Lots of Random Goings On

After such a dry Jan/Feb, we finally got some rain halfway through this month, and it was lovely to see everything wet and fresh.

The almond blossoms have been beautiful. It's fun that we have a park so close to us with a lot of trees to enjoy this time of year. Our homeschool park group has been there this month and I went a couple of times without any kids, just to catch up with friends.

Peanut had a fun 4-H meeting. We haven't made it to any of the project groups he was hoping to do this year, but at least he can go to the club meetings once a month and have fun seeing friends.

And now, in an effort to be a lifelong learner, my fun find this month:

UV flourescence! I watched a lunchtime zoom seminar one day on bioluminescence and UV fluorescence that we can find all around the Bay Area and was so excited to go out and see what we could find, so I got a new UV light (I have a couple of cheap ones I've used in my science classes, but turns out the better ones have a different wave length, and it makes a huge difference.)

And we took the light out to explore one of the redwood parks in Oakland at dusk. We only found the one group of mushrooms (Sulfur tufts) and these little flowers, but a lot of mushrooms and flowers will do this.

The moss on the redwood bark was pretty cool. Redwoods are a lot redder under UV light.

And a lot of plants will glow red--it's the chlorophyll in the leaves. I have no idea what the blue parts are--I still have a lot to learn about this.

Redwood sorrel, which looks very green during the day, is a deep red under UV light. It was so much fun looking for things and realizing how different the world looks if you change the lens you're seeing it through. I've been reading a book--An Immense World, by Ed Yong that explores this concept, too. Living things have very different umwelts, specific ways that an organism experiences the world based on the capabilities of their sensory organs. It's fun when we can get a glimpse into another species umwelt.

All that rain finally got the creek going again. It's already slowed and largely dried up, but it had a few days with a lot of water.

Peanut and I went to the Science Odessey night at one of the local K-8th schools so I could see which community groups had booths there (getting ideas of who to reach out to for my science fair I'm doing in April), and one company had a couple of snakes there. They do research and analysis for a lot of organizations, including East Bay Regional Parks, working with endangered and threatened species.

And then, the next day, I had a nature hike scheduled at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. It's fun that we have an extinct volcano right in the Bay Area, even if the area has been crumpled so the volcano is lying on it's side now and doesn't look anything like a volcano. But there are some cool volcanic rocks to see in the area.

And there were a lot of these butterflies--California Tortoiseshells, I think.

And the real find of the day was about a dozen newts in a small pond on the hike. They were actively mating and laying eggs. We found this one that looks like it's curled around several large clusters of eggs. I've only seen eggs one other time and they were just attached on the side of a rock, but I'm guessing these were laid very recently.

This was by far the favorite stop for everyone on the hike. The kids also found a couple of young bull frogs, and had fun exploring the labyrinth that was right by the pond. I seriously love my job.

Our weather has been unseasonably warm this past week after the rain storms, so while we were working in the backyard on Saturday, I got the animals out for a bit. Our sweet girl, Charkie, just turned 6 years old this past week. Never would have guessed that she'd outlast the other guinea pigs, but here she is, the oldest one we've ever raised.

Luckily she's still around to keep Poppy company. Not sure what we'll do when the bunny is the only one left--I think she's going to be lonely.

We got to finish the day off with an evening in Palo Alto, getting pizza as a snack before watching San Francisco, a 1940's musical, at the Stanford Theater. I'd seen the movie back in college, but it was fun to watch again. And then we got crepes afterwards. 5:30 movie times are awkward for dinner, haha, so we kind of did a split meal with popcorn in between. It had been a few months since we'd been to this theater--it's seriously my favorite.

Spotlight on Peanut

Peanut has been back in school the past couple of weeks, busy with classes and swim practice. He doesn't seem to have much homework this semester, at least so far, which is great since he's been busy with a new book series that a friend recommended, and D & D. His D & D group started meeting again and he's loving it. They've been using the new one-shots that he got for Christmas and seem to be geting the hang of how it all works.

He still has a little time for exploring with me, too. 

We went to the Mushroom Madness event at Sycamore Grove the other day.

Found some fun mushrooms,

And really enjoyed seeing everyone else's finds, too.

