Snakes, Wasps, Liv's Sixth Birthday, Fall Pictures (October 2015)

It was a warm October, and we enjoyed seeing snakes and other soon-to-be-hibernating specimens, such as lizards and insects, quite a bit.  We also celebrated Liv's sixth birthday.  I stayed super busy, not only doing lessons with the kids, but working diligently on my papers for my advanced English composition course in college.

Prairie ring-necked snake (Diadophis punctatus arnyi) & speckled king snake (Lampropeltis getula holbrooki)

We spotted the snakes on a day I did not bring my digital camera along, which is pretty often.  I normally take it only when I get an instinctual feeling that I ought.  I actually got that feeling on this day but left it, anyway.  We had gone quite a way, but I truly wanted this on camera, so we all walked the entire way back to the house and walked the entire way back.  I view these instances as sad, and the kids were upset, too.  I can't remember which one (certainly not Olivia; it was probably William) moved toward the snakes and declared he was going to help the prairie ring-necked snake.

I hated it, too, but I said we should not interfere. Damage had already been done, anyway, and if the ring-necked snake was saved, that only left the king snake hungry, and hibernation time was near.  That's the damned thing about the world in which we live.  I love king snakes, too, even though I love the prairie ring-necks.  So instead, we endured a lesson of how a constrictor like the king snake kills its prey.  At one point the ring-neck pulled much of its body away, but then the king snake took over again, and there was no hope left for the prey.

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On a different day we found ourselves fortunate enough to cross paths with this gorgeous, rarely-seen Great Plains rat snake.  Wow, what a pleasure!  This was one of the most beautiful snakes that I've seen, in my opinion.  It crossed the road right in front of me.  Not only did I get to spot a rarely-seen frog (gray tree frog) this year, I got to see a rarely-seen snake of equal beauty and uniqueness!

I believe this was taken on the same day I took the kudzu pictures below.  Soooo beautiful.

Breathtaking

Kudzu (Pueraria sp.)

Kudzu may be invasive, but it's also fascinating.  MO DoC actually does not list it as present (yet) in our county, but I'm quite certain that this is it, so I may just contact them.  The real reason I took these two pictures is because I was so mesmerized by so much on this particular day.  The air seemed so fresh and clean, the sun dazzled brightly in the serenely blue sky.  I felt so alive and joyful.  The way the sun shone on the leaves of the kudzu stopped me in my tracks and held me captive.  These pictures do not convey nearly well enough how absolutely beautiful it all really appeared to my eyes.

The gorgeous insect below is a blue mud dauber (Chalybion californium).  This species stings spiders and takes them to their nests.  The kids caught the wasp on the spider, trying to take off with it.  I had been checking out something else, so I just got there in time to photograph both species separately. The dauber waited for us to leave.

Blue mud dauber (Chalybion californium)

Prairie Lizard (Sceloporus consobrinus)

Red paper wasp (Polistes carolina)

Elizabeth delighted in picking up this caterpillar.

 

I have so far not identified this species (some sort of millipede, I believe), and this is a blurry iPhone picture.  Sure wish my iPhone would go back to taking good pictures.  William discovered this fascinating species in our woods.

I think this is what I was photographing while I missed the mud dauber on the spider.

Trusten in a tree across the road.  I can tell this was on that magical day by the way the sunlight is bathing everything.  Everything was so beautiful!  I'd gladly take numerous days in a row like this one!  There's Liv, not matching.  That girl and all her changing of clothes...

I love this!

My heart beams to watch my babies happily walking together.

This ensures I won't forget those moments.

Liv's Sixth Birthday

Elizabeth got a triceratops.  Liv got a few things, mostly horse- and MLP-related.

Strawberry cake (as usual), but I bought an "edible" sticker of horses.  I did not eat the sticker part. 

Language lesson outdoors

Trusten's little Lego creations.  I was hanging out in boys' bedroom while they did school, etc.

Love this baby girl!

All these pictures I took with my iPhone as I was preparing to make a pecan pie and a chocolate cheesecake. Nathan's favorite is pecan pie.  I made two crusts. I normally make a chocolate cookie crumb crust for choc cheesecake, but it wasn't too bad with the whole wheat one. LOL  See the rice in the measuring cup?  I had to get that out of the grain mill before putting wheat berries in it.

This turned out ok...fingerprints, anyone?

Aha!  Perfectly smooth.  :-)

The pecan pie (made with NO corn syrup).

My Love surprised me with roses!  :-)  I LOVE flowers!

Elizabeth and cousin Layla at a playground at Roaring River National Park

Fall pictures.  This one is one of my favorites.  I included Asher this year.

I ended up with a lot of fun and funny shots, as usual.

Precious

All right, well, I'll update November soon, then December, and I should have two learning-theme posts coming up soon.  They're being done in December (now), so I might not post them until January. 

