BACKYARD GLORY

Afternoon Delight

2012-01-07T19:48:00.001-05:00

Welcome to our yard! We had such fun yesterday, when the weather treated us to a "Spring-like" day!
We took these pictures for you!

Such a beautiful sky

My baby ~ such a big boy, now

Trees that start like this

Grow VERY tall in just a few years' time!

A Little Charlie Brown tree, found among the winter brush

"Mama, Mama! Wait for us!"

Big boy wanted to take a picture all by himself. He knows that come summer time, these branches will be filled with delicious, juicy, berries and we will make jam together!

Stopping by to visit a fort leftover from summer

Our little monkey-girl

Wonder who's living in here, now?

Good dog, Jack...good dog

Thunder greeted us with a yawn :)

What do kids do with Daddy's old scrap wood? They make a "Kid's Club" of course!

And paint it blue, on the outside, for the boys...and pink, on the inside, for the girls!

Sturdy walls, up against a nice, strong tree, for support

Sure do get thirsty after running around the fields on a bright, sunny day!

"Buddy" the Snail

2012-01-07T15:39:00.001-05:00

Sarah introduced us to this little visitor from our woods yesterday.
We had such fun, sitting in the sunshine and watching him go in an out of his shell:)
God's creatures are SO remarkable!

We wanted to share this glimpse of our "Backyard Glory" with you!

Don't forget to "mute" our playlist in the right-hand sidebar so that you can hear the audio of the video, above:)

These Are a Few of Our Interesting Things

2011-06-16T16:29:00.001-04:00

The Beginnings of Our Garden

Leftover pic from winter: The DAD Sculpture!

Lovely Flowers of Spring

Jake's Awesome Hut

The Mutant Peanut in the Bunch

A Morning Visitor

Friendly Garter Snake

Autumn Splendor!

2010-10-31T21:26:00.000-04:00

Above, Beyond, In, Under, Around and More!

2010-10-06T11:52:00.003-04:00

It's been quite a while since we've been able to share our Backyard Glory with you!

Lots of awesome and wondrous things have been happening around here all summer.

Rather than try to categorize, separate, or otherwise present these snippets of our

backyard nature with you in some "orderly" form, we decided to simply "put it all on the table"

"smorgasbord style" for you to browse and glimpse the many beautiful, interesting, and

delightful things that God has blessed us with in these Pennsylvania woods!

ENJOY A PEEK AT OUR SUMMER SURROUNDINGS!

By the way, we've noticed that some new visitors have signed up to follow this blog with us!

WELCOME to each and all of you! We also notice that some of YOU have nature journal blogs online as well; and we look forward to stopping in for a visit!

New life: Always so precious!

Beautiful Azaleas!

Way back in its beginnings: It grew to feed us all summer long!

Queen Ann's Lace/ lovely to look at but BE CAREFUL touching! Can cause an allergic reaction to skin and eyes!

If you visit us, Our Lady will welcome you! My little stones that Laura gave me as a gift didn't show up well in this picture. One says "Faith" and the other, "Hope"

Tiny Little Lunch Guest

Not much bigger than the pile of bananas we're offering him!

Say "cheeeese"!

Pretty Black-eyed Susans

Sweet Sarah Peanut

Two Happy Gardeners! Our Very First Watermelon!

Yummy, Hot Banana Peppers: We slice these and place them in jars with equal parts of vinegar and water...a bit of crushed mint, and a clove or two of crushed garlic...Let sit for several days in the fridge and ENJOY a special treat!

Bounty! THANK YOU, LORD!

Daddy's Saturday Helpers!

This Work is FUN!

Look closely...there are two grasshoppers mating on our tomato vine!

Garter Snake

Night-time Beauty!

Looks like SALSA to me!!!

Sweet Thunder...so GLAD he came home!

"The Parade of the Lady Bugs" This photo would NOT upload in the correct position...it just kept flipping to the side...sorry!

We Miss Our Nature Blog!

2010-07-08T07:52:00.002-04:00

You'll notice that the last post we entered here in our Backyard Glory was waaaay back in May.

After that, we had our big computer crash...so many many many pics we had queued to be loaded here were lost....and now...our camera is broken. ::SIGH::

We are sorry that we can't show you our wonderful berries growing along-side our woods, or the wildflowers sprinkled among the fields...our garden, the DRY creek, or the many other sites of summer in our back yard.

