More Photos Below!Gallery
We went on a nature hike this past spring with a local family. Their 4 kids are homeschooled. That’s not really how they should be ID’ed—they’re just nice folks. But I think their schooling really has helped them learn a lot—especially about nature. It was nice to be around them.
We went to the Waterloo Rec Area near Chelsea and ended up at the Eddy Discovery Center.
We started just off of Cavanaugh Rd and went from a high ridge on down to a boardwalk across a bog. I wish I’d taken a photo of the hiking party and the things they got up to but that’s the kind of journalist I am: when the going gets good I forget to work, or to record. I have a hard time making that mental “stop” when life is really rolling along. I can’t blame me. : ) But I did take a few pics of pritty flowers.
The homeschool kids had their sketchpads along and would stop and draw something every now and then. They knew everything about all the plants, trees and birds around us. I finally learned what our “pennywhistle bird” really is: a veery. Which has both a call and a song. Like all birds.
The older homeschool kid whittled an actual pennywhistle as we walked along, by slipping the bark off a twig then notching the twig, etc.
They showed us some of the carnivorous plants in the bog. Henry is into these, so this was the mission of the hike.
So here are some pics:
The flower’s habitat…
A flower.
The water in the pitchers.
Pitcher plants.
Sun dews. (They’re about 1/5″ diameter and have sticky fronds to grab flies with.)
