The views of the St. Croix River area beautiful. Sophia enjoyed watching the river from a high point on a cliff. The other side of the river is Instate State Park - but the Wisconsin side.
There are lots of rock formations thanks to glacial movement and lava flows that happened at one time in Minnesota's history. There are outcroppings of rocks that you can climb - like Olivia who is on one of the smaller rock cliffs below.
The patterns of the rocks and subtle differences in color are intriguing.
We also went to Franconia Sculpture Park. Olivia enjoyed the swings.
We walked around and explored some of the sculptures there.
The most inspiring thing we experienced was...hearing huge flocks of geese fly overhead as well as in the distance. There had to be hundreds of geese in multiple "V" formations.
Look closely - there are hundreds of geese.
Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)...how do the geese know what direction to go when it is cloudy and overcast? In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting....nothing at this time. Everything is dormant and the ground is frozen.
We did say that a priority next season will be the flower garden in the middle of the backyard. It has a rosebush (rather large) and lots of lilies that my dad gave me. Would like to develop it more so that it is colorful through the growing seasons and attracts more butterflies and hummingbirds.
I added nature journal pages about...still not doing well with this. I had hoped to add pages each month - at least one per month at a minimum. Back in the summer - around June or July - I wanted to add some entries and then never did. Month by month passed, and the task became more overwhelming. Perhaps during December, I can get back on schedule.
I am reading...the November/December issue of Minnesota Conservation Volunteer. There are always interesting articles in each issue; and I always learn something new.
I am dreaming about…the beautiful weather we have been having recently. It has been in the 40s and 55s - almost 60 on Tuesday. This is unseasonably warm which has been enjoyable. It makes Fall chores and errands all that much easier when there's not a lot of snow and ice on the ground.
Photos I would like to share...this is a recent sunset that caught my eye.
The photos were taken less than 30 seconds from one another. The sky changed in intensity with more golds in the previous shot and more lavenders and pinks in the latter photo below.
The sunset has shifted more towards the southwest now. This is the best time of the year (also spring) for seeing the sunset. During the summer, the sunset is further north and it is blocked by the neighbors' barns, home, and trees. Even though they are 500-600 feet away from us, it nonetheless affects how much of the sun itself we can see as it goes below the horizon.
Thank you to Barb the Outdoor Hour Challenge for the idea of doing an Outdoor Mom's Journal.
2 comments:
I feel your struggle about the nature journal. I have sometimes felt overwhelmed trying to keep to my page a week but I'm always glad I took time to do it. It does become a habit if you keep it going. I hope you find time to work on your journal soon! Thanks for sharing your link...loved seeing your world this month. :)
St. Croix park is such a beautiful place to hike or just sit and ponder.
Beautiful sunset! Amazing how quickly the sky can change. Sometimes I see something wonderful but by the time I get the camera out it has passed. Nice shots!
Adding more flowers sounds like a great idea. Flowers are spirit lifting. :)
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