Les Botanistes

We are beginning our fall botanist project! This cute kit from Moulin Roty comes with a magnifying glass,  boxes for seeds, plants, and treasure collections, a nature observation booklet, and a leaf press. The girls and I wandered around our yard and collected leaves, flowers, grasses, and seeds which next will go into the leaf presses. Once the water is evaporated and the leaves are flattened, we plan to make laminated book marks to give during the valentine's season. The pink and red petals from the knockout roses and the purple catmint / nepeta will make the best valentines...but in the meantime, the fall foliage colors of red, orange, yellow, brown, and green are so inspiring for this autumn season.

This project is a lovely simple outdoor adventure with the children, and I might enjoy it more than they do. These first autumn evenings when the sun is out in full force, the temperatures are still warm with a slight crisp breeze in the air, and the evening hours approach earlier than the summer months, are really so great and special. This project is one way to capture the feelings of autumn in a preserved fallen leaf and a  pressed still-vibrant flower petal. The white and yellow daisy-looking wildflowers from the front pond are also a hit as we collect them while the frogs and toads leap into the water to escape the human trespassers in their otherwise peaceful cattail habitat.

We also picked up handfuls of the beautiful acorns in our front yard...but I've learned from previous seasons to leave them outside. I warn the girls to avoid putting them in their pockets, even though the acorns and the little acorn tops are so so pretty---and reminiscent of Julian of Norwich's acorn theology of life potential. The last time I collected a bowl full of acorns, I found little squirmy weevil larvae crawling all over the outside of the acorn shells. Upon researching it further, I discovered a great article from Iowa State University Extension about "The Dark Side of Collecting Acorns" (cue the scary music here). What the ISU entomologist wrote is true: Creepy crawlies everywhere! Here's that article: The Dark Side of Collecting Acorns