Cousins

Today is the last day of our visit with my sister's family. We took a walk in the woods. I will be sad to see them go back home.

Looking

We were looking for birds, but we found other interesting things along the way like this textured tree bark, spring flowers, fossilized shells, and turtles sunning on logs. The binoculars came in handy for the turtles and for a robin high up in the trees. I wish I had brought a magnifying glass or a loupe to examine the tree bark and the flowers more closely. As it was, I only had the lens of my camera.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday. . .

we made a short trip up The Natchez Trace to visit Cypress Swamp Trail. It was an antidote to the new electronic gadgets that are in our lives since Christmas and to the next few days of rain we are expecting. Since the Wii, I have found myself consciously arranging time outdoors-- a family walk at the nearby city fitness trail, a freezing trip to the zoo, and this little trek to see the cypress trees. This trail was very nice and had thoughtful markers along the way to help the walker notice, ponder, and listen. One of the markers asked hikers to consider what noise a monarch butterfly might make if we could hear it speak.

Today. . .

we are celebrating a certain girl's birthday-- 10 years old! It seems like it was just yesterday that we woke up at 4:00 am to make the drive to a Memphis hospital from Tunica, MS. I was scheduled to be induced at 6:00 am, and she arrived at 10:40 am. I am so proud of the person she is and is becoming. Age 10 seems like a milestone-- or like a marker along a trail.

Below, Rowan has been mystified by the birthday bouquet since they appeared on the table last night-- a special gift from the birthday girl's daddy. First thing this morning, I made the collaged card from photos throughout the last 10 years to put in front of the flowers. We had homemade waffles for breakfast, are having a friend over to play this afternoon, and will have yellow cake with chocolate frosting tonight.

Yesterday we only needed one candle. Today we need 10!

Early

5:40 am in the butterfly garden

one lone maple leaf

red, white, and dark

a droplet of ice

Those who woke up early like me (or went to bed late) saw the most snow. Snow in Mississippi! It transformed my mood from Grinch to magical. I took enough photos to post all week. More to come.

At Home

Oh, yes. I was at home among these huge rock formations at Petit Jean State Park, and it was even chilly enough to wear the fingerless mittens I made while snapping photographs and touching the rocks. We hiked Bear Cave Trail, Rock House Cave Trail, and visited a few overlooks including one over the rushing Cedar Falls. We saw rocks shaped liked turtle shells, skull caves, pictographs and a grinding stone left by Native Americans at Rock Cave, and buzzards soaring off the cliffs just feet away from us.

Today I am thankful for enormous rocks, trees, leaves, buzzards, fresh air, and rushing, falling water that sparks imaginations and souls-- and my community of family and friends.

November Colors : 4

I'll write more about the place and conference where these photos were taken tomorrow. . .

for now. . .

I love a blue sky as much as golden-green leaves in morning sunshine,
brown, withered seeds are beautiful as they are in themselves,
spiders do not scare me. . . especially when one walks across some nature exploring-artwork,
I am as wrinkled and ringed as this mushroom/fungus/lichen. . .

on my 41st birthday!

Saturday Walk

The same Saturday walk at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science was blogged here and here by my children.

Leaf Walk

My first walk of the weekend yielded this small collection. Oh, yes, fall is finally arriving in Mississippi! After an incredibly busy week of running a book fair at school, solo parenting, nightly 9 weeks test review, and a few other projects, taking this walk and finding these leaves renewed my spirit and reconnected me to something larger than busyness and expectations.

Small Signs of Fall

In my yard, the Glory Hornblower with withering berries and the Dogwood with bright, red ornaments are showing signs that the seasons are changing even before the leaves on the trees start to turn. I've always loved subtlety.

Unexpected Growth

This poke berry plant is growing in the large fork where my live oak divides. This same nook has also been the past home to a small magnolia that I pulled out at least three or four times-- always feeling a little guilty. Some bird or squirrel probably dropped a seed that fell into just enough deposited organic matter to take root.

