On Friday, for our Nature time, we decided to be outside a bit longer than usual and venture back into the woods a bit.  The woods behind us is currently owned by a developer (they promise us they will be leaving LOTS of woods) and we figure they won’t mind us spending some occassional nature study time there.  And what a delightful walk we had.

First, we noticed  how dry the creekbed was.  We’ve been missing out on rain lately.

Then, we walked up a bit further into the beautiful woods.  This time of year seems to be a great time to do this since some of the underbrush is dying back, and it was a pretty easy walk.

We found a bird’s feather.

There were lots of old rotting, fallen trees, and a tree that was severely damaged, seemed by lightning maybe.

And, this humongous old dead tree!

We found a very uniquely colored toad, such a neat reddish/orange color, I’ve never seen one like that.  He reminded us of our toad that we recently kept as a pet and just set him free last week.

Then, you never know when you might find a hitchhiker on your arm, such as this cute snail!

Gabby loved playing on the logs.

And so did sister.  I love this photo, the sun was shinning so radiantly through the trees.

The wooded air is so fresh and good for the soul, makes the rest of your day go so much better.

Oh, and three (3) new stunningly beautiful wildflowers were discovered upon our journey!  Seems our Lord and Creator says were not finished finding them yet!  All three of them are different shades of purples.

Mistflower

Great Blue Lobelia

Hoary Tick-Trefoil, Sticktights

Excellent book for studying deciduous forests:

A Walk in a Deciduous Forest,

by Rebecca Johnson