The future pinecones look like little candles in the shape of pine trees.

In the picture below, you can see both pinecones and needles being formed.

Make Wishes on the Needles

The needles are long and come in bunches of 2. You can make wishes on the needle bunches the same way you’d make a wish on a wish bone (being vegetarians, my little ladies have never made wishes on wish bones, they prefer to wish on pine needles).

The winner of course gets to make a wish!

So go find a red pine tree and make some good wishes!

I should give credit where it’s due- a Japanese woman shared this tradition of making wishes on red pine needles with my sister, Katrina, who works at an arboretum. We have been huge fans of the tradition ever since!

FYI- these pictures were taken during the summer, right now we actually have a lot of beautiful snow on the ground!

“That’s all,”
 Lisa

Take notice of Rain in a skirt, I can’t remember the last time she wore one! She prefers cotton “lounge” pants, she can’t help it, she’s a creature of comfort.

Fauna seems to be getting longer legs each day.

Our monarch came out of his chrysalis over the weekend. I love how tame butterflies are when they first emerge, sometimes they want to hang onto a finger and not let go. That was the situation with this guy. I think it was a little too chilly for his wings to warm up so we held him in the sun for a little while. When he finally flew off, you could tell he was thinking……”what in the world is going on and what do I do now?” He fluttered in the air in a very non-graceful way, he looked very nervous and frantic until he found the safety of our Hawthorne tree. He rested for a bit then tried to fly again only to land on another twig of the tree. He did this multiple times, I have never seen such a thing; our newly emerged butterflies usually just gracefully fly off and go out into the world. Not only was he special because of his unique personality, but he will be one of the monarch butterflies that fly to Mexico for the winter. I guess, the late season Monarchs have thicker wings that can carry them miles and miles; perhaps that is why they were a little tricker to get used to.  

We knew our Monarch was a male due to the 2 large dark spots on his hindwings.

You can see them better with the wings open. Read about the sexing of Monarchs at  Monarch Watch. (Picture below taken from Monarch Watch)

Speaking of graceful flyers, my sister Robin took the fantastic photo below of a red-tailed hawk. Look at those talons! Oh how I pity the creatures that get carried off by those.

Robin also took this picture of a young praying mantis. She titled it “Nature’s Sistine Chapel”-

named after Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” of course.

  If you are participating in Outdoor Challenge Mondays, be sure your blog link is below; if you still want to participate let me know and I’ll add you to the list.

5 orange potatoes, the five of us,little eco footprints,potje thee, silverpebble, the work of childhood, searching simplicity, love living simply, strasilo, semi-handmade, this little kitchen, school time adventures, heirloom seasons, the loving path, a place like this, the magnifying glass, pebbles in the water, chocolate eyes, we are here, rosy-posy, oakbee farm, my year in haiku, time to craft, child in harmony, serendipity, secret water, free flowing ways, se7en, a smile a day, where ada likes to wander, wide open campus, what are we doing today mom?, chasing domestic bliss, dim sum, bagels and crawfish, adventures of a flake, frontier dreams, the snail’s trail, goose and binky, over the crescent moon, it’s a wild life, my world edenwild,the binker files, lil muse lily, foursquare schoolhouse, obaitori, boys in the woods, bumbles and light , wonder in the woods, terrallectualism, semi-crunchy mama, Gwynneth, All Things Beautiful, we are here, shivaya naturals, free to learn and lovin it, moment to moment, being brooke, roots & wings co, little greenapple farm, 5 Orange Perks, home made simple, mommy and me, the child’s paper, jeszie, leaping greenly spirits, living and learning, for love of my oceans, earthboys, mummy do that!, pacific northwest nature for families, shoestrings and doing things

“That’s all.”

Gather:

old pillowcase
old wire hanger (if you still have any around)
scissors
pliers
piece of felt (optional to cover handle)

To make:

1. Using pliers, unwind the hanger at the top and form the wire into a circle.
2. Snip  1/2″ slit through one layer of the top of the pillow case, this is where the wire will be fed through.
3. Feed the wire through the top of the case.
4.  Using the pliers, wrap the ends of hanger around each other to make a handle.
5. I sewed a small piece of felt into a pocket to place on the wire handle so it wouldn’t poke the little ladies.

Now for the fun- sweep the net over tall grasses, prairie plants, trees, or shrubs. Fauna had a very gentle method of doing this-

Araina is the “gangbusters” type and did this in big swoops.

