Who? Me?

I never fancied myself a Nature Girl.  More often than not, I consider myself Nature ignorant.  But a funny thing happened while I was studying Nature with my children ... I learned to learn about it. 

How do I know that?  While visiting a friend up North last month, I asked her if her front yard tree was a Maple tree. She didn't have any idea.  The next day at the mini-golf course I found what I thought was a Hemlock tree*.  Still feeling Nature-ignorant, I asked her if she thought it was a Hemlock, too.  Not only did she not know, but she asked ME how I know SO MUCH about trees!  Me! 
My answer was nature study.  
What I have learned is how to observe nature; how to notice it; how to look for it.  I'm not an expert.  That is not even one of my goals.  As long as I keep observing, noticing, looking, and learning, I will be a Nature Girl.  And with that, my kids will observe, notice, look at, learn about, and love their natural world, too!
I cannot finish this post without giving some credit, some big credit, to Barb at The Handbook of Nature Study blog for her wonderful Outdoor Hour Challenges (OHC) which helped me find the Nature path in the first place.  After trying, and hating, the nature drawing path, and after looking at the introduction to the mammoth Handbook of Nature Study itself, I might have given up on "teaching" nature studies to my kids.  The OHC showed me a gentler, less daunting way to teach and learn about the world around us. 

Now, we need to get off our blogs and look outside! 
*We read My Side of the Mountain in the winter and learned about all kinds of northern nature.  The Hemlock was one of them.


What I thought was a weed in our flower bed,
looks like a tree sapling.  We're excited to watch
it grow up!

Hemlock on the Mini-Green

A Giant Dandelion we found during our
Outdoor Hour Dandelion Study

A mysterious sac