Thirteenth Monday

As we ease back into the routine, I give thanks for...

#1754-1767

a day with Matthew and my parents and a job completed

 Before...

and after!

many hands that made light work to prepare for...

a wedding with Christ right at the center

boys home

friends over

good food for the lunch crowd, pulled together quickly

friends that invite themselves over - I do love this!

friends that stay long

games and teasing and laughter

splashes of pink in the woods - the redbuds are in full bloom

bluebells and grape hyacinths, tulips and sprouting perennials

the sound of rain as I fell asleep last night

a misty morning walk

a day for projects

Walking the Greenways

I just spoke with my sister-in-law, Laura, on the phone yesterday. She is six days into her AT hike and called to report that all of the gear we sewed back in February has performed exactly as hoped! That was gratifying to hear. I think of her often and am excited about her goal of walking the entire AT this year.


I have a much less ambitious goal, inspired by my walking s-i-l and by a recent walk with my students, led by a birder from the Audubon Society. That walk, along the Four Mile Creek Greenway, got me interested in finding out more about the greenways around here. So, I did a bit of research and found that there are 180 miles of greenway in our area, covering a wide variety of habitats and settings, from the wooded areas along the Mallard Creek Greenway to the center city.


For our first Greenway walk, I chose the McAlpine/Campbell Creek Greenway. 


"Charlotte's original Greenway Park, McAlpine Creek Greenway, built in 1978, was the first public greenway trail ever acquired and built in the western piedmont of North Carolina."

Seemed like the right place to start!

The first section of our greenway walk was flat and pretty open.  The trails run near, but not right next to, McAlpine Creek.  On the opposite side of the trail, it looks like the city has put in sewer lines and has cleared the trees from a fairly wide swath beside the trail.  That makes the walk feel very open.  With few leaves on the trees when we walked, it was very sunny.  I was expecting more shade and more of a wooded walk.  That is NOT what the first section of McAlpine Greenway is (from Sardis Road to the park).  For people who live in the adjoining neighborhoods, the greenway is an excellent way to walk or bike to the park.  If I lived in that area, I'm sure I'd use it frequently. 

The start of McAlpine Creek Greenway along Sardis Road

When you get into McAlpine Park you have the option to branch off onto the trails that go around the pond and the wetland area.  These trails are used for cross-country races and are well maintained.  They go through more wooded areas.  Along the trail near the wetland, you're likely to see herons.  If you take this walk in the morning, there are lots of birds - bank swallows, tree swallows, swifts, belted kingfishers, red-bellied woodpeckers, flickers, and more.  Coty and I did do the loop around the cross country course and added about a mile to our greenway walk.

The pond at McAlpine Park

When you leave the northern end of the park, you cross over Campbell Creek and the greenway name changes to Campbell Creek Greenway.  This section of trail is what I expected, closer to the creek and more wooded.  Just after you cross Margaret Wallace Road, you pass the remains of a turn-of-the-century grist mill.  Charlotte was a very different place when that grist mill was in operation, that's for sure.  

The Campbell Creek section is a pleasant walk, once you get away from the noise of Independence Blvd. near Margaret Wallace.   It ends rather abruptly along Harris Boulevard, where a set of steps leads up to the streetside sidewalk along Harris.  We turned around there and headed back a mile to where our car was parked along Margaret Wallace Road.

Bridge over Campbell Creek

Coty receiving a birthday phone call

 at the end of the Campbell Creek Section

We walked a little over six miles, from the start on Sardis Road, adding the cross country loop in the park, to the end of Campbell Creek Greenway and then back to our car at the parking lot on Margaret Wallace.


I enjoyed the walk, especially since I got to do it with my sweetheart on his birthday, but I can't say that it's a walk I'd go back to unless I was going birding.  For people who live near this greenway, it would be an excellent place for walks and bike rides away from the busy streets, but it wouldn't really be a destination walk for me, except for birding purposes in and around McAlpine Park.


Next walk: Little Sugar Creek Greenway 

Herps

I promised some follow-up posts last week, so here goes.

My life has been full of herps lately, and no, I didn't misspell a word.  What are herps?  Well, if you ask my students now, they can tell you.

Herpetology is the study of reptiles and amphibians.  (And in case you were wondering, that word comes from the Greek word, herpeton which literally means creeping thing).

Our class has spent the last few weeks working our way through the various orders of herps and we've supplemented our class time with a couple of great outings.

Davidson College Lab of Herpetology

Our visit to the Herp Lab at Davidson took me waaaaaay back to my undergraduate biology days.  I walked in the Biology building and lots of memories came flooding back: genetics lectures, botany practicals, animal behavior labs, zebra finches, dissections, and so much more.  There was no herp lab when I was there, but it's a busy place these days.

We spent our entire hour and a half visit in the lab, learning about the specimens they keep.

Everybody loved the spotted salamander and the rat snake.  

