Birds Nests & Wood Frogs and Mallards...Oh! My!

This is our sixth spring on this property and there is always something new happening!

This year there seems to be an abundance of common mullein.  I'm so excited!  From the first year I spotted it, and touched the velvety leaves, I've ached to find more than one plant, which usually ends up mowed down or dying at the hand of my efforts to relocate it to a safe place.  This year .... well, I lost count honestly of all the small rosettes along the ledge.  I suspect this has to do, largely, with last years, mass mowing and overturning of the ground in that area.  I dislike what seems like random destruction.  However, God is showing me He has a purpose in all things and that nothing happens that does not first pass through His hands.

The pond was dredged again this year.  I knew it was coming.  It still hit me hard a week ago, when the deed was done.  All week the water has been thick with muck, desolate looking.  This morning, out my kitchen window, I noticed I could see the reflection of trees on the top of the pond.  Things are settingling.

The boys next door brought me a birds nest they'd found.  It was empty and quite abandoned.  They told me they could hear the frogs at the pond and that they'd seen the ducks.

I knew the mallards were there, they come every spring for a visit.  I'd seen them a few weeks ago.

I felt quite content this afternoon as I walked along the ledge and out to the pond.  I will miss the opportunity to sit surrounded by the tall bushes at the ponds edge this summer.  I shall simply find a new Sit Spot down the pond futher and into the wooded area.

I was over joyed to see a few yearling bullfrog tadpoles swimming around today.  Some of them did survive the dredging!  I'm so grateful for God's protective hand.

The colts foot that had been in bloom was disrupted in the dredge, but as I walked along the camp road, I noticed several bright spots of yellow where there had been none last week.  Again, God showing me that he's got this.

I've wanted to give up Creation Exploration so many times over the fall and into the spring of this year.  Maybe I always feel a little bit this way, but this year many things demanded my time and with no groups to keep me focused, passing the torch on to others and letting them carry the work seemed the best idea.  Until today.  Today, I was shown there is still much to study, something new every year.  And so our homeschool group will begin again in three weeks.  

We need to implement some safety features around the pond and I need to regroup and figure out a few things with my own schedule, but we will be back again, exploring and encouraging families to get out in their area and do the same.  

Right out side your front door there is more than you can imagaine.  And while it may seem endlessly the same, I can assure you, it is ever changing.