We never know where we will send out roots or where our seeds will drop and bear fruit.

Woods Walking

There is almost nothing else I like to do more than to go for a walk in the woods. The act can instantly paint a dark mood brighter, enliven my mind, and restore my spirit.

After our butterfly release, we went to the Clinton Community Nature Center with friends for a short program about arachnids (spiders and scorpions, oh my!). My son spotted a large spider hanging about 4 ft above us from a web stretched across the path from tree to tree. We tried to photograph it, but it was too high.

The loblolly pine that looks like an elephant head is nicknamed the elephant tree with its trunk reaching high into the sky. This tree reminds me of the walking and talking trees and magical animals that appear in the books of C.S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

We visited the butterfly garden hoping to see some of our black swallowtails, but there were only yellowish/green butterflies quickly fluttering from flower to flower. I think they were colias philodice or clouded common sulfurs seen here from caterpillar to butterfly. It was difficult to photograph them because they were so flighty. The meadow area was abuzz with singing insects, but it was also hotter in the open sunlight. For amateur butterfly identification, I found this internet guide helpful.

When I was a girl, I sometimes walked in the woods with my family and grandparents at a small farm in central Arkansas on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. There were no trails but there were lots of leaves carpeting the floor of the woods. My grandfather knew the names of the trees and the birds. He was not a hunter, but he was an amateur naturalist. I think I may have inherited some of his nature genes, and I hope I am passing them on to my children each time we go woods walking.

Looking

I was interviewed recently and asked, "Why did you become a teacher?" At the time, I rattled off a fairly standard answer. . . something like: "I have always loved learning, and I love sharing this love with children. I love seeing the light in a child's eyes when she has a relevant, important question or when she solves a problem. "

This is all true.

Upon reflection and after reviewing the photos from yesterday's visit to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, I've had a few more thoughts. I love being a teacher because I am constantly amazed at the world around us-- at people, trees, animals, history, poetry, culture, you name it-- The World Around Us in capital, italicized letters. When I became a teacher, I didn't know that I was going to love it so much. It was a practical decision. I had a library degree and needed a part-time job because of my children. I knew that I would teach in some capacity as a librarian, but I did not not know that it would be like this.

There is so much to see, share, and do every day, all the time, just out the back door or through the words, photos, and illustrations of a book (or blog!). There is so much joy. I am a teacher because of the joy.

In all of the photos above, we spent time looking in the museum's amazing space that lets us get up close to the fish, snakes, turtles, alligators, and jellyfish (new!). I spent an equal amount of time watching my children watch the creatures in the tanks (and trying to keep up with them). Being a teacher is often about "just keeping up"-- either with the busyness of teaching or with the passionate questions and pace of children who lead us down diverse paths of inquiry in the course of one day.

For example:

• "Mrs. Owen, do you have any books on presidents (or bees, or soccer, or _______)?"
• "Ms. Library Lady, I'm interested in mystery books. Do you have any good mystery (or fantasy, or historical fiction, or fairy tale, or _____) books?"
• "Mama, what kind of lizard is that outside on the lantana bushes? Why are the lizards that congregate at our front entrance during the night pale pink? Are they the same lizards?"
• "Mama, what book should I read tonight? I finished the last one, and I want another one like it."

The answers that are discovered and recorded from questions of free inquiry are those that often happen in a library or rest in a library between the pages of a book or on a website. To me, this is an awesome, again joyful, thought. This is my job-- I'm a facilitator and guide through free inquiry and freedom in education! Ultimately, a library is and should be a place of joyful freedom. When so much in education is driven by curriculum, pacing guides, benchmarks, and standards, libraries should be places where children (and adults) have the freedom to choose what they want to read and what questions need answering.

In the last photo, I was sitting in the area of the museum where the alligators are on display. I noticed my reflection on the tank and took a photo, in a moment of self-reflection, that is perfectly appropriate for this morning.