They had microscopes and experts and identification books on hand to look at everything that people brought back after the couple of hours of hunting in the park.

We saw a few new ones, and learned a little about some of the common mushrooms found locally. It felt like we were homeschooling again for an afternoon. I'm so glad that he's doing well in school, but I'm also glad when we can sneak in some outdoor learning, too.

Sneaking in Some Sanity Time

It may be one of the busiest times of the year, with parties and friends and family, but it's been really nice to make time for some slower, quieter times., too.

While Peanut was hiking in Big Basin with his Ranger Explorers program one Saturday, Daddy-o and I signed up for a day of bird watching and nature journaling with John Muir Laws, who is one of my favorite naturalist people. I feel like we're pretty lucky that he lives in the Bay Area and there are occasional events that we can join with him.

And one of the best parts was spending a few hours with a bunch of other nature enthusiasts. We spent the morning at the Cosumnes River Preserve drawing ducks and other water birds, and then met up for a delicious potluck lunch (seriously, there was so much good food!) After lunch, someone from the Blue Point conservation group talked with us about bird migration and we shared our nature journals from the day.

And then it was on to the main event--driving out to where the Sandhill Cranes hang out in the winter. The feed in the fields in the delta area all day and then fly in to the flooded areas for the night. The fly in itself is supposed to be amazing, and I hope to see it soon, but it was a really cold day and after hours outside, we were so cold that we really didn't want to wait for an extra hour. But it was a really fun day and we'll be back for more cranes.

The next week I headed to the redwoods for a hike with a friend. I wanted to scout it out for one of my upcoming Nature Explorers groups, and also just really wanted to see some mushrooms.

We got lucky and found a couple of rough skinned newts, too.

And a bunch of banana slugs, of course.

And mushrooms!

This area has always been good in the winter, and it looks like we're going to get a lot of rain, so I think we should be good for my scheduled hike in a few weeks.

I love finding them as they are emerging. 

And the little tiny ones are always some of my favorites.

It was an excellent way to spend one of the last days of school. 

I'm sure there were plenty of other things I "should" have been doing, but this was more fun for sure.

And Daddy-o and I also went to the Oakland temple one morning. It takes a little scheduling to fit it in so we can make sure Peanut gets to seminary and Daddy-o can still get to work for a chunk of the day, but it was a nice start to the day.

We got there almost early enough to enjoy the Christmas lights that are all over the grounds. I think we'll make it back with family one evening.

As much as I enjoy a lot of the louder, crazier parts of Christmas, and all the time with family and friends, I also really appreciate the time that I get in nature and to actually reflect on what it is we're celebrating this season.

February Findings

More nature hikes this month.

We found lots of lichen and mushrooms.

Went hunting for newts,

and instead pulled out a LOT of cattle bones.

Then, finally found a couple of newts.

Watching them walk is one of my favorite things--they are so cute!

Also got to go for a hike with a couple of friends on Saturday morning.

We did a few miles on the Bay Area Ridge Trail near the north bay and got beautiful views.

Love having friends to hike with.

And more exploring local ecosystems with my class. The Huckleberry Nature Preserve is a little pocket with unique native plants due to the way the bay fog comes in and funnels between the hills right there, keeping the area cool and wet.

Found mushrooms, and several native plants (and unfortunately I found some poison oak which got in my eye and led to a round of steroids. This was my first bad encounter since we moved back, which is kind of surprising considering how much hiking I do near poison oak, but I would have been happy to keep my clean record for a lot longer.)

Peanut loves getting to hang out with his friends on these hikes.

Love mushroom season.

I got out on some early morning walks with lots of sunrises.

And a little bird watching.

And we had another ski day. This time, I decided to try snowboarding for the first time in 7 years. I thought those days were over, but I started a pretty serious weight training routine this winter and was feeling a lot stronger. It seemed like I might as well try.

Ended up having a fantastic day with my boys! Turns out snowboarding is like riding a bike--you don't really forget how to do it. I did a few warm-up runs to get the feel of it again, and then started picking up speed and doing small hops. I'm not willing to do anything extreme these days, but it was so fun to be back out there. 

All in all, February was a great month.