flower walk: a flower study intro

One of my favorite things about summer is the all the flowers.  I often find myself completely lost in thought over a sunflower - seriously, Hubs thinks I'm crazy!  It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how long or cold the winter, those plants wait patiently to burst into bloom for a month or two of summer - just the blink of an eye, you know?

Elise seems equally intrigued, so I decided to engage her in a little deeper exploration of our colorful environment. We kicked off our flower study with a simple, sensory experience - a flower walk around the neighborhood.  After filling a bag with snacks and supplies, we hit the sidewalk!

flower walk supplies:

• field guides
• notepad
• magnifying glass
• string for measuring plants and scissors for cutting the string
• an assortment of markers, pens, and pencils

Of course, we ended up using our senses the most!  We smelled, touched (gently!), and delighted in all the different colors and shapes we observed.  Bees buzzed around us, and we pondered the orange powder coating their legs. Could it be the same stuff sprinkled on the inside of those blossoms? 

As we neared home, we stopped to suck the nectar out of few climbing honeysuckle blooms.  While we would never pick flowers from someone else's yard - gasp! - these are growing on a power line in an alley.  Totally okay, right? Anyway, we'd done this once before, but this time we were shocked to find that the flowers were empty!!!  Not even a tiny drop of nectar to be had!  We pulled out the Rocky Mountain Gardener's Guide and began to read about climbing honeysuckle.  Just as we got to the part about hummingbirds drinking the nectar, we heard a buzzing sound, and there was a hummingbird sipping from a flower right above our heads!  Oh, I so love moments like this!

Stay tuned for more flower adventures...