as beautiful as a summers day

 What a good start to autumn! The weather- strange for October, but I welcomed it very much.

This made alot of learning time outdoors for the first 8 days of October! We took several walks, a different place each day.

The colors are pretty.
The leaves are falling fast.

I got to go to 2 history- re-enactment festivals! 

Thinking about it right now, I have done things I never have before.



here is my list:
I took a short elephant ride

I watched medieval combat

I had 2 picnics in one week  in October

I saw a sort of Shakespeare play

I pet a buffalo

I watched how a glass marble is made

I watched a (pretend) fencing match in person

In my Shakespeare class we read this sonnet..It was rather humorous, you had to be there!

  Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date . . . .


the 80 degrees this week made me think of this line. 

A quick summer " tweet! "

  It's always fun when you're eating your lunch


and a new visitor comes to your window!
Today, a little cow -bird stopped by..

look!

Listen!






While I am here.. 
The latest book I am reading is Peter Duck..
and, not what you may think.. it's not about a duck..
but a retired sailor, that is his name. So far, what I can tell you is he joined Captain Flint's crew. And he and the children are about to set sail on the big ocean on a schooner.

I just started and can't wait to go grab my book now.. each chapter is a cliffhanger!
Peter Duck is the 3rd book ( 12 books in all)  in the Swallows and Amazons books by Arthur Ransome. I read the second book in a couple of days.. it was awesome!  These are great books about 4 children from England traveling the the waters in and around islands with real life adventure..near the north land of England just before the border to Scotland.

Last week I had a family vacation time, and before that I was busy helping at church vbs..
I am busy finishing knitting /crocheting projects. I will be working for the next month to put them in the fair. And as I finish them,
I will receive the next book in the series.. so a win- win situation for me! Look for pictures to be added here soon on what I am working on..

 Cheerio!

The wild purple

Purple is one of my favorite colors. I am so glad that there are lots
of different
                                                                            kinds of purple flowers to

be found near
where I live.
The other day we
collected some
pretty
purple wild flowers
on a nature walk.

These remind me somewhat of violets.Violets 
( the common blue, that is) were flowers we collected several  weeks ago. I just found a great site to check out. These are however different flowers. From this site, I have learned that there is more then one of kind of violet, check out the site, somewhat interesting.











The purple flower we found was called a Dame's Rocket. It is different then the violet. A violet blooms around Easter. A violet has five petals,
broad, heart-shaped leaves, it's Height is: 3-8 inches tall.  I think violets smell sweet.The violets we found don't grow on stalks with several blooms, they grow on their own like dandelions do. The violets we know, grow back every year, a perennial.

The Dame's Rocket is said to be biannual. Which explains why we don't remember seeing it last year on a trail we like to walk. It has four petals. It grows up to 3 feet (or higher) tall. It is native to where I live.It grows on stalks with several blooms. It has "wide coarsely toothed lance- shaped leaves" that grow 1 to 3 inches long. To me, the Dame's Rocket smells like a mix of clover and lilac. Both  these purple flowers  make a nice bouquet on the table for a few days, and  nice page in my notebook.

Anything but spiders!

I would most definitely prefer to write about almost anything else..other than a spider!

Our family read about this yellow guy the other day.. everyone seemed to think it is quite interesting.
So, I will do my best to describe an amazing animal in God's amazing kingdom..

(this photo is from here )

First of all, we learned that it is an amazing creature and known to be a "Master of Disguise". This spider changes color to match its surroundings. He's a very small spider, the largest could only be about an inch big. Unlike other spiders, this spider does not have a web. The yellow crab spider does not wrap its victims in silk, instead it grabs them and uses its fast acting venom to immobilize them, then the crab spider has it's lunch! Believe it or not, the crab spider is beneficial. They capture flies and mites. They do eat honeybees too, but we'll appreciate that they eat the bugs we swat, which is helpful.

If you saw this spider sitting on a golden rod or sunflower, you may have to look twice to find it. It also has abilities to change to white when on a daisy. Other crab spiders can resemble tree bark, leaves, fruit or even bird poop! And yet another group of crab spiders can adapt to look like ants!  These spiders are not poisonous to humans, they don't seek out humans, their bite is not dangerous. If you find one, just put a cup over him and slide a piece of paper under him and take him back out to the wild.

So, if I happen to see one myself this summer, I will take a special photo just for you..

who knows, always learning about things for a reason...


short video clip  (just click)

 here is another link,  if you want to know more (just click)

unexpectedly interesting!

 Are there as many unique birds in the world as there are places to travel or learn about? I am really starting to think so. From my last post I told you to look for this posting about a strange bird..

Here is it. The Kakapo!! You may not know, this bird is endangered..According to my findings, there are less than 100 left. He lives in New Zealand. But, There are reproductive programs going on right now.  This bird is in the parrot family. listen

This parrot is nocturnal. He is a good sized bird, up to 9 pounds and he doesn't fly. Below are 2 links about the Kakapo. I never realized that birds are so fun to learn about. Each day this summer we are going to be reading about birds.

We hope to find some, that we haven't seen before, in view too. 

link
link 2