Yep, you guessed it, or maybe you didn’t. Seems Mr. and Mrs. Toad were doing their “spring thing” and my son caught them in the act. Now, after I reprimanded him that he should have left them be while they were in this delicate state, we were all quite amazed at getting the opportunity to actually see this! The female is the larger toad on bottom, full of eggs, the male is the smaller toad on top. He waits patiently until the female lays her eggs, which look like a string of black pearls, and then he deposits his necessaries upon the eggs as they exit the female to make them start growing into tadpoles. There’s a little “birds and the bees” lesson for you.

The male made a quick getaway, so we were able to observe the female more closely.

She’s quite large, definitely full of eggs. My youngest agreed to “pet” the toad. She doesn’t quite know what to think yet of these strange hopping creatures. Regardless, the bumpy skin felt neat to her.

Then she reluctantly agreed to hold the big toad. It didn’t last for long though. The female hopped back into the creek. A few minutes later we could hear the male calling to her. I hope they got reunited!

The steep banks were covered with mud and patchy moss on both sides. Erosion from the wintertime has exposed lots of new roots from trees.

Since the weather had gotten pretty cold again there wasn’t many signs of life in the creek, except for an abundance of water striders skimming the surface. You cannot see the striders very well, but if you look closely you can see the ripples they are making in the water. I look forward to when the frogs begin to sing and bring this creek alive with their enchanting symphony.

In several areas the water was making a beautiful babbling sound as it trickled over the rocks. It had rained terribly hard the night before which always keeps the creek on the move for a couple of days.

On my way back to the house I noticed the moon becoming visible in the eastern sky as the sun was setting to the west.

Do you have a creek nearby to you? Perhaps at a local park? Don’t miss out on an opportunity to take a peaceful creek walk for yourself!

There were beautiful patterns of ice in the creek. In places the water was flowing under the ice making bubbly sounds.

The trees even in wintertime are covered in green lichen. Some of them have fabulous patterns.

There are places in piles of leaves where the ice is not melted, still sparkling in the sunlight.

And dried up fall wildflowers still stand tall holding on to their seeds until spring.

Here are a couple more photos I’d like to share with you.

Hannah surprised me today by drawing me a sweet picture on the whiteboard with a super sweet message. It reminded me of the springtime to come! Do you notice the “o” in MOM is a leaf? She definitely knows me well!

And one more…I don’t think that any animal can get as cozy as a cat! Ah, the life.

Creek Clay 

 Water Scorpion

Anyways just wanted to post some photos of things that have been going on around here in our nature times.

Alex continues to spend lots of time in his second home…the creek.

I’ve still been keeping up with my love of taking wildflower photos. This has been one of my favorites of a Deptford Pink. 

Cindy and I are currently writing six new units, one of which is on butterflies, so I’ve been busy taking lots of butterfly photos, including this one of a gorgeous Monarch. 

Another one of the six units will be on conifer trees, so a trip to the local arboretum was due to observe and collect cones… 

…to do lots of fun experiments with! 

Such as learning about how conifers spread their seeds by dropping one and watching it twirl around. 

And then I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the Queen Anne’s Lace which seems bigger and more abundant than I’ve ever seen it this year. 

I’ve also been enjoying the Robin’s Plantain, which also seems to be doing really well this year. It has to be all the rain we’ve had… 

 …which has also made the woods more green, thick and lush.

Today, Alex found an awesome find…a beautiful orange bracket fungus! Yes, I know I’m a strange one to get excited about fungus, but it was such a gorgeous “sherbet orange” color, and once you study fungus you find it rather fascinating. 

Well, that’s about it for now! More structured school will be starting up for us again soon. We pretty much school year round, taking breaks when we need and want. But a more concrete schedule will be resuming shortly. I have changes in mind for my blog as we begin another school year…stay tuned. Perhaps that just what I need to find that inspiration again!