The woods out back

Two days after our visit to Davidson, my students were eager to hit the woods and creek in search of herps.  They spent a happy hour and a half, turning over rocks and digging in rotted logs.

We found three species of frogs (bullfrog, Northern cricket frog, and spring peeper) and we heard Upland chorus frogs.  We also found several of what we think are dusky salamanders, tiny little creatures that blend with the mud of the creek and move quickly to elude capture.  We did manage to catch and get a good look at a couple of them, though, before releasing them back to the creek.

The wildflowers in the woods are starting to come out and we found these round leaf hepaticas (note the distinctive leaf shape)...

and these little brown jugs - the flower of the wild ginger that grows all over the woods out back.

When we returned, we sat on the porch with field guides, trying to identify what we'd seen.  I love seeing my students poring over the Audubon guides and discussing various options, looking up range maps, reading descriptions, searching, discovering!

I find myself wanting, as the weather warms up, to spend more of our few remaining class times out in the field.  Maybe I'll even do what my Davidson botany professor did every time we went on a botany field trip.  Dr. Daggy, who in his 70's at the time could still outwalk any college student, rewarded us at the end of every long walk in the woods with congo bars.  Think I'll have to mix up a batch for my students for the next outing!

Twelfth Tuesday

1752.   I sat on the porch swing, knitting. He sat on the porch chaise, computer and Bible at hand, reading. We drank iced green tea and didn't need to talk. I am so thankful for this young man and so happy that he's home for a bit.

1753.  Dug from the side of the road last year, these beauties are about to burst into full bloom.

In the quiet of this afternoon, I give thanks.

The week in review...

It's been one of those very full weeks.  

Andrew spent the last couple of hours of his spring break sleeping on the hammock.  Drag out that relaxing as long as you can, right!

I took A back to Furman on Sunday and spent the night with my parents.  On Monday, we tackled a landscape project: a visit to the plant nursery, a planting area dug, ground covers and perennials planted.  It was a very productive and enjoyable day with Mama and Daddy.  Sadly, I have no "before and after" photos of our hard work.

Apparently, my camera was being used to capture a little of the foolishness at home.  You never know what's going to happen when you leave.  But then again, I'm never really sure what's going to happen even when I'm here.  Love these guys, (no they're not mine, they're HP's, Honorary Pinckneys).  I have no idea what was so funny.

Things got serious on Tuesday.  Joel learned how to eat.  Like a diplomat, that is.

When my kids were little and demonstrated poor manners at the table, I used to say, "You wouldn't do that if you were eating with the president, would you???"

Well, now Joel will know just what to do if he ever gets invited to a state banquet.  He and his co-op classmates had a two hour lunch and learned exactly what to do with all that silverware.  Who taught them all the intricacies of proper dining, you might be wondering.  Becky Pitts, the former Protocol Officer for Bank of America, was a delightful, patient, and entertaining teacher.

The kids had a four course meal (soup, salad, lemon chicken, asparagus risotto,broccoli, homemade rolls, and chocolate cheesecake) lovingly prepared by their moms.  And no, they won't be eating that well at co-op next week.  Sorry, y'all.

On Wednesday, the week took a wilder turn.  Well, hello little alligator. (I think her name was Annabelle).

I took my class to the Herpetology Lab at Davidson.  We enjoyed an hour and a half visit, led by Outreach Coordinator, Nitya Rao, who is a sophomore at the college. (What a great job to have while in college - if you like snakes and other related critters, that is)  Nitya was great and persisted til she finally got my rather shy class to start talking! More on the field trip later...

Today, with the weather absolutely gorgeous, there was no way I was keeping my Field Biology students inside.  Oh, no!  We were out in the field, the woods, the pond, the creek. But, like the herp lab, that deserves a post of it's own with a few more photos.  So stay tuned....

When class was over, we headed out for a picnic lunch and walk. After parking one car at the end of the Greenway, we met Thomas and Kay at McAlpine Park for a birthday picnic for Coty.  Happy birthday, sweetie!

Then Joel ferried us to the other end of the Greenway and Coty and I did the first of what I am hoping will be many walks on the greenways in our area.  But that gets its own post, too.

So, there it is.  The week so far.

Tomorrow promises time for sewing, preparing and serving dinner at the Charlotte Rescue Mission,  Phase 10 in the evening with Thomas, Kay, and Joel, some March Madness, I'm sure, and I hope, some digging in the dirt.

Very full.  (And I didn't even tell you about soccer, yarn shopping, and small group chili dinner).

Very good.

Oh, my!

A little girl is getting mighty big.
Is this really Miss Clara,
striding down the snowy road to the barn?

