Enchanted Nature

Life is speeding by

This time of year I make a big effort not to feel harried and badgered into the Holiday craziness.  It take a particular kind of discipline to stay in the moment and not give in to the "must do, must buy"  Of course I get Christmas presents and I try to fulfill wishes of young ones.  Some are getting homemade gifts and some are getting store bought.  In my fantasy life everyone gets homemade gifts but that seems to not be my reality.  There are a lot of books and craft supplies that are being given.

I am doing some last minute knitting too.  I am not particularly stressed about this knitting and frankly, once you are knitting how can you be stressed.  It is so relaxing.  Of course I can't share pictures or details with anyone since this is going to be a present.  And there are two more things in the pipeline which can of course also not be shared for the same reason.  But I will take pictures and post them when I have mailed them off.

Meanwhile, here is the big knit from last year...

Nature exploration in the school yard

I teach Nature journaling or Nature exploration in several classrooms at my daughters school.  I prefer to go outside with the kids if the weather is at all nice.  So second grade went outside with the task to catalog how many leaf shapes there were to be found in the school yard.

My favorite part of teaching is that I always discover something new myself.  I also get asked very good questions to which I don't always know the answer.  So perhaps I was not surprised by the diversity in this small piece of the school yard.  I was pleased to see that several children looked in the grass to see if there was more than one kid of leaf in there.  The thing that completely amazed me was the tree that had two different kinds of leaves on the same tree.

 

A little researching showed that it was Black Acacia.  (I did this research by taking a branch around the school to the parents I know who garden a lot.  Had that not worked, I would have gone to our local nursery whose staff is phenomenal at identifying plants)  Unfortunately this bush is invasive and dangerous to Northern California wildlands and as soon as it was brought to the attention of the other parents it was swiftly chopped down along with my dreams of studying this tree with the kids.

The question that remains for me is how and why this tree has two different leaf shapes.