It is raining outside, a steady and gray rain.  Seth and Sarah are napping and the house is so quiet I can hear the clock ticking.  I have a fire going in the wood pellet stove and I’m sipping hot tea with my legs underneath a flannel quilt.  It’s been a fine morning.

Before the rain began to fall, I bundled up the little ones and went outside to hang laundry (oops) to dry (or will it?). Then, I put my camera around my neck, told Seth to slow down and wait for us  and took little Sarah by the hand.  We didn’t “go over a mountain to see what we could see”, but we did go down a hill.

Firstly, as it usually tends to happen, we went to the chicken coop to check on the flock and gather eggs.

There were three, one for him, and one for her, and one for me.

Who wants to hold one?

Really? 

I do!

Now let’s go back outside.

Seth, I said, outside!  Come on, let’s go see what we can see!

 

 

 

 

 

We weren’t sure what these dried berries were, I pulled them off a bush, they have a spicy scent. 

We found some bark on the ground and we looked around to find what tree it came from.

A birch~it peels and gives us paper to play with, it’s smooth and we scratch into it sometimes.

Sarah tripped over a branch and cried so we comforted her and showed her some tiny pinecones.

She added them into our cup a’treasures.

D A N D E L I O N

I was on the lookout for dandelion, so I could prepare myself a toothsome lunch salad. 

The sky became dark and as we explored around the pond, we noticed the rain commencing to fall.

It’s always lovely to see the rain hit the water……

It’s time to go inside, children!  How about some hot chocolate?  Yes?  And a hot dog for lunch.

While mama has leftover stuffed shells and dandelion salad.

“Dandelion leaves contain abundant vitamins and minerals, especially vitamins A, C and K, and are good sources of calcium, potassium, iron and manganese.”

 

Please watch this delightful cooking segment by Clara; a 94 year old lady (thank you to the friend who shared this with me last year!)

You can also click here,  (youtube)

 

Our chocolate square fiesta plate of nature finds:

pinecones

mysterious spicy dried berries

white birch bark

a dried fungus, pulled from a twig,

and the first wildflowers of the spring (bluets)