Love, Laughter, and Life

Adventures With a Book Lover

Category Archives: Nature


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The Curious Garden ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

A garden that is curious?

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

The Curious Garden

By Peter Brown

(Little, Brown and Company; 2009)

The Curious Garden is a picture book that was inspired by the Manhattan Highline Railway.

I’ve read articles about the Highline that tell how the lonely stretch of railway has been transformed into beautiful public gardens. But this is the first picture book I’ve found on the topic.

The Curious Garden tells the tale of Liam, a young boy who explores the empty spaces to find railways breaking down and nature taking over. Liam decides to help. Together, Liam and the garden grow and explore the empty spaces.

“The garden was especially curious about old, forgotten things.”

I love that sentence. The garden is not just a thing in this book, but one of the main characters!

The Curious Garden (doesn’t the title take on a new personna after you’ve read the above sentence?) will delight explorers and nature lovers.

KID KANDY:

Nature Walk

I walk almost every day through my neighborhood. When I walk tomorrow, I am going to look for places that nature is acting curious and spreading in unexpected places.

How about you?

Ask a parent or sibling to walk with you.

Look for:

– weeds growing in sidewalk cracks

– flowers springing up in odd spots

– old rusted things covered in grasses or vines

– moss creeping along damp, shady areas

– nature that is being mysterious and curious as it expands to new areas

What did you see?


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Woodpecker Wham! ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

Nonfiction picture book that delights and informs!

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

Woodpecker Wham!

By April Pulley Sayre

Illustrated by Steve Jenkins

(Henry Holt and Company, 2015)

Woodpecker Wham! is a delightful book told in rhyme. Readers will enjoy wonderful, bright illustrations about the life cycle and habits of woodpeckers that fill the pages of this picture book. Text written with descriptive words and words of sounds made by woodpeckers imparts information in a simple and clean way.

I loved reading the end notes that gave interesting facts and explanations about woodpecker habits. Why do woodpeckers ‘ant’? Where do woodpeckers nest? How do they secure their homes? Fascinating.

Learning about birds? Woodpecker Wham! is the perfect book to read with children.

KID KANDY:

Bird Hunt

1. Look at the illustrations of Woodpecker Wham! Remember the colors, shapes, and habits so you can use them to help you locate woodpeckers.

2. Find a pair of binoculars and put on sturdy shoes.

3. Ask a parent or older sibling to go with you.

4. Walk around your yard, neighborhood, or in a wooded area and scout for woodpeckers. You may need to listen for their calls or ‘pecking,’ check tree trunks for nesting cavities, or watch for their particular flight patterns. Once you see them, you will figure out how to easily spot them in the future.

5. Take photos with your mind! When you get home, check out the book again and see if you saw one of the featured woodpeckers. Or look in a bird identification book to find the bird you saw.

6. Draw a picture of the bird you saw and where you spotted it. If you didn’t find any, don’t give up. Draw a picture of the birds you want to find.

7. Keep looking.

Birds are amazing! I can always tell when woodpeckers (we have flickers in our neighborhood) are racing around. Both woodpeckers and jays are loud! 

Happy bird hunting.


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Water Is Water – Picture Book & KID KANDY

Water Is Water

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

Water Is Water, A Book About the Water Cycle

By Miranda Paul

Illustrations by Jason Chin

(Roaring Book Press, 2015)

Water Is Water, A Book About the Water Cycle, is a beautifully illustrated picture book featuring poetic text that invites readers to live the life of water.

I discovered this book during March Madness for picture books, ReFoReMo (Read For Research Month) and fell in love. Water is the main topic, but the storyline is about children playing throughout the seasons in the different forms water takes.

Fog, rain, snow, hail, water, steam, clouds, puddles, ice. Don’t fear, this book does not read as educational but is engaging and full of rich language. Fun water facts and more about water features at the end of the book add drops of trivia about water for interested readers.

Water Is Water is the perfect book for easy reading and fun learning at home or in a classroom.

KID KANDY:

Take a Bath

Really. Take a bubble bath. Play for a bit with plastic scoops, cups, and funnels.

~ Observe the water. How does it move? What does it smell like? How does it feel? Taste a little bit from the faucet.

~ Look for different forms of water. Do you have drips falling from your hair (like rain), fog on your mirrors (steam), and puddles on the floor? You probably won’t find ice or snow, but that’s ok.

~ Hang your towel after you dry off. How does it feel? Come back the next day. How does it feel now? Where did the water go?

~ List the different forms of water you see around your house.

Water is pretty amazing, isn’t it?

What is your favorite form of water? Why?

I’d love to hear your answers.


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The Inaugural Run

The inaugrual clothesline run. Success!

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

It was a successful inaugural run…for my brand new recycled clothesline.

Until now, several factors have discouraged this celebratory occasion.

 

We have a tiny backyard.

The project resisted efforts towards completion.

Time kept on slipping, slipping, slipping.

Do you know how hard it is to find poles for clotheslines?

 

Today, may I introduce you to my tiny yard, brand new, recycled clothesline?

Pleased to meet you.

Our son had an old clothesline pole hanging out on their property. This treasure came complete with a cross bar (which my husband dropped on his head; his next gift is going to be a safety helmet – and I am not kidding) and rings for the lines.