However, you could browse the archives of this blog while you are waiting for us to get a new camera...as soon as we are able, we will be back to posting here again!

PRAISE GOD FOR THE GLORY OF NATURE!

Guest for lunch...

2010-05-01T15:37:00.013-04:00

A little woodland friend showed up today for lunch.
This "guest" had yellow spots, a wide mouth, long claws and a tail......

A BOX-TURTLE!

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We fed our friend bananas and watermelon, with a tin pie pan filled with water.
The turtle ate very quickly and then went back to it's natural home in the woods.... But we DID manage to snag a few "memory photos"!

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He doesn't seem to know what to do yet.....

Now he has banana on his nose!

Fly away! Be FREE!!
lol

Joey is enjoying himself!

Beautiful colors!

I think he likes the food...

"Hmmm.... now for that red stuff!"
lol

Messy eater.

Little bites! Little bites!!!
lol

"What?"...

We hope you've enjoyed these photos!
If you want to learn more about Box-Turtles, click HERE

A "GIFT" from Our Daughter!

2010-03-18T12:19:00.005-04:00

Christine, our eldest daughter, presented us with this "GIFT" for the nature displays in our classroom! This "GIFT" fell out of a tree and whopped her right on the head!!!! Thank GOODNESS it was winter at the time!

Remember Woody Woodpecker?

2010-03-18T12:17:00.002-04:00

We think he has moved into our woods!

Water Rush!

2010-03-15T12:57:00.018-04:00

After all this snow and rain... our creek has risen quite a bit! We had a HUGE flood and everything turned into a big beautiful muck puddle! (LOL)
Here are some photos of this 'watery wonder' for you to enjoy!
Although you can't tell from the photos, this water is almost three feet deep!
And it is rushing so fast in some spots that we haven't allowed little Benny to approach for fear of
him falling in and being whisked away!

Bird Watching:

2010-03-11T19:42:00.018-05:00

I (Laura) recently went bird hunting for science class. I took a few photos and I thought you'd enjoy them~ xo

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Here are some photos of Robins:

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Here is a Tufted Titmouse:

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And finally.... some Bluebirds:

I hope you liked the pictures! Come back often to see more!
xo

MORE OF OUR WINTER!

2010-01-08T10:41:00.005-05:00

We love the woods in the winter time!

Laura's view from her bedroom window!

Where did our steps go?

Looking out of our school room window!

GROWN IN LOVE!!!

2010-01-08T10:36:00.002-05:00

Talk about being grown in love!
This heart-shaped potato came out of our bag of
potatoes the other day! We got such a kick out of it
that we wanted to share it with you!

WALKIN' IN A WINTER WONDERLAND!

2009-12-05T20:56:00.013-05:00

You'll notice that the date in the corner of these photos says that it is January 1st, 2006...OOPS...sorry! We haven't figured out how to change the date on Laura's camera!!!

Here's a little peek at our first SNOWFALL this year! ENJOY! (I especially hope that my friend Colleen Spiro stops by as I know that she misses her winters in New England!)

Boys will be boys! Even when they are DOGS!!!

We try to remember to wear our orange caps during hunting season!

Some Autumn Crafts:

2009-10-30T15:31:00.008-04:00

This is 7 yr. old Joseph's awesome craft!
lol

Here is 4 yr. old Sarah's beautiful leaf sheet!

Behold.... 5 yr. old Mary Clare's masterpiece!
lol

Here is 8 yr. old Gracie's Colorful craft

And this is 9 yr. old Mary Helen's Autumn Design

So much to enjoy!!!

2009-10-30T14:47:00.016-04:00

Here's a small collection of recent photos from our yard

If you were to look out our school window... this is what you would see!
(That's the girls' play house behind the slide)

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
This cherry red tree is right near the house and is easily spotted by its bright colors.

The backyard was simply littered with mushrooms the other day!
(Although those mushrooms do not exist any more on account of some little feet that found their way over to the infested spot! lol)

MORE MUSHROOMS!!
Isn't it amazing that ALL of these mushrooms are growing out of one place??!!!

The ground must have been particularly .... fertile.... in this spot in the backyard.

