so much fun to watch happen.  I love the stealth these birds display. And the wispy feathers on the back of their heads are comical to watch as they get thrown around in the breezes:  it's akin to a "bad hair day", only they deal with it so gracefully.

Rat Snakes by Nickolas, age 8

My son has had a fascination with snakes for years.  He catches every one he possibly can.  He knows which ones are poisonous (and is NOT allowed to catch these), and can identify nearly every one he sees.  I regularly receive text messages with pictures attached from friends, asking my son to identify the snake they found.  He is obsessed with them!  

Wildflower Pilgrimage Journal Entries by Emily, Age 11

My daughter isn't nearly into nature journaling as my son and myself, but we took a class specifically on nature journaling while at the Pilgrimage, and the teacher declared that it is OKAY to doodle and draw fancy borders and write in fancy ways on your pages.  Emily grabbed onto this and ran!  She enjoyed nature journaling much more after she started letting her pen fly with this.  She also enjoyed playing around with the watercolor pencils.

Wildflower Pilgrimage Journal Entries by Nick, Age 8

After (or during) each of our nature walks during the Pilgrimage, my son journaled about one item he saw on our walk. 

Through Nick's Eyes, Age 8

Through Nick's Eyes, Age 7

Eastern Bluebird

We took a short visit to North Georgia, where I had the privilege of sitting in family's backyard and watching two active bluebird houses.

Fern Walk

For the second year in a row, we were privileged to be a part of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park Wildflower Pilgrimage.  What a great time we had!

One of our classes was a fern walk.

Here is a list of ferns we identified:
Ebony's Spleenwort
Resurrection
Christmas
Hay-scented
Cinnamon
Grape
Protruding Bladder
Maidenhair Spleenwort
Rattlesnake
New York
Southern Lady
Running Ground Cedar
Adder's tongue (which looks NOTHING like a fern!)

I entered the class knowing not much more about ferns than that I liked them, and walked away with a wealth of knowledge.  I'm sure I won't remember it all, but here are some highlights:

A fern frond (leaf) is made up of the raccus (middle stem), pinna (individual leaflets), and stipe (continuation of raccus past the pinnae.

Ferns are classified according to "clumped" or "colonial".  Clumped ferns grow up from one spot in the ground.  Colonial ferns grow horizontally, sending out shoots (rhizomes) that create a colony of ferns, all of the same plant.

A "fiddle head" is the fern frond as it is growing and unfolding.  I thought this was a name of one specific fern.  Many ferns emerge with a fiddle head.

Salamander Walk

My kids' favorite walk for both years at the Wildflower Pilgrimage in Great Smokey Mountains National Park was the salamander walk.  The poor man who led the hike was rushed each time someone found a salamander (frequently).  I had major claustrophobia issues when being caught in the crowd, so focused more on the wildflowers that we passed.

But here is a list of salamanders our group identified:
Southern red-backed
Blue Ridge two-lined
Spotted dusky
Santeetlah dusky
Seal

Blue Ridge Two-Lined Salamander

Wildflowers

Birds and Wildflowers Walk

Another walk we took with the Wildflower Pilgrimage was for birds and wildflowers.  It was a bitterly cold morning, and we drove to one of the higher points in Great Smokey Mountains National Park, hoping to find birds from a specific elevation.  Not much was out.  Too cold!  Here are the birds we did see, though:

Ovenbird
Red-breasted nuthatch
Blue-headed vireo
Dark-eyed junco

Blue-Headed Vireo

Wildflowers that we saw on this walk included:

Grandiflorum trillium

Sweet white trillium

Trout Lilly

Fringed phaecelia

Halbard leaf violet

Princess pine

Rattlesnake plantain

Galyx