Green

The temperatures hit the low 60's today (and it's March - I know, it's a fickle month and it could be snowing by the weekend). All of our reading about St. Paddy's day convinced us that it is really just an excuse to celebrate Spring a wee bit early (unless you're an OU student, in which case, it is an excuse to wear green and drink a lot of beer), so Out we went...

We visited a place we go to often to hike, which means we notice the things that change. The girls noticed that the creek, running a bit high, is really full of sand right now.

We were on a mission to find moss today - nothing greener than moss to celebrate St. Patrick's day with, is there?

Our woods are still pretty brown, but there are green things beginning to poke up through the leaf litter. Look down, look down...Eliza found the first two leaves of jewelweed starting to grow in the same place we've seen it in past years. 

 Puffballs and moss on a tree

I brought along paper, some cardboard, and our colored pencils in case the mood should strike us to write or draw. It did! We'll tape the girls' drawings and notes into their (underused) nature journals.  We listened to a hawk crying over and over, and we could hear the peepers from all the way down at the lake.

We brought home a small baggie of moss, with the thought that we'd make a moss milkshake and grow some of our own in the shaded backyard.  The recipe I found called for adding a small bit of sugar and yogurt or beer, but I don't know...once we blended it it wasn't the brilliant green I'd thought it would be. It looked like mud. We smeared it around the backyard anyway; we'll let you know what happens!

We did attend the St. Patrick's day goings-on at the library later in the day - some good storytelling and some Irish music and dance - but it was a little rough to be inside celebrating something as good as Spring.