What's the difference between a toadstool and a mushroom?
(We have always referred to anything we buy at the store to eat as a "mushroom" and
anything growing in the wild as a "toadstool", simply to give the babies a distinction as in: "These
we eat.....these we DO NOT")
However, if you CLICK HERE, you can read the scientific information on the matter!

This interesting blob was discovered in the backyard by some of the kids. It is supposedly just fungi but we are not certain.

Here is a beautiful little friend we found in the woods a few days ago.... A Garter snake.
It was only about a foot long (if even) and seemed to be more afraid of us then we were of it.

Have you ever seen so many huge birds???!!!!
There have been a lot of these interesting fowls gathering in the field lately when the air is windy and the sky is gray .... perhaps it has something to do with the weather(???)
Laura had a disconcerting moment when they all put wings back and DOVE right for her in the field. Quick thinker that she is she RAN LIKE THE DICKENS into the woods to be sheltered by the trees overhead (and screamed for her brother Jake to come help on the way!!!)

"We hope you have enjoyed your visit to our yard!
Come back again soon!

AUTUMN GLORY!

2009-10-25T14:33:00.012-04:00

OUR WOODS

Some recent photos of our yard and neighborhood for you to enjoy!
This post is especially for Colleen Spiro, from Thoughts on Grace blog...who doesn't get to see these things in Florida!!! Hope you like these photos Colleen! We took them with you in mind!

Tip-top of our Trees

A Neighbor's Tree

Our Road

OUR ROAD GOING THE OTHER WAY

Front Yard Beauty

A BEAUTIFUL WORLD!

2009-09-23T11:48:00.003-04:00

Dad's Trees!

2009-09-23T11:27:00.003-04:00

Here are Dad's trees in the Spring!

Notice how far toward the center aisle they now reach and you can see how much they've grown in just a few short months!

A KISS IN THE SKY!

2009-09-23T11:25:00.002-04:00

Don't these clouds look like lips?!?

BEAUTIFUL SIGNS OF AUTUMN!

2009-09-23T11:17:00.006-04:00

The Last of Our Wonderful Garden!

Fun on a Bush Ramble!

2009-09-23T10:47:00.011-04:00

Our friend Gae, from "down under" in Australia, (whose blog is you can visit HERE)
calls fun time where children are free to explore, roam, and play in the woods a
"BUSH RAMBLE"

Here a few photos of the kids enjoying their recent BUSH RAMBLE in our woods!

A Lovely Bouquet for Mommy!

Making a Pot of "Weed Salad" for Her too!

How Many Girls Can Fit on One Vine?

A "Clare-Bear on a Vine"!

Gracie-Girl Takes a Ride!

How Far Will Mary Helen Go?

And Nowwww...Big Brother Jake's Turn!!!!

FORTS, FUN, and OTHER INTERESTING THINGS IN THE WOODS!

2009-09-23T10:01:00.015-04:00

Fungi on a Log in the Creek

God's Abstract Art!

Some Happy Fort-dwellers!

The Makings of a Fine Fort!

Fungi on a Stump at the Fort

(photos in this post by Mom)

Fuzzy Friends

2009-09-10T15:35:00.009-04:00

Sorry the photos are rather blurry.

Yep....THIS is caterpillar POOP.

Here's the fella that did it.

Here are some sites to read more about caterpillars and how to identify them.

http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1121/

http://www.pbase.com/crocodile/caterpillars2004&page=all

Reaping the Harvest!

2009-08-05T14:35:00.004-04:00

Here is today's produce from our garden!

Can't wait to make more delicious salsa!!!

BUNNIES!!!!

2009-08-02T19:30:00.008-04:00

IN THE EVENING, MOM AND THE KIDS WERE UP IN THE GARDEN PICKING TOMATOES AND SQUASH......

BUT THEY ALL WERE UNAWARE OF THE FACT THAT THEY HAD TWO OTHER LITTLE HELPERS OBSERVING THEM CLOSE BY!

WHEN JOSEPH REACHED FOR A TOMATO, AND GLANCED UPON A COUPLE OF LITTLE BROWN PUFFS, THEY MADE THE ADORABLE DISCOVERY OF TWO LITTLE BABY BUNNIES!!!!!!!!!!

EVERYONE GOT THE CHANCE TO LOOK AT THEM.... TOUCH THEM.... HOLD THEM.... AND THEN LET THEM BACK UNDERNEATH THE SAFETY OF THE TOMATO PLANTS.

