I usually only post highlights of our nature walks. Here is a typical example of the whole thing.

The orientation of the slope and the seasons

On a warm, sunny afternoon, there is still hail from last night on the ground near our house.

Not much further on, we turn to a south-facing slope, where we find very early signs of spring. The difference between winter and spring is 100 metres – the length of our driveway as we measured it !

Last year’s dead flower heads still dominate the landscape.

Our neighbour is away today. Her son has been to prune the trees, another sign of spring.

Some history and social studies

It isn’t so easy to recognise this as a rotting cart wheel, but elsewhere in the village they are used as decorations. We pass the boys’ den in a ruined barn.

Further on, we clamber down a slope to collect some litter that will return home with us to be recycled. Futher on, we decipher the signs at the entrance to the farmer’s field. We talk about why he wants us to stay near the edge, and what the electric fence is for. But is it on right now?

We pick out the trail signs for the village footrace at all the intersections. The number of kilometres left to go is also marked out, so we know it is one kilometre to favourite stream.

but our own ruin is right down by the stream where we clamber about the walls of an old mill and over the millstone.

The hazlenut tree

The male flowers are very obvious right now, and if you shake them, their pollen flies off in great drifts. Usually, this is the wind’s job.

The female flowers are much harder to see.

And it’s rather unusual to find a ‘baby’ left over from last year.

The birds

Hard to spot, but at least we recognise the alarm call of the great tit tribes who have spotted us.

Time for an experiment

There’s usually something going on during a walk: a game, a measurement, a drawing or sculpture, a construction or a sport. Today, it’s an experiment.

Sticks float, don’t they? Except that we were surprised to discover that about half of them didn’t. You can see them lying there on the bottom of the stream.

Mosses and lichens

This is a great time of year for observing mosses and lichens.

They lay siege to thin stalks and whole tree trunks in the same way, rising like green pyramids.

We can tell there are many different kinds, but moss identification is tough. It may start here, with the different spore capsules.

The lichens are also in full reproductive glory.

An exploration and mystery or two

It’s easy to move into new areas with the undergrowth gone.

In a quiet, sunny part of the stream under a fossil-filled rock, we discovered a creature.

And this tiny windmill? Maybe it’s a baby conifer?

The sunset

It’s a long way home, but a sunset over the whole valley is waiting for us at the end.

A new look at Favourite Stream. About a mile further up than usual, and already much narrower.

Here’s our latest exploration of a new part of Favourite Stream, led by Antonia. Fortunately, February is one of the best times for exploring the wilderness, with hardly any prickly undergrowth under the trees.

Antonia clambering up a small tributary stream.

The improvised crossing

Last year, observation was the main theme of our nature study. Antonia learned to really, really notice all kinds of things around her, especially very small things. I didn’t really plan it like that, and it was really exciting for both of us to see her skill and curiosity growing. At the same time, she got comfortable being out of doors, which was certainly not the case when we began homeschooling.

Now, a change is taking place. For one thing, she has really come into her own, physically. Even other adults who know her have noticed it. She runs like the wind, climbs as if it was nothing, outgrew her beginner’s skipass in one day… And she’s become very exploration orientated on our nature walks. She wants to know what’s down all the other paths, or where you get to if you follow the stream. I think it’s partly because physically she can, and partly a change in the way she perceives the world. In fact, although we obviously have more than enough developmental stages to measure kids against, I think if we’re to have them at all, the desire to follow streams and rivers really should be one of them. Until recently, the idea simply didn’t occur to her. Along with this change, she’s started making her own maps and has become fascinated by compass directions. She’s been able to do the grade-level appropriate map-reading exercises for some time, but I think it was more a game to her, not a tool for understanding or communicating the world.