Until next time...

Bedroom Themes, Lunar Eclipse, Asher's Casts, and Outsiiide (September 2015)

I started school again, too, and it's super busy around here.  I've made cuts here and there (social life, housework, etc.), but you know I'm not going to stop going outside and taking the kids with me.  I just want to share a few happy pictures from the month of September.

A lovely argiope.  They and their zig-zagged webs are always so beauitful.

This is one of the best sources of joy to me.  I love seeing my children when they're getting along and enjoying their time in the beautiful outdoors.  Of course, I had to shout at Trusten to remind him not to hang on my redbud's limbs. 

 Purple aster (Symphyotrichum patens)

Tall thistle (Cirsium altissimum)

 Hag moth caterpillar (Phobetron pithecium)

I did not initially know what this was.  I'd never seen one.  William tried gently flipping it over with a stick, but it lost its leg, so he stopped bothering it.  I was fascinated.  I turned the chair every which way and got in all sorts of positions to investigate. It looked like some sort of sea life to me.  The underneath had what looked like suction cups, and it reminded me, overall, of a sea star.  When I realized it couldn't be an echinoderm, I suspected it was a strange caterpillar. By the end of the day I determined that it was a toxic, stinging hag moth caterpillar.  

 

I'm not 100% certain, but I think this green, spiked caterpillar with red spots is likely the toxic, stinging crowned slug (Isa textula).  I wish I'd have taken a better picture.  I guess I just took a quick shot with my iPhone instead of grabbing my digital camera.  

 

This lunar eclipse was a "super blood moon," because the moon was at its perigee, causing it to appear larger.  We all went outside for awhile to watch, and not only was this the only time I'd ever taken decent pictures at night (I now have a tripod, but it's a very short one that came with the camera, so I need a better one), but it was the best lunar eclipse I've ever had the pleasure of viewing.  I was pleased with how well they came out, considering I'd never before taken pictures with a tripod.  These pictures don't come even close in comparison, of course, with the real sight.  I truly felt so joyful and alive during that time outside, gazing at the moon.  It truly was a spectacular wonder to behold.  My happiness levels during times such as this max out.  I've truly been blessed with seeing all sorts amazing things in nature this year.  This was the third cosmological event I went outside to see.  I really enjoyed the Venus and Jupiter event that occurred back in June, but this was by far better.  Seriously, I've either been able to view partial eclipses in past years, somewhat ok complete eclipses during very late, very cold hours, from within the house, or have missed out on what would have been decent viewings due to cloudy skies.  So, needless to say, I was thrilled that this worked out for me.  And on a SUPER blood moon! 

This is a typical part of Elizabeth's days—playing with dinosaurs.  Looks as if she's got a wooden rhino there, too, as well as a Rainbow Dash pony.

 

 Liv rolling out dough for pizza crust

This October will make ten years since my sweet Asher was born, and November will make ten years since he died.  I've kept his hand and foot casts in my cedar chest.  It hurt Nathan entirely too much to have much of anything out in view, after we lost Asher, so I've kept it to two pictures all these years.  I decided it would probably be ok to bring some things out now, and it makes me happy to remember him (the good times) when I see these.  What good are they hidden in a chest.  A couple pieces had broken off, but they're mostly intact.  I think most of the base for the foot had broken in the mail when Children's Mercy Hospital sent them to me.  I didn't see the remainder of the big toe, so either it was broken before, or it totally disappeared.  I may post in the next month's edition where I have them displayed.    

 Asher was a wonderful baby, and I'll always miss him.

I bought self-adhesive wallpaper and wall decals for the girls' bedroom.  Nathan applied the wallpaper, with William's help, and I strategically placed Elizabeth's dinosaur decals.  I placed the palaces and messages for Olivia's My Little Pony theme, but she placed most of the remaining stickers herself, the way she wanted.  I was unsure of how she placed Princess Celestia (the big white one with multi-colored hair), but I'm thinking she may have changed her after I said something.

The wall on the left side of the window is decorated for Elizabeth; the right for Olivia.  Olivia's got the purple on her side, too, at the bottom, and it goes across the top and underneath the window, but then she's got this very light purple (can't really tell in picture, it's that light) in a large area where her stickers are.

An ice cream cake!  It had been quite a long time since I'd made one, as they're so high in sugar and very expensive  to make (all organic ingredients, of course).  We had a fall holiday for our family.  We stopped celebrating the biblical holidays, and I absolutely loathe the mainstream holidays (Christmas, Easter, etc.), but we missed doing holidays.  So we figured we'd just celebrate spring, summer, fall, and summer.  :-)  

I've got even more new nature pics (think snakes!) and more coming up in the next posts, so stay tuned.  

Until next time...