Hunting the creepy crawlies

Our county park system has one of the best naturalists in the world...so says me. True, that's not a title that has actually been conferred on her, but we have always loved her and enjoyed her programs. This summer the park system offered a Junior Naturalist program—a series of workshops for kids Calvin's age who are interested in learning more about ecology and the rigors of being a good naturalist. At the end of the program, kids who successfully completed enough of the workshops will earn their own titles—as Junior Naturalists, of course. Today's foray into bug hunting (which is really bug, insect, arachnid, and other such creepy crawlies hunting) was the penultimate workshop. As always, it was a hit.

Back to nature — our finds this week in the great outdoors

We watched an Eastern Kingbird feeding babies.

We found several wood frogs on a hike

We discussed wild flowers with a county parks naturalist

And Calvin practiced his photography: photograph by Calvin

Photograph by Calvin

Photograph by Calvin

Photograph by Calvin

Deck frog, spigot frog, a tale of two amphibians

Every year around this time we have frogs that hang out on our house. Really that's on our house, although around it is also applicable. This year we have two frogs who have been more regular and reliable than any frog of the past. This is their story.

We first met deck frog on a warm afternoon. We spotted him by chance hanging out on the lower railing of our deck. We took pictures, we enjoyed watching him, and when we left for another activity, though nothing of it when he was gone upon our return. Frogs come, frogs go. A day later, though, he was on the deck again, this time on top of the railing. Over the course of a week or two we realized that he was always around our deck somewhere: if you just took the time to search him out he was there somewhere.

We named him Deck Frog.

Then came the morning that I was outside watering. Since potted plants love sun-warmed water, I started with the potted herbs on the deck, watering them from the can I leave full nearby, before refilling the can at the rain barrel and moving on to the raised garden boxes and their vegetables. Imagine my surprise when, upon finishing my job, I put the can down to see deck frog climbing out, perhaps feeling a little harried. I apologized profusely and returned the can, and the frog, to the deck.

When a similar thing happened again a few days later, I went out and bought myself a new watering can so Deck Frog could keep the old one.

Spigot Frog is an equally constant but less personable presence in our lives, perhaps because we spend a lot more time hanging out on our deck than we do hanging out by our spigot. I met Spigot Frog when I went to attach the hose to the outdoor spigot before setting the sprinkler on our newly transplanted grass, and there he was on the ledge of the cutout in our siding. He did not move when I attached the hose, and had moved only so far as the other side of the cutout when I came back to turn the water off. For weeks he has been there throughout most of the day, gone only at night when he is hunting.

We named him Spigot Frog.

Eventually they will leave us, as all our froggy visitors do summer after summer, so we will just enjoy them as long as we can. They are both Gray treefrogs, by the way, common visitors to Michigan homes. I wonder if Spigot Frog and Deck Frog go on dates when we are not looking.

The spaces between

Life is punctuated by routine.

Invariably we start the day with breakfast and an adios to Jon on his way to work. Our morning is about table work—the school lessons that we actually sit down and do, like math, spelling, grammar, geography, etc. (and not all homeschoolers do this, by the way, but my kid happens to like the predictability of it). And we squeak in piano, and some time to read, or build, or play. Then there's lunch, and a chance to get outside if the weather is good, or play games, watch videos, read, sing, build, what have you, in the afternoon. Then Jon comes home and we soak up our time with him before going to bed and starting all over again the next day.

This is our routine. It is the punctuation that keeps us on track, and punctuation is good because it keeps you on track. It's also good because it helps you tell or read the story with enough predictability that you can enjoy the unpredictable—the story that happens in the spaces between, like a surprise afternoon in the middle of a work week when our whole family gets to drop what we're doing and head to the park to enjoy the weather together. We like together.

Life happens in the spaces between.

April, just a blur

As fast as March went past, I think April went faster. It was a blur of warm days mixed with a still bitter chill while we tried to get back outside and back on our feet. Calvin was in rehearsals twice a week for the Wild Swan production of The Wizard of Oz in early May and had practice twice a week for Science Olympiad, also in early May. Add to that the usual homeschool meetings and it felt like we were always on the move.

Festifools parade in Ann Arbor

testing the garden soil

playing with garden soil

chalk on a warmer evening

tracks left by the deer that walked through our garden and nudged over all our solar lights.

spring in the butterfly garden

math on the floor

o_o

Soaking up the sun

We did battle with the house sparrows that wanted to move into the bluebirds' digs

game playing on a warmer day

petting a skunk on a field trip with our homeschooling group

Spring egg dying

first signs of life

Broadway in Grand Rapids

bird watching (practicing for Science Olympiad)

first day of nature camp