{into nature}

{into nature} is a weekly Monday post inspiring the exploration of nature. It is a grassroots effort to combat the nature deficit disorder in our current generations. Please join me in this movement back into nature by sharing your own nature inspiration, whether shared through photographs, words, poetry…. leave a link here in the day's comments for all to enjoy.


"For children, nature comes in many forms. A newborn calf; a pet that lives and dies; a worn path through the woods; a fort nested in stinging nettles; a damp, mysterious edge of a vacant lot- whatever shape nature takes, it offers each child an older, larger world… nature does not steal time; it amplifies it.” -Richard Louv

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this past week we found ourselves sticking around the yard most of the week. i was still trying to catch up from our camping trip, we started a big yard project (tackling our front yard finally!), and the extreme heat during several days kept us close to home.  but we did have a few outings to break up our time spent at home.  i packed up the boys and dog and headed to our favorite spot in the nearby state forest for a quiet walk on one of the more tolerable days.  which turned into mushroom hunting and a dip in the stream :)  

after visiting the farmer's market another morning i decided to squeeze in before lunch a little adventure at the newish open space in our town.  this is a fairly new area for us as a family.  we discovered it last year shortly after it was dedicated as open space.  it was just a few big fields with some woods surrounding it and several butterfly areas in the fields.  we've avoided it since winter because the ticks were really bad there in the spring.  when we went there the other morning i was happy to see they've started to put some trails in the nearby woods and swamps as a boyscout project.  the place has a lot of potential so it's nice to see they are starting to utilize it a bit more.