Explore Outdoors ~ Winter Weeds wear snowy top hats

 Winter is every bit as good for flower-watching as any other season. It's all about appreciating the  seeds and pods and (sometimes prickly) stems. 

   

 

 

 

When you look closely you can see dainty curls and spirals...

 

 

 

 

... or perhaps the scraggly hairs and thin points of dried bracts.

 What beauty are you finding in the winter weeds and flowers around you?

 

Explore Outdoors ~ Teasel Texture

 

Spring is coming. We know this. But still, snow squally clouds let go their fluffy stuff... and the prickery stickery teasels catch it. At least on the windward side.

• Can you tell what direction the wind was blowing?
• What do you notice about the stem of the teasel?
• Can you figure out why (back in the day) spinners used teasels to comb the wool before spinning it into yarn?
• What else do you notice about the teasel?

Now go for a walk around your house or through your neighborhood. What textures do you notice in the plants (dead or alive) where you live? 

Explore Outdoors ~ winter shadows

 

The dried stems, twisted leaves, and prickly seed heads of winter weeds are interesting in themselves. But somehow they become dainty works of art when the sun casts their shadows on the snow.

This week, look for shadows of grasses, flowering plants, dried stalks. If the snow melts, don't worry - you can find shadows on sidewalks and packed dirt. What do the shadows look like? The one above looks almost like socks hanging from a clothesline. The shadows below make me think of fireworks shooting into the sky and bursting open.

What will you discover?

Explore Outdoors ~ Afternoon Light

 

Even the weediest weeds and crispest leaves burn with gold in the afternoon light. Any other time of year I would call it "late afternoon light" - but here in upstate New York, on a winter's day, the sun hangs low by mid-afternoon. By late afternoon it is only minutes from the horizon.

This week, pay attention to the light. How is it captured by leaves and brittle seedpods? Does it enhance their color? Reflect off hard surfaces? Hurt your eyes with sparkly brilliance? Or muddle its way through the clouds? 

If you find a good place to watch the light, try capturing some photos at the same time over the next few months. Do you see a difference as our planet starts heading into spring?

Explore Outdoors ~ milkweed pods

By this time of the winter season, most seeds have flown - or been gobbled up by hungry birds, mice, and squirrels. What's left of the milkweed is a hard shell of the pod, smoothed and grayed by wind and weather. What use is an empty pod?

This year I'm encouraging everyone to spend 1,000 hours outdoors. So on Wednesday I'll be posting ideas for nature breaks, field trips, and outdoor play. The goal: to have fun!

Teachers and homeschoolers who want to use nature breaks as field trips can grab a sketchbook or journal, something to draw and write with, and some watercolors, colored pencils, crayons, or markers. Think cross-curricular: art, language, science, math, engineering, movement, exercise! And come back Friday for some STEM book-talk.

Wednesday Explorers Club ~ nature outside the door

Last week it was so cold that everyone pulled on their snow hats! Even these prickly, old Monardas.
What do you see when you walk out your front door this week?

Wednesday Explorers Club ~ nature break

How to Take a Nature Break:

• Grab your sketchbook and pencil (in case it's cold enough to freeze ink)
• Find some winter weeds
• Draw one or two of them
• Jot notes about them, or write haiku, maybe lines for a song
• (if it's too cold outside, bring a few inside to draw)

Why don't we just take a camera, you ask?

Great question! Here's what I've discovered: when I draw something in nature, I slow down. Look more closely at the details. Jot notes about what I am observing. Things like: how tall it is, what it reminds me of. (The fruiting structures on the sensitive fern on the left remind me of tiny chocolate drops lined up on toothpicks.)

Winter weeds could be grasses, goldenrods, things with berries, plants with pods. You might not know what they are, but that's OK because there are places to find out. One of my favorite references is Lauren Brown's Weeds in Winter (updated and revised as Wildflowers and Winter Weeds)

Wednesday Explorers Club ~ winter weeds

winter weeds

are mostly seeds

until the birds drop by