Our New Friend and a Rainbow

How's that for a blog post title? So here's our little friend that lives on our patio. She comes down to hangout by the grass and flowers every evening around the same time. I don't know much about spiders but think this is an orb weaver. As long as she's catching those pesky flies and keeping to herself, she's welcome to share our space. The kids have forgotten about the web a couple of times and accidentally ran through it. They felt so bad. But, she repaired it, and they are trying to remember now. Spider web all over your body is not really a pleasant feeling either!

And here's an especially vibrant rainbow we saw tonight. The kids saw it when they went out to play in our backyard and yelled for me to come and take a picture. There's something so beautiful and hopeful about a rainbow!

Still Hanging Out

A month ago, I posted a picture of my kids climbing our little tree in our backyard. The tree was just starting to bud. Here they are again climbing our same little tree only this time I could barely find them through the leaves. What a difference a month makes!

Our Babies

Ok, so not really our babies...but we really do get kind of protective of the little house finches that make their home here. There were 4 babies this time and they seemed to have very good parents. ;) We just love watching the little birds. It's so neat to see the parents making the nest and guarding it from other birds, then watching over the eggs and finally feeding their hungry little ones until they are ready to head out on their own. All four left the nest today. We're going to miss the excited chirping of baby birds getting fed. Last year we had another family move in a little later in spring. We'll have to watch and see if that happens this year too. 

A New Friend

This is "Stripey" found and named by C. He found him on another bush in our front yard. We were feeling a bit sad because the cat-faced spider was nowhere to be found. The web was gone and hasn't been rebuilt. We had gotten in the habit of checking on her every time we came and went from the house. We were all a bit bummed about it. Then C started yelling that he found a new spider and that it reminded him of the one at the Botanic Gardens. It's not quite as big as the garden spider, but the pattern on it's legs and body is so cool. Not as cool as the tarantula that we saw at the GGYR Pumpkin Patch on Monday. We were there for a homeschool field trip complete with horse rides, face painting and of course, pumpkins. It had been caught at the horse ranch that morning. B and A both held it. C and I were happy to watch it from a distance. ;) What is up with all the spiders lately??? :)

I really should change the name of my blog...

to something having to do with bugs. ;) We went to the Harvest Festival at the Botanic Gardens today. On our walk back to the farm area, we decided to take a path we had never seen before. On our detour we found this spider. Pretty sure it's a garden spider. I personally don't like it as much as "Pumpkin." But, it was cool enough to take some pictures. B is supposed to be studying insects this term. I guess we're getting that in without even trying!


Another picture of it moving around. I don't think I would like to find this in my house.



And a photo of a rose that looked so beautiful after our night of rain. I have taken my camera off automatic and am trying to learn a little more about digital photography. I am still pretty intimidated by all the settings, but a few of my photos are coming out. I'm really excited about that.

We did eventually make it back to the farm area where we met some friends. We got to watch apple cider being made, make corn husk dolls and crack walnuts on an antique nut cracker. And we bought some of the yummy cider!

More Bugs

I have this bad habit of leaving our back slider door wide open all the time. In fact, it's open right now. Anyway, we have lots of creepy crawly visitors because of it. Here's our latest find. A praying mantis on our kitchen chair. The kids thought it was soooo cool!

Ewwww Spiders

We have this awesome spider web between two bushes in our front yard. The boys saw the spider out tonight and ran to get me so that I could take a picture. I hate to admit that I know nothing about spiders. I have no idea what kind of spider this is, but it sure is cool.

ETA: We found out from a very informative and friendly docent at the Butterfly Exhibit that our spider is an Orb Weaver. Sometimes it's called a cat-faced spider or a pumpkin spider. Seems especially appropriate this time of year!

Butterflies

The kids and I went with friends to the local botanical gardens last Thursday to visit the Butterfly Pavilion. It was very hot but we had a lot of fun! I even got a couple of decent photos. Once it gets a bit cooler, my plan is for us to visit the gardens several times a month to work on our nature journals. I think even A could start drawing in a journal this year. This is an area I've really struggled with getting into our days and yet it's one of the things I love about the Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling. I'm really going to try to be more consistent with it this school year.