Ken was out of town all week on a business trip and got in very late Wednesday night (actually Thursday morning!), so he decided to take the day off yesterday to relax. Since it was such a gloriously beautiful day, we decided to go for a nature walk and enjoy a picnic lunch. We went back to the same trail at Kennesaw Mountain National Park where we went with friends last spring for our Nature Study: Picnic.

There are still quite a few of Barb’s “Outdoor Hour” nature studies we have yet to do, and though we didn’t specifically head out with any intention of getting one of these done, we kept noticing moss and lichens all over the place. I remembered that one of the nature studies we had not yet done was on Moss and Lichens, so we paid a bit more attention to these so we could read about them later at home. (We did that today.) Since Ken was with us, he manned the camera; therefore, I’m actually in some of the photos!

We saw so many lovely things on our walk! There was one tree I haven’t identified yet. We noticed it because it is red. When we got close, we saw that it had these bundles of red “helicopters” (as we call them).

It was still a little cool to go wading in the creek this time, but Kathryn floated some leaves away in the current like tiny boats. We saw two lizards on a tree, some type of sapsucker or woodpecker that was just too far away to properly identify, and some beautiful bloodroot flowers. Kathryn asked what a big vine was that was growing up a tree; we weren’t sure but when I said it may have been wisteria, she remembered from her Junior Ranger information that wisteria is a “pushy plant.”

We ended our nature walk with a picnic in a grassy field, one of the old Civil War battlefields at the park. We all agreed that food just tastes better after some good exercise and fresh air!

Jamie

Wife, mom, J-ma. Introvert who enjoys good books, sunshine, and authentic conversation. Often seen with a steaming mug of tea in hand – unless it’s lost yet again in the microwave. Read more »