Child’sPlay tagged me last week for a post called “National Parks Week”, which end’s tomorrow…true to form, I’m getting it done under the wire.
Now first off, let me just say in justification of my lame attempt at this…I’m Canadian and it’s not really National Parks Week here…and now I wonder if we even have such a thing…we likely do but heck if I know anything about it.
Still, I think it’s a cool idea and well, I was tagged, I should at least make an effort, right.
Truly, my favourite place to hang out with my kids in nature is our very own backyard. It’s not a huge piece of land mind you, but it’s got everything you could want.
A pool where random ducks gather to feast on wheat bread and cracked corn in the Spring. Not to mention the myriad of small wildlife that venture in to partake of the ducks’ leftovers. We’ve learned more about ducks from having them visit us and observing them than we could ever have from a book.
And oh yeah, in the summertime, it’s a great place to swim.
Even in the wintertime, our backyard is a snow fortress where all kinds of chilly adventures can happen.
For us “Canucks”, snow is part of our nature and you grow up learning how to get along with it…especially when there’s nearly 400 cm of it and now way out. This picture was taken less than two months ago and it was the first time, since the year I was born (1971) that this city had seen this much snow. Not like these kids cared…to them it’s just snow, eh.
Finally, a picture of our provincial (Ontario) flower.
And though they don’t exactly grow in our backyard, they do grow wild at my friend’s cottage in Quebec. (Where this pic was taken.)
Which is lucky for us because it’s illegal here in Ontario to pick them, but it’s not there and right after I took this picture one of the girls came up behind me and picked it to add to the bouquet she was making for her Mom.
Really though, the picture symbolizes the summers we spend in the woods, living with nature. Cooking over an open fire, fishing at dawn and at dusk, trying to spot the woodpeckers, screaming at spiders and listening to the loons.
Don’t know if it fits in with the theme, but there you have it, how this Canadian experiences nature with her kids.
