Nature Abounds

Turkey Tail Bracket Fungus

Nature truly abounds everywhere! While walking through the woods looking for morel mushrooms yesterday, which I did not find, I came across a fallen tree limb with this beautiful bracket fungus growing on it.

This type of bracket fungus is called "turkey tail". It gets it's name from the shape of the fungus as well as the stripes of colors which make it look similar to a turkey's tail. It had just rained earlier that day, so the colors are so rich and vibrant.

I will be going out again today to see what other of nature's beauty I can find!

This shot really made a beautiful rustic picture and can be found on my Pixels.com website as well as  turkey tail bracket fungus art for sale on Fine Art America.

Creating Art From a Walk in the Woods

Our treasures from the woods.

Fall is one of my favorite seasons of the year. I love all the beautiful fall colors or red, gold, orange and yellow. Sometimes, I want to bring it all together and create something from all of it.

During a walk in the woods with our granddaughter, she would spot a pretty leaf on the ground, a pine cone or an acorn, among a few other things that I really didn't want to bring home. We saved the "good stuff" and when we got back to the house, she spread them out on the table to admire what we had found.

I decided then that I wanted to show her how we could create something to keep our memories of this walk forever. We arranged and re-arranged our treasures until we came up with the picture above.

She thought that was pretty cool and we printed the picture out for her to take home and show her mom.

You never know what memories become precious and walking among nature is always special to me. I hope I instill this in my children and grandchildren.

If you like the picture that Jazzy and I created, I have also used it on some products in "My Zazzle" store

Too Many Coyotes?

Photo source:  sgbrown aka Rockcreek Photography

This picture was taken several years ago, but it is the best picture of a coyote that I have. As I'm sure most people know that coyotes are very shy creature and are mainly seen either early in the mornings or late in the evenings.

Coyotes tend to hunt at night and usually hunt in packs. Coyotes can be heard "yapping" and "howling" at night in many part of North America. They hunt mainly smaller mammals, such as rabbits, squirrels, mice and sometimes small deer or even small dogs and cats.

I have been noticing that there are not very many squirrels, rabbits or even deer around out place lately, but I have been seeing more coyotes than usual. I am wondering if we have too many coyotes in our area and they are killing all our squirrels, rabbits and other small animals.

Kissing Deer and a Photo Bomb

Are these deer actually kissing?

I couldn’t resist posting this picture. This came from hubby’s field camera he has put up at the back of our place. I downloaded it to my computer, cropped and enhanced it just a bit as field camera usually don’t take very good pictures.

Kissing deer, who couldn’t resist this picture! What looks like an 8 point buck “nose to nose” with a doe. Are they really kissing? It looks like it to me! Perhaps Mr. Deer is saying “Good morning.” To Ms. Deer, or maybe he is introducing himself as the “rut” or mating season should be beginning. In all actuality, he is probably licking the rice bran off of her nose.

While Mr. and Ms. Deer are getting to know each other, another young buck decides to step in and gets “photo bombed”. Still, I thought it was too good a picture to pass up posting!

You may also enjoy:

http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Beautiful-and-Graceful-White-Tailed-Deer

Photo of the Day – A Young White Tail Deer

Teach Your Children to Appreciate Nature

Photo source: sgbrown

God has given us so many gifts in nature, we need to teach our children how to appreciate them. Teach them to “stop and smell the roses” sort of speak. I have always loved nature and have taught my children to appreciate it as well. Now hubby and I are teaching our youngest granddaughter, Jazzy, to appreciate even the smallest things in nature by simply taking her for walks on our place in the country. 

We are fortunate enough to live on 40 acres in the country in southern Oklahoma. There is nature all around us every day and I want Jazzy to appreciate even the smallest of nature’s beauty. As we walk up our driveway, I take us across a field of wildflowers. She found some tiny little flowers and told me to be careful not to step on them. I had her pick one so we could take a picture of it.

 

 

As we walked through the woods, we came across this rock, draped with moss. Jazzy said it looked like it had on a coat. I had to agree with her, it looks like a cloak of moss to keep the rock protected from the cold. I’m glad she uses her imagination when she looks at things. So many children don’t really use their imaginations much these days.
 

 

 

I wanted her to feel the softness of the moss and appreciate its beauty and texture. She said it was soft, but it still tickled her hand a little. She asked me if these were little trees and I told her no, that this was more like the “carpet” of the woods. She wanted to walk on it, but her Papa told her no, that we would find some rock that didn’t have “carpet” on them to walk on later.

 

 

Jazzy especially liked the “fluffy white flowers” on the blooming trees. I’m not sure what kind of trees these are, they don’t get any fruit on them and they really don’t appear to be dog wood trees, but they are beautiful in spring! She didn’t want to get too close to them as there were bees buzzing around all the blossoms. I explained to her why the bees were buzzing the flowers and how important to us they are.



 

 

I think she finally started getting a little tired. I know Papa and I were wore out! We took a little break and sat down for a few moments before we headed home. When her mom got home from work, Jazzy told her all about the “cool” things we saw while we were on our walk. I was glad she enjoyed the walk and I think she learned a few things at the same time.

 

You may also enjoy:

The Beauty of Nature in Spring

Encourage Your Children to Use Their Imagination

Taking a Walk in the Country