Sunset on Our Green Hour

It's become our post-school ritual to play outside for an hour after the kids get off the bus, from approximately 4-5 pm.  The kids have a picnic snack, practice their kung fu, climb bushes, run obstacle courses, play in their homemade branch shelter, "cook" with mud and berries, run up the slide, swing on the playset, perform musicals, "excavating" the boulders like archaeologists, really whatever they dream up.  I like playing with them, when they ask.  I like watching them play, while I walk back and forth deep in thought (or not).  I like our unstructured outdoor time, the perfect antidote to an 8-hour day at school.  After our hour, by dusk, we head inside for homework and dinner.  But today, there were no rays of light touching our yard when they got off the bus; it was dusk already.  By 5 pm, it looked like this:

Sure, it was extra-fun tonight to watch the moon rise before dinner, but soon, it'll look like this almost immediately after they get home.  And our happy, go-lucky, creative outdoor freeplay will be on hiatus until spring.

Just another reason I don't like "fall back."

Our Own Loquat Tree

There was a party in our backyard this weekend. And we found the evidence yesterday after school. Running around in the back and front, the kids noticed all sorts of footprints, mostly human but not all. Intrigued, we followed them around the yard, spotting different paths, different shapes. Exactly what kinds of animals had visited us? Sis thought black bear. Bud believes birds flew around but didn't land. After taking pictures of several of the tracks, we headed inside to our trusty computer and looked up different animal tracks. We eliminated black bear, as well as opossum, deer, fox, coyote. That left squirrel and raccoon, with very similar prints complete with claws but in two different sizes. And then there were the droppings. Not of any of those animals above, we checked. Turns out that it's proof of our resident bunny, whom Mama sees at night in the yard when she comes home. Sis was ecstatic. We called Mama; we called Pop. They wanted to call all of their school friends to report on the clues. Bud termed us "Bud, Sis, and Mommy the Great," after the Nate the Great books we like to read. The animals weren't the only ones who had a party.

out in the back by the grape stake fence
is a place where nature makes so much sense
all the creatures livin' in harmony
it's a wild wild party in the loquat tree

fuzzies and furries run walk or fly
havin' a feast beneath a clear blue sky
animals comin' from miles around
to bounce the branch and shake the loquat down

the squirrel and the sparrow and the mouse and the bee
all havin' a party in the loquat tree
eatin' all the yellow fruit they can see
it's a wild wild party in the loquat tree

--Indigo Girls, "Wild Wild Party in the Loquat Tree"

My Garden Gnomes

Maybe I should take the National Wildlife Federation's "Be Out There" pledge--"I pledge to spend time outside, exploring, learning and playing. I will encourage the kids in my life to get outside more, too!": Sis and Bud have been outside more than four hours now. Mainly, they are pretending to collect and then plant seeds, calling any off-limits plants, like my roses, daylilies, lilac bush, hostas, azalea, pansies, petunias, and marigolds, "poison ivy." They each gathered a bucket full of "seeds," mainly a leaf or two from every bush, tree, and weed in our whole yard, which they then used garden tools to plant under the "faerie tree." They are covered in dirt from eyelids to ears to fingernails to toenails and so are in a bubbly tub . . . still playing happily with each other! For my part, I meditated some, watched a lot, made bread dough, blogged, and then prepared an apple-caramel snack. And it's already 4 p.m.! A pretty great way to spend the day . . . .

Under Our Big Top

There's a rainbow-colored tent in our yard, made from our colorful parachute, 3 metal hooked garden stakes, and one rabbit weather vane on a post. We've dragged over our garden bench and added three nylon play tubes. Bud pretended to be a lepidopterist (butterfly expert, a la "Imagination Movers"), actually spotting a yellow and black striped one, while Sis reclined in her little lawn chair, resting after filling the tent with all manner of playthings. We feasted on cantaloupe balls out of a decoratively-carved cantaloupe half (a la Ma), mango lassis, and strawberry-flavored fresh ice cream.

Now they're in the backyard and the game has changed to deep-sea fishing, inspired by a recent presentation by a couple of dads at school. The dads gave out colorful lures (sans hooks) and the kids are now floating them in their water table along with the shells from the beach this weekend. (Previously, the kiddos were trolling for the lures, scattered across the driveway, on their tricycles!)

Rain is supposed to come in this afternoon and then the fun will just move inside.

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Fresh Ice Cream

1 bag frozen fruit
1/2 C yogurt (plain)or vanilla
1/4 C sugar
3 TBsp water

Blend all ingredients in mixer until smooth and enjoy.

R and J love it! We've had strawberry, mango, pinapple and blueberry. Can't wait to try more. Trying to find coconut. If you see it, let me know!

Miss D