Dare I Say Spring?

I’m not going to kid myself into thinking that Spring is here. I am fully aware that we still have a full month or two of winter left… BUT we are coming out of the bitter cold and we have had proof that there still is a Sun! If nothing else, this past weekend was rejuvenating in its teasing sense of Spring. What struck me most were the sounds!

Little joys of the day…

We spent over two hours at our favorite farm were there was an adorable litter of 5 day old piglets. What a noise they made at feeding time.

The sky was filled with birds. Swooping, diving and chattering up a storm. It must have felt nice to stretch their wings.

There was a constant sound of running water. The streams were vigorously flowing… icicles dripping. And who could resist the splash of jumping in all those puddles… oh so tempting.

 

Gone was the squeak of stepping on super cold snow, replaced instead with a satisfying crunch. We trudged through the 2 foot deep mounds without feeling cold just in our fleece coats and stocking caps. It was the perfect wet snow for packing to make snow forts and for throwing snow balls that landed in a thudding splat.

Once inside, hot chocolate was served by Gammy in English Garden tea cups that made such a delightful clinking sound.

Snowy Day

We are enjoying a very snowy Saturday. Stay warm everybody!

Year Long Weather Study – November Observation

It is hard for us to call this an autumn weather study… since the weather around here is decidedly winter these days. Here are our few brief observations between helping Daddy shovel the driveway and full out playing in the snow.

Observations at around 3pm:

Cloudy – sky was all gray

Snowing – big, wet flakes (accumulation was less than 1″)

Windy – (I looked up later that the wind was about 13mph from W)

Temperature – right at freezing 32F

Snowman conditions… perfect. Sledding conditions… a bit sticky and slow.

Join in the Outdoor Hour Challenge #40.

Nature Study Weather

We started this nature study in a most unusual way… on the sofa watching tv. We watched the Magic School Bus episode “Wet All Over” about the Water Cycle (on The Magic School Bus: Catches a Wave DVD). We then read Oh Say Can You Say What’s the Weather Today?: All About Weather before digging for mittens and heading outside.

Have I mentioned it is cold here? This was our first sunny afternoon in several days and the kids were quite happy to get out to play in what was left of yesterday’s snow. We took a few minutes to look at the clouds but they were really much more interested in what was going on beneath their feet.

Bug pretty much has the water cycle down. After I asked him a few questions about the state of water around us I left him to his own devices. He was really interested in watching his breath and collecting icicles.

Unknown to me, Bug brought several icicles in the house when we decided it was time to warm up. He wanted to see what would happen. Sure… but can we not have them just sitting on the sofa please? 😉 I got him a little jar to place the icicles in for his experiment.

I did have to tell him later that it probably isn’t a good idea to drink water from melted icicles found hanging off of who knows what outside and out of a jar we use for painting no less. LOL. Boys!

Join in the Outdoor Hour Challenge #39.