Saturday Exploration

This is a great time of year for exploring outside! There are lots of “treasures” to be found! Rusty (our dog) and I went on an expedition to see what we could find in the area where we live. Rusty found a lot of sticks, which is the part that interests him! 😉

While we usually find dandelions in the spring, if you look all around you can still find one or two of them adding some bright yellow to the landscape.

We are lucky enough to have a huge pine tree on our property and we found plenty of small pine cones. I brought them inside to let them dry thoroughly so they can be used in future craft projects. (Stay tuned!)

There is a small oak tree here too, so we also found some little acorns. We added them to our “future crafting” stockpile.

Do you know what these things are? Here’s a hint: they are found on the common milkweed plant.

Yep, they are milkweed seed pods. Inside of them are the seeds for growing more milkweed plants. Here’s what they look like when they are opened:

They are pretty cool looking, aren’t they? We are trying to save up some milkweed seeds and plant them this fall so we’ll have more milkweed plants for our Monarch butterflies and caterpillars next season.

Keep your eyes open for flowers! Even if they are actually considered to be weeds, they can be so pretty! Here’s a few we found:

I don’t know what the name of this weed is but those little tassels it has are so soft and fun to hold.

Toadstools are popping up all over the place! But remember, these are NOT SAFE TO EAT!! Can you imagine a little fairy hiding under it to keep dry when it rains? 😉

I hope you will go on your own exploration and see if you can find these things where you live and perhaps some other cool stuff! I’d love it if you’d share what you find with us here! 🙂