Tons of grass seeds and little critters made it into the pillowcases. Araina made friends with little tiny black beetles that would fall from the Queen Anne’s Lace, she thought they were the cutest things. 

This is a great tool for exploring the outdoors with the littles!

  If you are participating in Outdoor Challenge Mondays, be sure your blog link is below; if you still want to participate let me know and I’ll add you to the list.

5 orange potatoes, the five of us,little eco footprints,potje thee, silverpebble, the work of childhood, searching simplicity, love living simply, strasilo, semi-handmade, this little kitchen, school time adventures, heirloom seasons, the loving path, a place like this, the magnifying glass, pebbles in the water, chocolate eyes, we are here, rosy-posy, oakbee farm, my year in haiku, time to craft, child in harmony, serendipity, secret water, free flowing ways, se7en, a smile a day, where ada likes to wander, wide open campus, what are we doing today mom?, chasing domestic bliss, dim sum, bagels and crawfish, adventures of a flake, frontier dreams, the snail’s trail, goose and binky, over the crescent moon, it’s a wild life, my world edenwild,the binker files, lil muse lily, foursquare schoolhouse, obaitori, boys in the woods, bumbles and light , wonder in the woods, terrallectualism, semi-crunchy mama, Gwynneth, All Things Beautiful, we are here, shivaya naturals, free to learn and lovin it, moment to moment, being brooke, roots & wings co, little greenapple farm, 5 Orange Perks, home made simple, mommy and me, the child’s paper, jeszie, leaping greenly spirits, living and learning, for love of my oceans, earthboys, mummy do that!, pacific northwest nature for families, shoestrings and doing things

“That’s all.”

And the difficult learning of patience.

Here is Rainy waiting-

and waiting-

and waiting!

Finally!

A new microscope with new slides to view is an afternoon well spent! The microscope is- My First Lab Duo-Scope Microscope and the really cool box of 25 slides is- Celestron 44410 Prepared Microscope Slides. The microscope is very easy to use and has dual lights, one below the slide and one that shines from above for a different type of observation. The box of slides includes a bee face, dog intestines, blood smear, and many other cool things.

Shop update- I have added a lot of plush to my 5 Orange Potatoes Etsy shop over the last few days- new mini hedgehogs, mice, hootenannies, a star-nose mole, and a seahorse. Hop on over for a look.

“That’s all.”

Amphibians-  Gray Treefrog, it was nice to actually see one of these little guys which we hear every night in the warm summer months.

They camouflage so well. This guy really looked like the Pin Oak’s bark, including the lichen that grows on it.

COEXISTING-  the two Gray Hairstreaks are sharing the mint flowers with a Pearl Crescent. Actually there are 100s of these small butterflies, including skippers and sulphurs, wasps, and bees all over our blooming mint right now.

Patterns in nature- a Buckeye butterfly’s concentric circles.

Literature- Charlotte’s Web, an Ohio black and yellow garden spider (underside picture). Did you know that there are 7 segments to a spider’s leg?

  If you are participating in Outdoor Challenge Mondays, be sure your blog link is below; if you still want to participate let me know and I’ll add you to the list.

5 orange potatoes, the five of us,little eco footprints,potje thee, silverpebble, the work of childhood, searching simplicity, love living simply, strasilo, semi-handmade, this little kitchen, school time adventures, heirloom seasons, the loving path, a place like this, the magnifying glass, pebbles in the water, chocolate eyes, we are here, rosy-posy, oakbee farm, my year in haiku, time to craft, child in harmony, serendipity, secret water, free flowing ways, se7en, a smile a day, where ada likes to wander, wide open campus, what are we doing today mom?, chasing domestic bliss, dim sum, bagels and crawfish, adventures of a flake, frontier dreams, the snail’s trail, goose and binky, over the crescent moon, it’s a wild life, my world edenwild,the binker files, lil muse lily, foursquare schoolhouse, obaitori, boys in the woods, bumbles and light , wonder in the woods, terrallectualism, semi-crunchy mama, Gwynneth, All Things Beautiful, we are here, shivaya naturals, free to learn and lovin it, moment to moment, being brooke, roots & wings co, little greenapple farm, 5 Orange Perks, home made simple, mommy and me, the child’s paper, jeszie, leaping greenly spirits, living and learning, for love of my oceans, earthboys, mummy do that!, pacific northwest nature for families

“That’s all.”