THE DOGS, JACK AND THUNDER, DID NOT TAKE TOO KINDLY TO THIS ACTION! THEY WERE STRONG IN THEIR THOUGHTS TO DEVOUR THE LITTLE THINGS!!! LOL

IN A SHORT WHILE, THE BABY BUNNIES HOPPED THROUGH THE FENCE THAT SURROUNDED THE GARDEN, AND WENT LEAPING INTO THE WOODS.

HERE ARE A FEW PHOTOS OF OUR LITTLE GARDEN HELPERS FOR YOU TO ENJOY!

SNUG FIT!

WHERE AM I?!

Morning Visitor

2009-07-15T14:43:00.006-04:00

This interesting creature was on our sliding glass doors early in the morning.

Can anyone identify it for us?
We'd sure love some help!

I know that one of the mom bloggers out there is married to an Entomologist but I can't remember who it is! So, if you can not identify the insect...but you DO know the mom of whom I speak, let me know, so we can contact her! Thanks!

Flowers that Grow Wild in Our Yard!

2009-07-15T13:25:00.024-04:00

This is a Butterfly Plant! Isn't it lovely?
The more formal name is Orange Milkweed.
The Latin: Asclepias tuberosa L.

This beautiful plant is native to the USA.
It is an herb that is a perennial (comes back each year).
The leaf retention is deciduous (meaning it drops its leaves seasonally)
and the fruit type is legume (usually meaning that it has parts (pods) that open)

This flower has bright orange blossoms as you can see; and green leaves.
Although it is called "milkweed" its sap is not milky.

Butterflies are very attracted to its bright colors!

WARNING!!!!!! The sap and the roots, if taken in large quantities are TOXIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Having said that, parts of this plant have been used medicinally by Native Peoples. The tough root was chewed to cure pleurisy
and other pulmonary ailments. This is why it's also called Pleurisy Root. It has been chewed to fight bronchitis and other respiratory complaints as well...and a tea made from the root has been said to cure diahrrea.

NOTE: This information is offered for your interest, but we CAUTION you to read the WARNING above again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Purple Thistle
(Cirsium horridulum )
This delicate beauty is a member of the Daisy Family.
You can read more about it here.
The tender baby leaves have been known to be boiled by people and served as edible greens!

QUEEN ANNE'S LACE
The Latin: Daucus Carota (wild carrot)

Such a lovely plant but NOT esteemed by agricultural authorities who have labeled it a noxious weed! (A noxious weed is that which is said to be grossly detrimental to livestock, humans, agriculture or horticulture)
Learn more about this lovely "pest" here.
CAUTION! We did not know (until we read the info on the site of the above link) that handling Queen Anne's Lace can cause a SEVERE skin reaction called Phytophotodermatitis! This can appear within 8-10 minutes of contact if the person remains outdoors in sunlight. Visit the site to learn more!
You will notice that in the above photo, we have placed our flowers in a clear glass filled with red food-coloring water. We used this as a simple experiment to demonstrate osmosis to the children. In explaining how the roots of plants take in water to nourish themselves, we cut the stems of the Queen Anne's Lace on a diagonal and let them sit in this glass of water for three days.
The second photo shows how they looked at the conclusion of our little experiment!

PRETTY!

Fly, Fly, Little Birdies!

2009-07-15T13:09:00.007-04:00

Baby American Robins
Latin: Tordus Migratorious
Also known as the North American Robin
Read about this bird here.
(first two photos by Mom)

These little fellows were nestled in above our heads on a rafter of the girls' outdoor playhouse!

We wanted so much to take their picture...it happened to be Independence Day, July 4th.

Well...these siblings decided that it was going to be THEIR Independence Day as well because just as I climbed a ladder to gently approach the nest with our camera they ALL FLEW THE NEST!!!! Not really ready for strong flight as of yet...two of them dropped INTO the playhouse and one landed in the yard....as they flew/fell they were giving us their own versions of "bombs bursting in air"....We were all screaming AND ducking at the same time! YUCK!

Here's where one little guy landed!
Ha ha! "What's for lunch?" he seems to ask.
You can see his brother (or sister) down on the floor in the corner there....see it?
Everywhere they landed, they were leaving MESSES behind!!!! The girls were devastated that their playhouse was being thus-defiled!

