Rose Seeds

 Every year for the last 7 or more years I've gone around our apartment complex, cutting the rose hips this time of year. They don't regularly cut the roses during the year so this time of year the roses are all gone and the rose hips have turned orange. That means that they are full of seeds. I wasn't going to collect them this year because we are moving soon, but I thought the seeds might make great going away gifts for a few close friends who like to garden. 

These are some of the rose hips cut and some of the seeds I collected. It's a bit of work getting the seeds out. They need to "sleep" for the winter before they can sprout so I normally put them in a ziplock bag with a little wet dirt and put them in the fridge. Around January they start sprouting in the bag and then February or so I can transplant the seedlings to pots to grow. I love watching the seeds sprout. It's like magic! 

Something else we noticed in the wall in our backyard are some little cocoons from an unknown insect. One of them was covered over with more dirt and the other wasn't. You can see the spots where they came out of the cocoons. 

Nature Study in the Fall

 A few days ago we spent some time in the backyard drawing leaves and walnuts (some of which had fallen and started to sprout!). It was so nice! We haven't been able to be out in the yard like this for a while because it was hot (with lots of mosquitos) in the summer, and then we had about 3 weeks of off and on rain. It was really great to be drawing outside with the kids- one of my favorite things! 

Last week we also saw some corn that someone had hung out in their yard to dry. However, with all the rain, the kernels on the corn started to sprout!

Tea and Coffee Around The World

I just finished another book. It's available on the INK Website here (look under "resources") and will soon be available on the Living Book Press website. I love tea and coffee and it's fun to hear about how tea and coffee are enjoyed around the world. It was a fun book to do the research for and to write. Here's the description for the book: 

This book explores tea and coffee cultures around the world as well as the history of tea and coffee and how they are made. This book is a fun way to learn geography and read about some of the people (and drinks people enjoy) around the world. 

Shanghai

 We went to Shanghai for a few days to renew the kids' passports and had a few other things to do. We did some sightseeing though: Saturday we went to Ignatius Catholic Church which was built in the early 1900s. They had some gorgeous stained glass windows! Today we went to a water village, but it was really hot and humid. We didn't think Shanghai would be so hot this time of year and can imagine how hot and humid it gets in the summer.

Day at the park

 The other day we went to the park. We haven't gone to the park in a long time because of the rain but now summer has come and it's getting hot! We went out the other day before in the morning before it got hot in the afternoon. 

Silkworm Moths

 The silkworms have made cocoons and have now become silkworm moths. I was super surprised to find out that silkworm moths don't have mouths or stomachs- their only purpose is to lay eggs for the next generation. The friends who gave us the silkworms said, "You have to make sure the silkworms don't fly all over the house or they'll lay eggs everywhere." Apparently, each silkworm moth can lay anywhere from 200-500 eggs! That's a lot! I've never seen the whole process from caterpillars to cocoons to butterflies (or moths). 

It's also our last week of homeschool for the summer. We're still going to do some classes like reading and I'll still read aloud to the kids over the summer, but for most of our classes we're taking a break. 

Silkworms

 We were given some silkworms from a friend that had a bunch of them. It's been fun seeing them grow and we hope to see a cocoon soon.

Tulips

 Today we went to the botanical gardens with a few other families for a picnic. The kids had lots of fun, but the gardens are becoming more and more commercial. There were quite a lot of shops inside selling snacks and things so the gardens weren't as big or nice as they used to be.