welcoming autumn.

I love the change from summer to autumn. Cool days, chilly nights. The smell of the air. The angle of the light. How everything goes from such vivid green to every other color - red, yellow, orange, brown. Everything looks different.









The past few days we have watched the colors start to appear and so today we had to go wander to the pond and nature trail at our local apple orchard (just 5 miles from home) to get out in the wonder of it all. We are excited to welcome autumn!

weekending.

Ahhh, we are home from a staycation weekend. Having an angora rabbit, a cat and a fully loaded garden makes it tough for us to get out of town for more than a night (and we just enjoy being home). So, we like to get away to a local hotel every once in awhile - close enough to still come check often on the spunky huffy rabbit, feed the cat, and water all of the pots while we get out of the house for a few days!

The boys decided last week that we had to get away!! They looked online with me and we narrowed down the hotels and called to ask about pool temperatures. From there they wanted a 'tour' so we went to visit the top four hotel picks close to us to see the lobby, dining, and most importantly, the pool. They made their final decision on Thursday and we made a reservation for Friday.


Even though we stay only a few miles from home, it feels like a special vacation. We go out to eat, spend a lot of time in the pool, hang out in the hot tub, play board games on the bed, and watch a movie in the room.


In our few days at the hotel, A spent hours in the pool swimming and snorkeling and even started diving down to collect things on the bottom (!). G and I swam a bit and spent time in the hot tub (ahhh). Just what they wanted. Lots of fun and a nice little break.



Of course the best thing is that no matter where we go or how long we are gone, we really love coming HOME!

Insectivorous...

A has had a long time interest in carnivorous plants. Our local botanical garden has a nice indoor conservatory with a small collection that we always love to visit in the winter. This fall, however, they have had a special exhibit throughout the conservatory with a few new plants and lots of information.


We have returned again and again over the past week to read and re-read, explore, and examine those plants.


A has been becoming a much stronger reader, and loves being able to study all of the signs that go along with the exhibit without needing me to decipher everything for him. He has discovered a few new plants too - he saw the cobra plant, and read that there is a pitcher plant that is so large monkeys have been seen drinking out of them (monkey cups)!


It is nice to get back into our conservatory visits - as the temperatures drop and it gets dry and cold having a place to walk which is lush and green and thick with moisture is heavenly.


And lots of fun!

color my world.

It happened. Today was that day that marks the beginning of the next season in our minds. Today went above 80 degrees. Today we went to a local botanical garden and everything was SO MUCH.


We visit the gardens often, but today was amazing with so much in bloom, brightly colored, and almost fluorescent in its freshness. Intense colors, fragrance, textures, movement, life. Turtles, birds, ducklings, crabapple petals fluttering onto our heads, and flowering something every step of the way.


The colors, after a long winter and drab early spring, were so intense it was almost too much! A total assault of the senses.


We made it to this hot pink poofball flower and we all actually laughed out loud together at how monstrously amazing it was that a flower could be SO bright and fluffy and humongous. It was almost ridiculous! It was almost as big as G's head!


As we wandered through a flowering wonderland A said, "Everything looks like sorbet, even the trees!"


And G, right behind him shrieked "NO, GELATO!". :)


A wondrous day.

back in time.

In between long hours of planting in our gardens, we took a break over the weekend to visit a special event at an area living museum. The event was 'Rituals of Spring'. All of the farms and village buildings were bustling with activities that people in rural Wisconsin in the 19th and early 20th century would have been doing to prepare for the season.


The boys loved seeing all of the animals - friendly sheep dogs herding sheep, oxen pulling carts, and horses taking reenactors from farm to farm for visits and plowing fields.


There were several farms that participated in the shearing and preparation of wool to fibers. We watched cleaning, carding, and spinning of wool - with several hands on activities for the kids We watched yarn being dyed over a fire, and learned about all of the local plants that were used to make all of the colors!


It was a beautiful day to walk - chilly and breezy, but comfortable in the sun. We took the tram to the distant farms (the museum is 600 acres!), and walked a lot in between. It was perfect for me - my back has been bad again, and the long steady walking helped (my new back brace helps too! yay!).


We visited a farm where we learned about flax. The boys were able to whack (and whack and whack) the flax to remove the outer hull of the stem, and run it through a rippler (nails on a board to 'comb' the flax). We then went inside and watched how they made thread from the flax, and then wove the linen!

There were many other fun activities throughout their 65 buildings - rhubarb pie in a summer kitchen, sheep shearing, rope making, soap making, gardening, hand powered laundry, schoolyard games and more!


When we waited for the tram at certain spots the boys tracked our location in relation to the car with the GPS. Lots of fun. We brought home some cotton roving and a drop spindle, wooden yo-yo's and some heirloom herbs. Nice day!

Lake fun?

We had so much work to do this weekend, but with such beautiful weather and energetic boys we knew we had to get out for some fun too. The boys have been asking to visit a beach and go for a nature walk, so we scanned the state parks for water quality and swimmers itch reports and picked one nearby state park which has a large lake, walking paths, picnic areas and playground equipment. The boys were both excited - they don't really like swimming in the lakes, but love playing on the beach and in the shallows.


The boys played for ages, happily building with rocks and digging in the sand. G doesn't like to get wet much (unless in a warm swimming pool) but did wade and splash a bit. A loved playing in the water, seeing all of the other kids swimming and splashing around, and watching boats speed by pulling people on ski's and tubes.


As we headed out we found a spigot for a full body rinse and scrub down. After changing into fresh clothes we headed out for a nature walk. What a lovely day!


But, after we got home we found that A most likely got swimmers itch. We had checked the reports online before we left, asked about the water with the ranger at the check-in point, and looked for posted signs upon arrival. After all of that, we thought we would be OK to walk and wade in the water a bit - but still did rinse off and scrub dry to be safe. Ha. Poor guy. He has crazy itchy red bumps all over his thighs, bottom and waist. Hopefully the itching will clear quickly. I love that we live around so many lakes, but it is so hard when you cannot ever touch the water - with the algae blooms, flooding and ag runoff, and trematode parasites.

This has A interested in all the details and facts, of course, so we have at least a day of reading and research ahead of us!