Handy big brother Jake came to our rescue and scooped each of them up, taking them to safety in the brush!

Here's where the other one landed!

FRESH BERRIES RIGHT OFF THE BUSH!!! (photo by Judy)

2009-07-01T22:38:00.007-04:00

We could eat these by the ton! They are so delicious! We even eat them frozen as a special treat!

The kids love them in their cereal, and we all love them on top of our vanilla ice cream! In fact, we love them just in a bowl with a little cream or milk and a tiny bit of sugar!!! We put them in muffins too! Next week, we are going to make a little batch of home made jam!

Scroll down the page to see how our garden is faring! And below the garden pictures, you'll find some great photos from the "Little House on the Prairie" gang that visited me for lunch today! After that, there are some lovely views from our front porch that we wanted to share with you !

IT'S GROWING!!! (photos by Judy)

2009-07-01T22:07:00.014-04:00

My sweet husband and kids gave me this cute
little sign as a gift last year.

Look how well the tomatoes are doing!
Such a big difference in just a few weeks!
Here they are a short time ago: CLICK

Mmm, mmm, good! Jalapeno peppers !
I can almost TASTE the homemade salsa!

This is our yellow squash. We love to slice it into
circle shapes, dip it into a flour/milk batter, and fry it in
a little bit of oil, then sprinkle with seasoning salt.
It is one of our favorite summer time snacks!
Sometimes, on a really hot day, we'll just have THAT with
some fruit salad (or ice cream!) and a tall, cold pitcher
of iced tea for supper!

LUNCH IN THE PLAY HOUSE

2009-07-01T21:46:00.007-04:00

Summer time...so much fun...and a perfect time to have
a "Little House on the Prairie" lunch
in the play house outside!

"Baby Carrie and Mr. Edwards"...ha ha

VIEWS FROM THE FRONT PORCH (photos by Judy)

2009-07-01T21:23:00.010-04:00

OUR YELLOW BARN

Oh beautiful, for spacious skies...

Looking out off the side of our front porch

FROGGY!

2009-06-28T17:57:00.006-04:00

LOOKIN' SMALL IN THE BIG ORANGE BUCKET!

A FROG THAT WAS FOUND IN THE SOGGY, WET, SQUISHY WOODS AFTER A NICE LONG MIST.

If you re-visit our Friday, June 19th, 2009 post, you can see a photo of a TOAD and find information to help you learn the difference between these two little guys.

If you go back and forth between the two photos, you can see a major difference in the legs.

We'd love to see your frog/toad pictures too! So, send us a link in a comment if you'd like to
share some with us!

2009-06-23T22:17:00.004-04:00

Nothing like a little FUN with the garden hose on a hot summer day!

Sal and Sally Salamander

2009-06-23T21:09:00.007-04:00

Do boys EVER come in from playing outside without bringing something that crawls, wriggles, slithers, or hops?!?

Mr. and Mrs. Sal and Sally Salamander were today's house guests!

Would you like to know more about Salamanders?

CLICK HERE!

(photos by Judy)

Too Close for Comfort

2009-06-23T21:06:00.006-04:00

This guy is making himself right at home in our BEDROOM WINDOW right behind our bed!!!
I think he has to go, don't you?

(photo by Judy)

Father's Day (photos by Judy)

2009-06-23T20:47:00.009-04:00

One of the gifts the children gave to their Dad for Father's Day is featured in these photos.
Dad's a man of order, tidiness, cleanliness, etc... (do you read "ARMY VET" into that?) and our "Backyard Glory" was a little in need of some help as far as the front porch goes! So, the kids all got together and scrubbed the siding, the wood, the rails, the furniture...they bought a new Welcome mat, and added a vase of flowers to spruce things up a bit.
Dad was SO surprised and overjoyed!
Take a look....didn't they do a nice job?

Toads, Turtles, and Sweet Little Girls Who Love Flowers!

2009-06-19T12:16:00.011-04:00

This is a TOAD:

How can one tell the difference between a Toad and a Frog?

Well...did you know that ALL toads ARE frogs? But not all frogs are toads!
Confused?
Read here for a further explanation.

