Sharing Early Literacy Learning Journeys

Archive for the ‘Nature’ Category

Weekly Photo Challenge: Forward

Forward

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Going forward…

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going forward…

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and coming forward.

A Walk in the Park

A walk in the park.
A short walk in the snowy park.
Delicate, soft snow. Deep, top-of-the-boots snow.
Grey skies overhead, clouds swelling

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 At the riverbank, bare branches protrude

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and summer grasses rest over winter.

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Snow slides down the bright, slippery slide: where are the children?

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A lonely leaf resists winds and hangs on as long as… ?

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Two dark blue berries hang on, too… for early birds in spring?

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Black and white reflections in dark, cold water.

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Through a pipe darkly: whooshing water
with receding ice
and a blanket of snow.

A walk in the park – and back again…

Serious Snowstorm Number Two

The second serious snowstorm starts around seven in the morning and lasts all day and all night: soft, silent, swirling snowflakes floating, fluttering, falling.

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Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

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Morning breaks with brilliant sunshine,
brilliant, blue skies and brilliant, white snow…

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 superbly fresh, white, powdery snow.

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It’s pretty on Boxwoods…

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and soooo pretty on Blue Spruce.

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It makes a snow-topped table with spectacular edges

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and windswept waves and dugouts around the bushes.

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Snow is useful, too!

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Snow sculpture is special…

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and spectacular!

When it will fall?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Kiss

Kiss:
Will they or won’t they?

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Large milkweed bugs (oncopeltus fasciatus)

…more information on milkweed bugs:
http://insected.arizona.edu/milkinfo.htm

What happens when the water suddenly drops?

What happens to ice when the water suddenly drops?

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It’s left stranded…

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or it breaks..

Serious Snowstorm Number One

The first serious snowstorm of the season starts in the afternoon with bitterly cold, driving winds

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and the cedars bend and the birch trees shiver
in almost whiteout conditions.

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In the morning, the ‘double-shovel’ snowshoveller appears
and bit-by-bit, foot-by-foot pushes the snow down the driveway

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and then, the driveway looks like this.

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The big, yellow snowplough cometh…

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and the big, yellow snowplough goeth.

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Cedar Waxwings arrive; to see if the ‘double-shovel’ snowshoveller
and the big, yellow snowplough have done their jobs!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

Home

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The snapping turtle carries his ‘house’ on his back…
and heads for his lake ‘home’.

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The midland painted turtle carries his ‘house’ on his back…
and heads for his watery ‘home’.

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Green ants work together to build their house of leaves
before they live in it and call it home.

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Wasps work together to build their house in the highbush cranberry branches
before they live in it and call it home.

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And guess who lives at the bottom of my garden?

Whose house is this?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unique

Unique.
One of a kind.
Different from others in a way that makes it special or worthy of note.

Icicles.
Each icicle, unique.
One of a kind at a point in time.

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What do you see in this icicle?

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Icicles, at one point in time

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Definitely unique: each time I moved the tree reflection changed on this ‘spider crack and seeping water’ on lagoon ice.