My daughter's view of nature

Tree frog found when we were cutting drought-felled trees.

My daughter (age 11) has been roaming the great outdoors with a digital camera in hand over the past several months. She likes getting very close to her subjects, and she's gotten some nice shots. I like that she is outdoors exploring nature up close and personal!

Silver ponyfoot (Dichondra argentea) (above and below)

Wood-sorrel.

 

 

 

 

Ashe juniper berry.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium).

Wood-sorrel (Oxalis drummondii).

Since so many of these are foliage shots, I am linking to Pam at Digging's Foliage Follow-up meme. Foliage is an excellent thing to focus a camera lens on at this time of year, when blooms are few and far between.

We hope you enjoy!

In the woods

This was the tallest tree we tackled.

Sunday we spent some family time in the woods. We were doing a job that I enjoy, that exhausts my husband, and that really annoys the children:  slaying cedar.

Technically, we weren’t slaying cedar (Ashe juniper is its correct name), as they were already slain – laid low by that terrible foe, the drought of 2011. A belt of trees were geographically challenged in their quest for water, and a number of them – Ashe juniper, live oak and yaupon – perished. This left an unsightly mess next to the driveway.

And according to our calendar and much to our dismay, it will get cooler here soon and the firewood supply was perilously low.

And it's down, destined for firewood.

It was time to take action. We donned long pants and boots, and gathered chain saw, fuel, bar oil (or as my husband says, bahr awl), gloves and loppers, and ventured out solve two problems at once.

My boys were enlisted to drag brush frequently when we first bought this land, and it was a battle every time. Now they are out of our clutches, and we have shifted our sights to the little daughter. She has begun exhibiting the same reluctance her older brothers did. On Sunday I heard things like, “I don’t have any shoes” and “Can I make a pie, instead?” No.

Iris the dog is site supervisor.

I set her to using the loppers to break off dead branches and cut small cedars; she prefers this to dragging brush. Dan wielded the chain saw, while I stacked firewood and piled up brush.

In addition to the reward of how the area looks when we are done, we usually find a few surprises or treasures to make the job more enjoyable.

The first thing we saw was a giant pink and cream lantana, escaped into the woods and twining up through a cedar tree. It is far from where I had planted one in my garden. The thing is at least six feet tall!

Green tree frog and daughter's hand against
freshly cut Ashe juniper stump.

A while later, Dan called our daughter over. As he was prepared to take down a dead cedar, he discovered a bright green tree frog on its trunk. My daughter was entranced, of course, and carried the frog back to the house where she constructed a home for it near the new pond - deluxe accommodations that I’m not sure it will appreciate.

(Have I mentioned how much I love having a daughter who is not afraid to pick up a frog or toad?)

Tote that wood, sister.

It was a productive day:  dead trees cleared away, firewood stacked, brush pile created (which may be chipped sometime, but until then will be home to sundry critters), unexpected plant found, frog examined and relocated, fresh air taken in, muscles used, pre-teen ejected from the house, sense of accomplishment felt all around.

The finished-for-today product - more dead trees remain for another day.

Making kid magic.

I read an article recently commenting on the passage of time. It talked about that list of activities you want to do with your child. They are good ideas, but it’s never quite the right time. Then suddenly, your child turns 18.

I narrowly averted one of those regrets this week.

Five years or so ago I saw a picture of a child’s teepee made of long poles, with vines trained to grow up and shelter the space inside. How cool, I thought. I persuaded my husband to drag up long cedar poles and lash them to the outstretched branch of an Ashe juniper near our picnic table. I stuck some jack been seeds in the cedar mulch at the base of the poles and waited for the kid magic to happen.

It didn’t happen. The vines didn’t grow, and the teepee stood there year after year, neglected and unused, except for the time it was wrapped in a sheet for a senior English film project by my oldest son and his friends. They filmed a Westernized adaptation of  “Candide“; my daughter had a small role as a young Indian girl. This was not quite what I had in mind, but fun, nevertheless.

But as part of the gardening frenzy of this spring, Monday afternoon I conscripted my daughter to help me with clearing out under the teepee and planting. She was reluctant. She was engrossed in her own activity.  Nonetheless, she trudged over and began pulling weeds and removing rocks. Then she retrieved the broom while I retrieved the loppers, and she swept the dirt in the teepee while I lopped live oak scrub encroaching into the teepee space.  Next I gathered some plastic 1-gallon pots with the bottoms cut out and placed them at the base of several of the tent poles. We filled them with good garden soil and planted transplanted morning glories on either side of the door and hyacinth bean seeds in three other pots.

Somewhere in the middle of this, she got into the project, and began coming up with her own ideas to improve the teepee. She suggested bringing in dirt and putting turf grass on top, so she could lie down comfortably. We agreed that Native Americans probably used buffalo robes for floor coverings. Wish we had one of those . . .

So now I have a second chance to make this project work before my beautiful daughter is too old to enjoy it.  My fingers are crossed that the kid magic happens this time.

But really, I think the magic has already begun.

Favorite spot in my garden:

One of my favorite wildflowers began blooming this week, just in time for Wildflower Wednesday (hosted by Gail at Clay and Limestone). The prairie brazoria (Warnockia scutellarioides) did not bloom at all in last year’s drought.   The plant pictured here is part of a volunteer colony in a flowerbed right outside my office window. I also saw some yesterday by the driveway – much smaller and less showy.   

This gem is native to calcareous soils in Central Texas (that’s us!), according to the Wildflower Research Center database. It blooms April to June, is 6 to 12” high (some in my bed are taller), can form extensive colonies and attracts butterflies. Love it!

Visit Clay and Limestone to see more wildflower pictures!