Blackberries and other Nature finds.....

It is Blackberry season here on our property and we have had a lot of avid berry pickers over the last couple of weeks. One morning I came  down to breakfast with the little 'love token' pictured above on the table ...just for me. Flowers and berries picked just that morning by Eden on an early walk. I treasure these gifts of love that are a mostly daily event.....how blessed I am.

She even made this foil bowl for them to sit in, so very like her making individual touches in presentation. Don't they look very juicy and inviting?

I think they were very quickly divided amongst small little ones who were very anxious for a taste.

This is a view up to the back of our home from down toward the dam. I was walking down here with our children and just loved how the house looked through the trees. When we finished building these wattle were not even grown, they started to grow from scattered seed and now they present a lovely 'park like setting'. How beautiful!

It is very hard to see but can you see the mama swallow and her babies on the top of the basket ball net? The father was off scouting for food for these ever hungry babies. We have a family of swallow every spring and summer on our veranda in the same place, they are one of my favourite birds, in fact I think they are my all time favourites. I love to watch them fly around and the beautiful but subdued colours they have are so sweet.

As part of  our lessons this year I am trying to take the younger ones on a nature walk every couple of days, well the original plan was daily but I think we will vary this with some other sport activities.  We collected some finds to come back and draw in our nature notebooks.

Moran was the first to come back and in fact I found her already set up with her finds and drawing already as I came back with Myffy, Corbyn and Arwen.

Of course we found blackberries to draw as well as some moss and gum nuts. Corbyn thought these old dried out gum leaves were very interesting and Arwen kept picking the individual gum nuts off the branch. While out walking I looked at their summer camps they had made and the places they had built fairy houses in the past because I  'just had to see mummy'

As the children have been spending lots of time outside they have seen more insects, perhaps the warmer weather has something to do with it too? Arwen caught a bee and a butterfly that she had to have in a jar for a few hours. It is lovely to see her enjoying this activity and she often asks me to come out and play with her, luckily she has some special sisters and brothers who take this up when I cannot.

After Rogan picked two buckets of blackberries he kept asking to make jam or a pie with them. My reaction was that a pie was much better and I think really he enjoyed having it to share with us for sweets that night.

Another collection of bees and butterflies! The children are convinced they have seen a new type of bee around, one they have not seen before. Arwen once again loved these ones, they had to have clover flowers to climb on and she  actually put them to bed because' they were tired,' what she failed to mention  was the fact she put them on Autumn's bed and not her own.....a pleasant surprise for her big sister.

As the children pick all the blackberries and the cooler weather starts in I am sure these bush ramble swill become a little harder to find interesting things on, but for now the beauty of a late Summer nature walk is a joy to behold.

Blessings to you and your homes,