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Summer Highlights 2020

With COVID restricting travel throughout most of 2020, we stayed within Nova Scotia for our summer hols. We explored Wentzell Woods almost daily in May and June as lock-down continued. At the end of June we booked a weekend in North Cabin at Milford House (made friends with a flying squirrel who was sharing Lily’s … Continue reading →

The iNaturalist app

At the beginning of April we downloaded the iNaturalist app on my phone and have been slowly but steadily uploading our nature observations. (The website is much easier to browse through: iNaturalist.ca) So far, we’ve uploaded 57 plants and animals. Our “finds” include salamanders and spiders, lichen and fungi, trees and shrubs, beetles and bees… … Continue reading →

Dancing aphids

These are Red Goldenrod Aphids (Uroleucon nigrotuberculatum). They only live on goldenrod apparently and don’t harm the plant. They provide food for ladybirds and other insects so I’m leaving them where I found them just on the edge of the woods by the bridge where they seemed to be dancing in unison on the leaves. … Continue reading →

May Day — slow progress

I felt like an update was needed on the slow progress of spring this year. It is May 1st today and Milo and I took a walk through the woods all the way to school — the first such trip this year. (The girls will walk through the woods to school on Monday for the … Continue reading →

April 2015 – No spring peepers yet

April 15 today. A sunny 17 degrees! Our first short-sleeves day of the year (the kids have been out in short sleeves but it doesn’t count until the adults are comfortable in short sleeves!). The birds were singing like crazy this morning — especially the cardinals. But not everything is singing yet. The spring peepers … Continue reading →

Magical pine tree

This is my favourite tree in our back woods – I think it is dead, and it is definitely hollow, but I love the colour of the red trunk and the amazing shape. I think it’s an Eastern White pine, which the Iroquois First Nation called “the tree of peace.”

A treasure hunt for kids

I made a little treasure hunt for my children today. Thought it might spice up our next hiking trip. I added photos for little adventurers that can’t read, and saved it as a PDF. Click here to download: treasure_hunt Enjoy!

Young Naturalists September meet

On Sunday, we joined the South Shore Young Naturalist Club for a walk through the scenic woods of Indian Commons. This week, the topic was mosses and the local expert, Anne, guided us through the moss-filled woods. We saw red-stemmed moss, bad hair day moss, broom moss, golden moss, cushion moss, a couple of different … Continue reading →

What do British soldiers and fairy puke have in common?

The answer is that they are both lichens. Yesterday was lichen day with the South Shore Young Naturalists Club. It is usually Matt who accompanies the girls, but I wanted to go because the talk was on lichens. I’ve been mildly obsessed with lichens since finding the witches whiskers. Yesterday’s talk didn’t disappoint. The teacher, … Continue reading →