Is that a cute boy, or what?
And booyyyy does he LOVE toads...so much so in fact that one day, he came in the house with a baseball cap upon his head (pretty usual for the boys in our family).
However, this particular cap was just sort of balanced up there...sitting ever-so-gently-but-not-all-the-way on .
With a face that was obviously holding back a huge grin...this conversation took place between us:

Me: "Hi Joseph"
Him: "Hi Mommy"
Me: "Joseph....why are you wearing your hat like that?"
Him: "Ummm...no reason" ::grin, smile, grin, smile::
Me: "Jooossseeepphhh, remove your hat in the house please"
Him: "Yes Mommy...but can't I keep it on just this once?"
Me: "Jooosseeepphhh, what's under that hat?"

Joseph, being an obedient son...then carefully removed his hat from his head, only to reveal not one, but TWO toads sitting atop of him content as could be!!! His little sister must have picked up on that trick, because we later found an amphibious friend under her pillow!!!!!!!!

We enjoy feeding BOX TURTLES from time to time when they wander by the house!

We have kept them as pets in a "pen" that my son built out of wood. However, we finally did
away with that because the poor little things kept
digging their way under and out...so we decided to let them go free.

They REALLY love to eat raw ground beef , watermelon, strawberries, and....believe it or not....CAT FOOD in a can!!!

Click the link above to read about them! You can also visit our archives under the category "woodland friends" to learn more!

Something about little girls and handfuls of wild clovers and dandelions just makes you smile, doesn't it?

SO BIG, SO QUICKLY!

2009-06-06T13:11:00.007-04:00

Remember those wee tiny little fluff-ball birdies?

Look how much they've grown!

Scroll down the page to the May 22nd post to see how tiny they were just a short time ago!

IMPOSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-05-27T12:13:00.007-04:00

Thanks to some snake experts at enaturalist.org, to whom we corresponded and sent photos, we have discovered that the above unwanted visitor is actually an Eastern Hog- nose snake
(scroll way down when the page opens)...this guy is known as "the great actor of the snake world" because he often looks like a Copperhead AND will also flip over and play dead if threatened.

The snake experts also taught us that snakes which loudly HISS (as ours did) are almost certainly never venomous...venomous snakes almost never hiss.

We are VERY grateful to enaturalist.org for reviewing our photos and helping us clarify our identification...we are also VERY RELIEVED that it was NOT a Copperhead...we know that we have them in our woods, but were very troubled to think that one had gotten so close to the play area of the children!

WHEW....that's enough excitement for a while :)

CURIOUS

2009-05-22T14:48:00.008-04:00

We have REALLY been enjoying finding and observing all of the many birds' nests around our yard!

Today, the most INTERESTING moment occurred when we discovered this nest which has TWO DIFFERENT KINDS of eggs in it!

We have tried to research, and we have decided that perhaps a Cowbird has laid it's eggs in a Bluebird's nest! (We didn't know if the blue eggs were a Robin's or Bluebird's, but they seem much too small to be a Robin's)

This activity is known as Brood Parasitism and is commonly carried out by several species of birds.

The eggs in our particular nest, look like a Cowbird's eggs...so we are guessing that this might be the case.

If you are a bird expert and notice that we are incorrect, we would LOVE for you to leave a comment and clarify our identification for us!

Here's the picture of our "inclusive" nest:

We can't WAIT to see the diverse little brood that comes forth here!!! You will notice a few tiny chips of an egg in the picture...there was a crushed egg in the nest (which we removed). Our reading taught us that the Brood Parasite (invader bird) will often "remove" one or more of the host eggs in order to lay her own in the nest...we assume that this is why one of the blue eggs was crushed.

This exquisite domain has been built under our front porch! Isn't it lovely? This photo does not do it justice, as the green moss looks so bright and pretty in person. What's even more beautiful, are these teeny-weeny residents that we peeked in on today! Take a look:

Further out in our yard, tucked away in one of the trees that dh planted a few years back, are some neighbors of this tiny little congregation...and here is what they looked like this morning:

We will keep you up to date on the progress of our backyard friends...we only hope that the "mixed" family survives, as in our study, we learned that many times, the host fledglings will kick out (destroy) the parasitic invader's young. STAY TUNED!

Watching the Harvest Grow!

2009-05-18T14:15:00.007-04:00

(Photo by Mom)
Some of our tomatoes are beginning to thrive!
The kids made this nice little stone border as a path up the center of the garden.

We'll have tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, and two kinds of yellow squash.