We had to anchor the opposite side of the clothesline to the garage which required us to angle the entire clothesline. Do you now how hard it was to make it NOT square and straight? Using the garage as the second pole was due to lack of a second clothesline pole and a lack of space.

Our one available section of yard is only about 6 feet wide. It hides behind the garden shed and is almost beneath, gasp, the powerlines. Where the birds sit.

In spite of the challenges and possible necessity of rewashing bird-soiled items, I am so pleased and excited to use the clothesline.

Hurray for fresh air, crunchy clothes, and a lower gas bill.

Our angled clothesline connected between a pole and the garage.

Do you have a clothesline? What are your tricks for getting the cleanest and softest clothes?


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Every Day Birds ~ Picture Book & KID KANDY

Beautiful, nonfiction book about birds we see each day.

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

Every Day Birds

By Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Cut Paper Illustrations by Dylan Metrano

(Orchard Books, 2016)

Birds you see each day are the stars of this book, Every Day Birds.

Simple text, colorful fonts, beautiful cut paper illustrations, and one characteristic or behavior of each featured bird make this book a keeper. Twenty common North American birds are pictured in Every Day Birds. A picture identification and additional information section is included at the end of the book.

Young readers and budding bird lovers will treasure reading Every Day Birds. Reading will be followed up by time outdoors searching for the birds who live among the book pages.

Check out this brand new book. Every Day Birds.

KID KANDY:

Bird Watching

Materials: Every Day Birds, binoculars, hat

1. Read and study the birds found in Every Day Birds.

2. Put on your hat and head outside to look for birds.

3. Use the binoculars to see details of different birds without having to get too close.

4. Compare the birds you found to the ones in the book. How many did you find? Which was your favorite?

5. Some bird enthusiasts keep a lifetime list of the birds they see. You could make your own list by using a notebook for a bird journal. Draw or list the birds you observe.

Are you having fun yet? I’d love to hear which birds you saw on your bird hunt.

Tweet, tweet!


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National Pet Day

Baby pictures – Monet and Mabel

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

Today is National Pet Day.

Here are our two highly energetic and trouble-seeking felines, Mabel and Monet.

The sisters are camera shy and any attempt to take photos results in instant movement, waltzing away from the scene, aloof attitudes, or disdainful staring away from the camera. Loving eye shots are not allowed. No. Not at all.

Mabel of the gorgeous eyes

Our cats love to:

– climb the walls (literally)

– chase, capture, and bring in wildlife (birds, worms, mice, rats)

– pretend they live at the home of neighbors (your choice; we see them regularly lazing in the yards or coming home from 5 different yards – none of which are ours)

– leave hair everywhere

– recline on the kitchen table

– claim any unfurred piece of furniture until it is redecorated in white, gray, and tan fur

– play catch the lazer (or string, or cord, or feathers, or toes…)

– steal rubberbands

– eat daddy-long-legs

– try and potty in the garden beds

– tease the neighborhood bully cat with friendship, and then turn about squawling as if ripped limb from limb (this also results in the male boy spraying regularly on several key locations, house included)

– race loudly and wildly through the house

– be wherever we are

– sleep on fuzzy blankets

Monet with the striped tail

Oh, there is more. They are cats. You get the idea. We are not allowed cat fur free clothing, bird feeders, or litter free carpets.

But we love them. Entertainment, affection, company, lap warmers, snugglers. I guess we’ll keep them.

Monet depositing hair and cat litter

Do you need some great ideas of things to do on National Pet Day? I found a Web site that shared several suggestions. Just click this link. National Pet Day

What kind of pets do you have? I’d love to see and hear about them.

Mabel claiming the center of the bed

Happy National Pet Day!


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My Martha/HGTV Moment

Happy tulips hanging out in an old beat up red wagon.

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

Normally, this floral objet d’art would not occur in my yard. Once the bulbs are nestled in, that’s where they stay.

But due to the removal of giant, old, space and light-hogging arborvitae, the tulips had to be moved to save their pretty little lives.

Zoomin’ in on brilliant color.

Aha! (Insert light bulb hanging over my head.) I will put them in a wagon, just until after they bloom. And then we shall find a new bed for them.

Success! Even with my careful removal, accidents happened. But those sturdy beauties just hung in there and are now blooming like crazy!

I love spring. Tulip season is my favorite season in the yard.

I think I will plant kale next in the wagon. Do you think the aphids will find it there? At least the slugs/snails will have to work harder.

 

No bumping up and down in my little red wagon for these pretty spring tulips.

What kind of container gardens do you have in your yard?


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Poetic Pink

Photo by Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

Pink puffs perfectly poised to produce

pretty pearls of poetry.

 

warmed by sun’s long days

life-giving nectar drawn up

to the sky; beauty

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

Pink’s all the rage. What’s on stage in your area? Let’s have a picture show celebration!


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Catitude Haiku

Monet expressing her cat-ness

yes, I am Gray Queen

royal bed and rest doth call

stop bothering me

by Angie Quantrell


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Homemade Lavender DIY Soap

This time I decided to make 3 different lavender soaps at the moment. The recipes are veeery easy but the result of our work turns to be very cute 🙂 Lavender Soap smells fantastic + it is really u…

Source: Homemade Lavender DIY Soap

Cool soap! Just in case I want to make some of my own…