milkweed

We came home from the western side of the state to a garden nearly in full bloom. It can't be in full full bloom because we've carefully planted so as to have blooms throughout the growing months of the year, but the summer blooms are now out in full force. Bee balm, yarrow, cone flowers, daisies, in pink, red, yellow, white...even the milkweed finally bloomed this year. I still remember, the first summer we spent in the house, sending Jon and my dad into the field behind us to dig up a milkweed or two before the mowers came and plowed them down. Digging up wild flowers is against the law in Michigan, but they were about the mow them over, so I think nobody probably noticed. Digging up milkweed is not as easy as one would think. This one had a rather developed root system, a huge cluster of tubers, that required hacking much more than digging. I nursed the three pieces in buckets of water to encourage them to send out new roots, and I carefully planted the two that survived. I was ecstatic when they grew the following year, and again the year after, but this is the year they've finally decided to bloom. Look how happy I am over a weed.

milkweed

Pink yarrow

red yarrrow

true phlox, and a coneflower in the background

We were gone for just two nights, but getting back to our routine is going to take at least that long, or maybe we just don't have a summer "routine" to return to. The library was closed on Monday so we sorted today instead. Piano, journaling, games, and the garden all called to us. And some quiet time laying on the floor with books during the hottest part of the day, watching birds visit the feeders and letting what breeze there was wash over us. We're hoping for rain tomorrow, or else we might be playing in the sprinkler yet again, but that's what summer is all about.

Dragon's Milk

Though the weather feels more like a week in late May, it turns out that July is just a couple of days off. That happened while I wasn't looking. There is just one day left in swimming class, and less than a week until Independence Day, as Calvin is calling it now that he's been reading up on the Fourth of July. Our vegetable garden is really enjoying the sunny, cooler days, and because we water it's not overly concerned about the drought, either, so it's looking a bit like a miniature rainforest. The June bugs are out and bashing themselves into the windows making, such a ruckus at night that the cat won't sit down. Warm sun, cool breeze, long days—not bad, but it seems like not much is going on, either. I think we're waiting for summer to start.

Calvin went to Dangerous Dudes story time at the library today. He colored dragon pages, listened to stories, made a knight, and had cookies and lemonade for snack. And there was a bit of a snafu over the lemonade. The librarian had labeled it "dragon's milk" which in our house is a favorite beer from the New Holland Brewing Company. This was a sans parent event, so I was sitting outside the room reading and occasionally watching events through the glass wall. Because I could hear slightly I'd caught the drink name, and I wondered what family secrets the boy might be telling when he was conspiratorially whispering in the librarian's ear as she passed out cups of the questionable liquid. Turns out he was just telling her he knew it wasn't really dragon's milk because "there is no such thing", a response I think to the girl across the table who was entirely grossed out by the concept. Considerate of him to keep such knowledge to a whisper, huh?

Nature Thursdays—turtles at Independence Lake

We are fortunate to have a really wonderful naturalist with our County Parks and Recreation. We've done several hikes and other presentations with her in the past, and this summer she is offering Kids' Nature Thursdays in which she will cover a different topic at a different park each week. I knew that it would be a lovely program because I know she's great with kids in the way that I like people to be great with kids—by talking to them as equals and giving them respect and space in which to learn. Today was the first of the summer Thursdays, an hour all about turtles. We touched shells we learned some facts, we played with a couple captives, we went looking for the real things in the lake, and we scouted out some nests, finding two in tact (and putting protection over them) and many that had fallen victim to raccoons (which allowed us to come home with shells, and I had forgotten how rubbery they are, not at all like chicken eggs, something Calvin noticed right away).

I learned today that the snapping turtle, unlike most others, has very little shell on his underside, which means he has to be more aggressive and ornery. I learned that my son already knew that, and what a reptile was, and what it meant to be cold blooded. He'd been reading up, unbeknownst to me, in preparation for today's session. I think that was my favorite new bit of knowledge for the day.

Then, being already at the park I figured that Thursdays would be a great time to get Calvin out hiking on his own two feet. He's been out many times before, of course, but really only in the backpack. Today he and I did a mile trail through the wetlands after turtle appreciation hour. We took lunch and ate it sitting atop the lookout, where we promptly got lightly rained on, but to no ill effect. So the weather was iffy at best, we had a great time anyhow.

We identified milkweed, poison ivy, yarrow, and a number of trees. We also saw many butterfly species, including the cabbage white, lady skippers, spring azure, and peck's skipper. Calvin is pretty good with the cabbage white (and a number of other butterflies that visit our own yard regularly), and he knows most of the plants already, but we took some laminated identifying pamphlets with us for fun.

Rain and all, it was a great afternoon, and Calvin is really excited about what I have dubbed "nature day" next Thrusday. He's also asked to go on another hike this weekend, and with the cooler weather it seems like a great time to explore another local path. We'll continue breaking him in on increasingly long trails as the summer progresses. I have images of us hiking into rustic camping already!

My only disappoint from the trip was that, after getting a-hold of nature journals and remembering to pack both them and colored pencils, it was too wet to get them out. When we got home, though, Calvin was quick to jump at the opportunity. So these are not nature illustrations the way that I had them in mind, with the two of us sitting and sketching what we see (and oh, how often will it occur that I imagine an event one way but have to be content with another outcome), but they are his impressions of our hike today. The first is his sketch of us eating lunch on top of a wooden lookout. The second is his sketch of the trail as seen from above. And then, of course, the jounral entry. I was surprised that he didn't add a picture to this as well, but if he does so in the future I will come back and add it.

I linked this post to share at Saturday's Artist.

That beautiful taste of summer

I would put this under the recipes section of the blog, but that would seem a bit self indulgent. It is, after all, just shortcake from the recipe on the Bisquick box (for shame!), heavy whipping cream (whipped with sugar), and those beautiful Michigan strawberries that are not to be matched by any of their imported distant cousins. I don't know what I was doing, but we almost missed strawberry season this year!

Weekend fun—Father's Day edition

The garage sale is over and life can return to its normal fast pace. When the sale ended yesterday we were surprisingly left with only three small boxes of leftovers, one of which went to the basement, for sentimental or practical purposes, while the other two were eventually spread between a handful of Freecycle users. And the guest room at our house now actually has a bed in it—a real bed not a sofa bed—so people should come visit us now (but not too often if you want me to get any sewing done in there).

A weekend should be full of fun and adventrue so yesterday, at Calvin's request, he and his dad started another science experiment, this one about bacteria and fungi. I watched the boys swab Ollie's mouth and Calvin's mouth during a break in garage sale doings. That's an experiment that will take all week and we'll be visiting our growing friends every day.

And this weekend we celebrate dads everywhere. I should have something more profound to say about dads and father's day because I've been fortunate in my lifetime to be surrounded by men who are wonderful fathers, but I just hope they all know how very beautiful that role is in life, and how very important. My own dad is in Chicago and Jon's was busy as well so it ended up being a (delightful) party of just the three of us. A party of three that moved furniture, weeded gardens, played in the sprinkler, blew bubbles, and had a camping style dinner. With the fire pit finished and no need to drag it all out to the driveway every time we use it, I think we'll be enjoying fires more often. Tonight we roasted sausages, apples, and carrots for dinner, then finished it off with s'mores. Then we watched the birds play in the newly weeded garden while we waited for the bats to come out, and enjoyed a bedtime story by the fire as well.

And that brings our weekend to a close. It felt long, and we accomplished much. That's the best kind of weekend. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.