Frogging By Day and By Night

The only thing better than catching frogs during the day or at night is doing it with your cousins. Finding frogs isn't something our cousins get to do very often but they do it with heart! During the day the kids caught frogs and tadpoles of all sizes and kinds. Filling a bucket with about 30 or so to show us with great pride. It was quite the collection. That night before fire works, we followed the calls of the frogs to the pond. The kids are getting really good in distinguishing the different call and zoning in on their location; particularly the tree frogs.

At this time of year the tree frogs hang out on reeds in the water calling to each other. In a few weeks they will head out to the trees and then it isn't as easy to find them. The tree frog Elias caught enjoyed hopping from person to person, demonstrating its super cool grip.

A Moose!

It is now tradition; one day in May we head out early in the morning to a nearby park with with breakfast in hand with one purpose. To see Moose! Before we even get into the park we saw two young female Moose finding refuge from the black flies in the muddy edge along the side of the road. The black flies have just started coming in force, the open spaces tend to have less bugs then in the woods providing some relief. Which means that the roads can be a little more dangerous to drive at night, but during the day the chances of seeing a moose are greatly increased.

We saw four on this visit; two bulls and two cows. They are incredible animals, with awkwardly long legs and gentle faces. It was exciting to catch a glimpse of them, we are thrilled that there wasn't snow this year!

Early Morning Adventures

The sun is just over the horizon, almost everyone is nestled asleep in their warm beds..... except for Elias and Ben. For them this is the perfect time to bundle up and head outside to see what kind of adventure they can find. Today, the glimpses of a pileated woodpecker, a wondrously large bird. They got the camera and followed it around our woods as it jumped from tree to tree. Adventures are a great way to start the day.

Winter Carnival

The winter carnival in a neighbouring small village was such a big hit last year we were all excited to attend again this year. It's a carnival with a small town feel, and so much to do. We made sure to get to all of last year's favorites at the beginning. Both Elias and Ben entered the snow shoe races, this year making into their own age category but racing against each other. They were thrilled to come in first and second after running many heats. There were fabulous prizes to boot, although the race was great on its own.

Then it was off for a ride in the hot air balloon, even Shai went up for a view of the lake. The mini snow mobile rides were eagerly lined up for. Thankfully no one was turned away for being too big, which was a concern. There were music shows, drumming circles, owl demonstrations, logging, maple syrup demos and it wouldn't be a small town carnival without a karaoke (right?).

A personal highlight was the 2 day old Llama and it's mama, nursing happily among the onlookers. I must say the little one's level of cuteness made me absolutely giddy!lol

Spruce Bog

We spent the afternoon walking the Spruce Bog trail at Algonquin park. A boardwalk winds through two separate bogs, allowing you to get a close up view of the plants, grasses and mosses growing. A bog is a poorly drained area that typically has a lot of spruce, evergreen shrubs such as heather, peat moss, etc. growing. These particular plants cause an acidic environment and therefore micro organisms in this area don't grow. The layer of moss and soil lay on top of the water.

The kids, being the brave explorers they are were walking on top of this layer. To look at it, you would think it is the same as the forest floor or an open space in the woods. There are beautiful red plants and green and brown grasses growing. When they walk on it, the ground is a little squishy. The kids quickly went from walking to jumping on this spongy layer (while I held my breath expecting them to fall right through). The earth rolled like waves as they jumped up and down. It looked almost like an earthquake rippling out from where they landed. Watching them and the reaction was amazing. And no one got wet!

I

Cow Pictures

Can you really have enough pictures of cows?

A Hidden Gem

During the warmer weather a few other homeschooling families and ourselves were getting together at the skateboarding park for some chat and play time. Now that it is a little cooler we still aren't ready to meet inside, but the skate park no longer the ideal spot. We have a few trips and hikes planned the next few weeks.

Today was the first of these 'new' adventures. There is a private school in the area, which also runs summer camps, located in a beautiful area on Lake Vernon. If you call ahead, they will let you know which days of the weeks there aren't outdoor programs and the public can come and use their trails free of charge.

The route we took followed through woods, with cabins along the way, two beaches, huge fire pits, reflective quotes were posted. Forts made by other kids were tucked all along the path, giving the kids tons to discover along the way. A highlight for them was a medical cabin on stilts which became a safe house for an imaginary game.

The trail led to a breath taking view, high on a rocky ridge. It over looks Lake Vernon, the water was so still this day. We often swam on this lake over the summer, just around the corner.

In the winter the school grooms cross country trails and opens up for snowshoeing. It is a gem of a community resource, which we are excited to add to our list.

My Girl

She has always been the one to venture further away from me. Her comfort level of exploring on her own grew at a quicker pace than mine. This past weekend she joined her brownie troop for a tour of the cranberry marsh. She jumped out of the van, without looking back to hop on the bus to be gone from 8am-4pm. When she returned home, there were stories to be shared, friends to talk about, pride in having shared her lunch with a girl who didn't bring one. It was a good day.

Her personality is much like the outfit she is wearing; loud, colourful, beautiful, an original design by her.

Nature as Art

We lucked out by unknowingly moving to an area full of artists. Our seasonal neighbour happens to be a painter, who has also designed a program for introducing and encouraging art for kids. This afternoon he brought his program, another neighbour (new to us) and her daughter over for the afternoon.
The program draws attention to the connection of nature and art. The art in eARTh, how beauty and art is all around us. His program; called Look See Paint, takes you from just looking at nature to really seeing the detail, the small, the big, the lines, the connection we have. He then gave an inspiring and beautiful talk about individuality, authenticity and expressions being art. We definitely felt more than able to create beauty with our brush. That alone is a gift.
Next we were guided through watercolour, learning some techniques in blending, brush strokes, etc as fundamentals, but still remembering that the art is already within us.
View finders were given to each of the artists to use as a tool to See nature as a canvas. We played with depth and distance. We would have painted outside next, the rain had us back inside unfortunately. The next hour was spent playing with what we saw on paper.
We were not only gifted with a great afternoon, our friend gave each of us a kit for outdoor painting. Monday, if the rain holds off, we are heading to 'our' beach for a painting session.

Mushrooms

We really like mushrooms. Even more now that we went on a mushroom walk. Our hike at hardwood Lookout lead us to find lots of different types of fungus. We were over the moon to find lots and lots of puff balls, giving everyone a chance to scatter the spores around.
We are trying to identify some of the different fungus, slime molds are becoming easier and a few of the different polypores are too. It was great to watch everyone searching in different corners as we went along, excited to show the rest of us. Even Chris found a great specimen of Bear's Head, we were all so proud!








































puffballs




















perhaps a honey mushroom




















maybe Golden Pholiotas















carnivorous oyster mushrooms















a type of polypore














we call this the hershey kiss, or maybe it's ?

a red belt polypore

bear's head or we like to call it coconut

polypore