"warm september brings the fruit"

 

This is how the morning began; with the sun coming up from behind the trees to burn the fog away.

 

Later on, Seth, Sarah, and I went for a walk in the cool woods.

 

 

 

Right away we found a patch of pretty purple wildflowers.

 

This is the mature flower; it never opens up.  One time I saw a bumblebee pushing into one to get the pollen, it's little legs were sticking straight out.

 

This is an Autumn Olive Berry bush, although it is a very invasive plant that is growing everywhere, I recently discovered that the berries are edible and quite nutritious.  So now I eat them as we walk.

 

They start out sour in the mouth, but the middles are sweet.  There is one seed, which I spit out.

 

An upside down mushroom, just the way I found it.

 

It was all their idea to take along baggies of snacks. 

They had a picnic.

 

We found a spot that had many empty hickory nut shells lying around.

 

A chipmunk village?

If you truly love nature

you will find beauty everywhere.

Vincent Van Gogh

 

 



i just want to explore

 

“I am rich today with autumn’s gold.”

— Gladys Harp

 

Just when I was remarking to the children that we hadn't seen a toad, I almost stepped on one.  Seth picked it up, he said he was good at catching them.

Seth brought the toad home.

 

 

 

I went to get the mail and noticed......

 

 

.....so many beautiful wild grapes growing in the trees that I......

 

 

......picked some and made homemade wild grape jam during naptime!

Pectin was unnecessary; I simply followed the recipe in my canning cookbook.

8 cups of grapes, cleaned up and boiled down

with 6 cups of sugar until it got thick enough.

Then processed in jars for 10 minutes.

*pure and simple with grapes from the side of the road*

 

There was enough left over to try on buttered toast.

SCRUMPTIOUS!