Eleventh Tuesday

"I will praise the name of God with a song;  I will magnify him with thanksgiving."  -Psalm 69:30

Because you are the giver of every good gift,  may you, Lord, be magnified in my thanks for ...

a whole day with my parents yesterday, visiting Martin's, working in the yard

the sound of tonight's rain
the progression of spring flowers
tulip trees, grape hyacinths, ornamental cherries, forsythia, redbud....

students who care
parents who care

yarn in just the right color
time with a friend

having Andrew home
looking forward to Matthew coming

helpful words

honest conversations

a quiet evening

#1733-1751

so many gifts - on Mondays, Tuesdays, and every day...

Spring-i-fying

With the daffodils and pears in full bloom, I put away the darker runner on the shelf top and spent a little time making a new one.  I used leftovers from this quilt, a bit of an embroidered napkin, the edging from an old tablecloth, and some fabric from the stash for the back...

There was no pattern.  I just put it together as I went along, sewing the strips and blocks directly to the batting fabric, then joining the backing around the edges.  The binding is stitched to the front and awaits the final hand stitching.  I'm waiting for read aloud time to do that little bit of handwork.

This blog is inspiration to be playful with the fabrics. 

I'm warmed up now and ready for my next quilt.  I've started going through my stash and collecting some new fabrics, inspired by this post.  Cutting starts today!

Simple Meal Plans: Follow the book

This is our recent favorite.  Fish tacos from Simply in Season.  I've made them twice in the last week.  Both times, instead of using corn tortillas that the recipe calls for, I've substituted with polenta.  I dish the cooked polenta up on the plate, flatten it with the back of a wooden spoon, arrange the fish on top, and then add all the rest of the toppings.  In addition to those listed in the recipe, I added black and green olives.  Both the yogurt/mayonnaise sauce and the cilantro cream variation are delicious.  This meal will certainly become a regular at our table.

Tenth Tuesday, 2011

Ten weeks into the year.  Seems it just got started with a wedding and now, already, it is spring!

We started this week with company - a dear friend who is one of the pastors from our mother church.  This is his 8th year visiting us in March.  We hope he keeps up the streak!  David's daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter are here, too.  How fun to get to know this couple that we've heard so much about and play with a little one who is only 20 days younger than Clara!

So, starting out the week with a full house, I give thanks for...

David's visit
The chance to open our home to his family.  What a privilege!
Sunday lunch out with Fred and Lori
Daffodils everywhere, forsythia, too, and...
Bradford pears - not my favorite - but a sure sign of the arrival of spring
Learning to distinguish the songs of the chorus frogs
A clean garage
Thomas and Kay nearby
Bright sun on a Monday morning
A looooong walk with Heidi last Friday
Andrew.  Home.  Hooray!
A trip to Colorado coming up
Quilt binding

#s 1719-1732

Glorious morning...

...after a gully washing rain last night.  We always know how hard it has rained by how many frogs are in the pool.  Five this morning.  Cute little guys.  Upland chorus frogs.  I learned that in my class last Friday when we caught one, brought it inside, and identified it.

I have learned so much teaching this field biology class.  It's funny how my students and their parents seem to think I know so much.  I do know a bit, but perhaps not as much as they think I do.  What's so great is that teaching is the best way to learn!  Believe me, I know a whole lot more about treefrogs than I did a few weeks ago, and I expect to know a lot more by time we're done. 

I studied biology in college, but it's been a long time.  I've had to dust off a whole lot of stored away knowledge, and I've had to learn many, many new things.  I've had to brush up and I've had to study!  I've been learning from those who are truly experts, and I've been learning from my students.  Quite often, they've made contributions to class discussions, bringing in information that was new to me.  I  love when that happens.

If you are a homeschool mom thinking of teaching a class to a group of students, say in a co-op situation or otherwise, a few words of encouragement:

1.  Love your subject!  This is key.  You won't convey delight to your students if you don't truly care about what you are teaching.  You really can't fake it. 

2.  Work hard.  Read widely. Spend time in the stacks at the library and find the best books.  See what others recommend. Browse on amazon or other websites that sell books related to your subject.  Read book reviews and then buy as many books for yourself as you can afford.  Start building your own library on your subject.  That way when you can share your favorite books with your students, inside of class and out. 

3.  Search for the experts in your community and utilize their expertise - class speakers, field trips, visits to places of interest with people who know them well.  You don't have the be the expert, but if you can befriend the folks who are, your students will benefit. 

That's all for now.  But more is coming...

I've been asked a lot of questions lately about making the transition in homeschooling from the young years through middle school and on to high school year.   Why are people asking me?  Well, because I'm old, for one thing.  Also, because I have six children who have made that transition.  One is still in high school, three in college, and two on to adult life.  Like I said, I'm old.  I'm a grandmother, for heaven's sake!

So, if you'll bear with me for a bit (because what I really want to be doing the rest of this week is cutting out quilt squares), I promise you a post or two before long on making that transition.

For now, I'm getting back outside to enjoy what remains of this glorious day.