We haven't gardened in several years...so we decided to start "small"!

Stay At Home Vacation!

2009-05-18T13:46:00.016-04:00

Here are some photos we took around the yard this past week as we enjoyed a stay at home vacation together!
(Photos in this post by Mom)

The Azaleas are especially pretty this year.

Ah oh...looks like the Gypsy Moths are returning!
Our area has suffered tremendous damage from them the past few summers.
You can learn more about this pest from visiting this VERY informative site:
GYPSY MOTHS

Lovely Robin's eggs...we find a nest in this same place EVERY Spring!

Good Ol' Jack!
Our great watch dog warned us with his fierce growl and bark the last night of vacation...he knew that a rabid raccoon was NOT a welcomed guest in our front yard!

THANKS JACK!

WORMY FRIENDS
(worm photos by Laura)

RAINY DAYS CREEK

2009-05-05T11:37:00.011-04:00

Looking Up the Path from Our Creek

Yesterday, the water was up over the banks...we were SO disappointed that we missed that photo opportunity!

When the boys landed...the water was up to Joey's (ds, 6)
BELLY BUTTON!!!

BRIGHT SPRING DAY!

2009-04-24T14:24:00.022-04:00

Forsythia is a genus of a flowering plant in the Olaceae (olive) family. It is one of 11 species, mostly native to eastern Asia , but one native to southeastern Europe. The genus is named after a William Forsyth.
For more interesting info and scientific classification of this pretty plant, visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/For syth ia

Dandelion...scientifically known as Taraxacum is a flower head composed of hundreds of individual flowers. Click here to learn more!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandelion

A simple view of Dad's pine trees! Over 24 of these overlook our landscape, and all of them will grow to be over 30 ft. tall! Enjoy them

while they're still small!

A huge Pine tree grows by our second driveway. You would find that we have a lot of these on our property and most of them are good for climbing!

Is THIS what an ant sees every day?! It looks like a jungle from down here! WOW!
To us grass just may seem like an ordinary thing to see; but if you look closer, you might find

yourself in another world!

"CLOUDS"
What a beautiful thing to look upon after a long day! Each cloud is different and adds its own special touch!

NO SCHOOL!

2009-04-07T10:23:00.004-04:00

SPRING TIME?!?!?!?

BIG BROTHERS COME IN HANDY!

IN THE WOODS, by: Mary Helen (8) and Gracie (7)

2009-04-06T15:45:00.003-04:00

In the Woods

Take a walk in the woods
With a basket of goods

Say a little prayer
Sniff the nice clean air

We love the space
It's lots of fun to race

We love our woods
It's so much fun
To have a picnic
In the nice warm sun

2009-04-06T15:23:00.000-04:00

http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/midorcas/research/Contribute/box%20turtle/boxinfo.htm~A Shy Woodland Friend~
(photo taken by Sister Johanna Penn, OCD)
American Box Turtle
Latin: Terrapene, Carolina sp
CLICK THE ABOVE LINK TO VISIT A VERY INFORMATIVE SITE ABOUT THIS WOODLAND CREATURE!

2009-04-06T15:22:00.006-04:00

The Joys of a Backyard Dirt Pile !
Who needs a sandbox?

2009-04-06T11:37:00.004-04:00

The Awesome Diversity of GOD!

2009-04-06T11:26:00.005-04:00

There are over 12,000 species of MOSS (from the Medieval Latin: mossa)
Visit:
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/moss
and

http://www.backyardnature.net/mosses.html

to learn more about this most interesting plant

2009-04-06T11:09:00.001-04:00

A Creepy Crawly Creek-Inhabitant

2009-04-06T10:47:00.004-04:00

"Escargot Buddies"
White-lipped Snail
Latin: Cepaea Hortensis

2009-04-06T10:45:00.000-04:00

A Quiet Place

2009-04-06T10:39:00.000-04:00

Don't Forget Your Boots!

2009-04-06T10:28:00.001-04:00

Friends of a Feather

SPRINGTIME TREES (HAIKU) by: Judy

2009-04-03T22:16:00.001-04:00

Springtime trees stand tall

Rustling, swaying, to and fro

Bursting with new life!

2009-04-03T11:54:00.003-04:00

~ the crisp, cool, clear waters of spring in our creek ~

~Lunch Time With God~