October Picnic in the Big Woods

In the short stretch of time between the last walk and this one, the rampant exuberance of orange and yellow began quieting to blocks of gray and brown.

The children were still exuberant, though.

I don't know who took this picture of squinty me, but since three of the children are in the frame, it must have been one of the four older girls. (Just call me Sherlock.)

Since hlearning was in full swing at this point, the half-day in the Big Woods was supposed to be a "nature walk," chock full of field guides, curious children, eager identification, and elaborate (and realistic!) sketch renderings in their nature journals.

Like most of our nature walks, it ended up being a picnic with lots of tree climbing.

And reading purely for FUN?  What a waste.

When Lucinda was a baby, I called her my little tree frog.  In hindsight, I may have been more right than I knew.

Shimmy down, tree frog.

So was I once myself a swinger of birches.

I don't know who took this picture of me, either, and there are no clues! No clues!!! (Just call me Watson.)

They're standing as stiff as soldiers here, ramrod-straight, because a buck had just walked by.

These pictures are funny because Zeke was reprimanding fungi in them.  He'd tried to eat some until we all said, "YUK!" so here he stands, telling them just how "ukk" they are.

Sorry for the graininess.  We were in a dim pine grove.

They had a footrace and left Luci in the dust.  She is, after all, a tree frog, not a cheetah.

When Aidan and I (who am also not a cheetah) finally caught up, Millie had made a teeter-totter.

 They played on it for the next half an hour, until we walked back to check in on my folks.