Nature Journal: Mountain View

We stayed one night at Jenn's awesome mountain cabin, and early that morning, Livy and I went out for a nature walk. This post, the first of two, includes the pictures we took right by the cabin.

Livy says: There are mountains. You see them every day when you get up. And the good part is that they make pretty pictures.

Kelly says: This is the view from the cabin's back porch. This tree leaning in from the left looks amazing. I think this is one of the best pictures Livy has ever taken.

Livy says: We found this tree in the backyard of Jenn's cabin.

Kelly says: We saw this little pine tree standing out among all the grey winter trees. I loved how green it looked in contrast.

Livy says: This picture is a brown flower by Jenn's cabin. I think it looks pretty because it's leaning into the picture. I think it looks pretty because it's kind of brownish and it's an unusual picture.

Kelly says: This is a dried hydrangea bloom. I love hydrangea bushes for just this reason: they look amazing all year round, even in the winter. I actually took this picture! Woot!

Livy says: This fern was taken at Jenn's cabin in her backyard. I think it's pretty because it's a little bit purplish around its leaves. I also liked that it's just growing down the mountain.

Kelly says: These ferns were growing down the mountain like Livy said. You can't really see that from the picture, but they were spilling down a large hill.

Livy says: These are berries taken in Jenn's sideyard. These berries were hanging down from the bush. You can't see it from the picture.

Kelly says: This is a nandina bush. I remember that my Papaw had a really big one in the front yard, and I used to love to pick the berries and try to get birds to come and land in my hand to eat the berries. Of course, they never did, but it was great fun to call them to me by made-up names.

Livy says: These berries were the same ones as the picture on top of this one, except it's more close-up and has more sunlight on them.

Kelly says: I am so proud of this picture. I took it, and it turned out to be so shiny and beautiful. Nandina berries have never looked so good. If those birds from my childhood saw berries that looked like this, they would have come to me for sure. :)

Nature Journal: Jump, Squirrel!

Livy says: This picture is from Aidan's neighborhood. 

Kelly says: On the way to a friend's birthday party, we saw several black birds (I think they were crows.), and we pulled over to take their pictures.

Livy says: This picture is also a crow.

Kelly says: I thought this picture turned out great. I love how the crow shows up so well in the leafless tree.

Livy says: This is a squirrel that was running into a bush in Aidan's neighborhood. I was trying to take his picture, but the squirrel ran away. All it left showing was his tail.

Kelly says: Darn you, squirrel! But it did turn out to look kind of cool.

Nature Journal: Squawking Birds

Livy and I recently joined a nature journaling homeschool group. We meet once a month to look at the journals and see what everyone else has done, and we have plans to go together to some parks and hikes and to do the Backyard Bird Count. Livy and I decided that we wanted to work together on the journal and to put our entries online instead of in a print journal. We may eventually get a blog just for our journaling, but for now, we are going to post our entries on this blog. Livy loves to take pictures, so most of our entries will be photographs. She took them all, unless I specifically say that I did.

Our first set of pictures is from our own house and neighborhood.

Livy says: I was standing on the porch. The tree is across the street from our house. The birds were squawking.

Kelly says: Aaron came to get us because he heard this loud sound. There were about a million birds all squawking at the top of their little birdy lungs.

Livy says: This flower was in our front yard. They grow right when it gets hot during winter.

Kelly says: Livy sometimes picks these for me. They are really tiny weeds that spread all over the yard, and you have to look really closely to notice them. But Livy always notices them and says how pretty they are.

Livy says: This mossy tree is across the street.

Kelly says: I never noticed this until Livy pointed it out to me, even though it is right across the street. She really has an eye for finding interesting details. I hope this nature journaling will help me to get better at noticing all the pretty things and the interesting things that we pass by every day.

Livy says: This bush is from our front yard. It blooms lots of pretty purple flowers each year.

Kelly says: I really should trim this loropetalum bush (it covers our entire bay window), but I never do because it is so humongous and lovely. I just can't bear it. Livy says that I just don't like to trim bushes or mow the lawn. Hmph.