The Great Outdoors Challenge

Lisa at 5 Orange Potatoes (one of our favorite blogs!) has a wonderful challenge posted about taking children out to explore nature in your own back yard each day! 

We have been taking walks in the garden and the creek this past week...both are in our backyard.

Each day we venture a bit further down the creek. 



One day the kids saw tiny fish swimming in the deep areas.

We love the shape of this old tree...the bark, and the holes in it!
Tomorrow, we are going to bring a trash bag with us and pick up any trash that we find. 

We know that this creek leads to the American River.  Perhaps we'll hike all of the way there someday soon!

Genista Caterpillars & Scotch Broom Plant

Genista caterpillar (Uresiphita reversalis) Pyralid Moth feeding on Scotch Broom

While trimming vines and bushes the other day in the yard, the kids noticed that one of the bushes was covered with caterpillars!

We weren't sure what type of caterpillars they were, so we found out the type of plant...Scotch broom. It grows wild throughout California, and it's a plant that we've used for dyeing. Then, we did some research to find out what caterpillars like to eat broom and ended up learning about the genista caterpillar.

Some websites claim that the genista is a "pest" and can defoliate complete bushes and trees in some parts of the US. After observing the caterpillars for a week, we realized that to us, they are not a pest, and although they have been hungrily munching away at the leaves, the bush still has a lot of leaves.

Now, the caterpillars are moving slowly and they have made some interesting-looking webs. We will continue to watch them, hoping to catch the final phase when they become moths! A wonderful person on flickr.com who had pictures of genista told us that the moths will come out of the cocoons at night.

We decided to wait and trim the bush once the caterpillars have become moths. Then, we will take the timmed branches and dye with them, as broom makes a lovely green-yellow color for our handspun yarns!

Mycology - Mushrooms!

The magic of mushrooms has touched us at Syrendell this year. Mycology is utterly fascinating...are they plants, animals, neither? So many varieties, colors, shapes....fabulous fungi.

Our own backyard is filled with different mushrooms throughout the year. This week, we noticed that with the warmer, drier weather, the mushrooms are beginning to curl up and disappear.

We dissected a mushroom, observed a curled-up-dried mushroom, made a mushroom spore print, did a mushroom form drawing, read books on mycology, and did block crayon drawings. Two of our cousins came over and joined us in creating beautiful, crayoned fungi! We also read an adorable book that features a sprite who lives under a mushroom is Naming Renick by Mamaroots (which you can purchase in her Etsy shop).