Video of a very sloooooowww ride!
Finn was not happy with the day's events...
Loch will be ready to go alone with Daddy when he gets back - he actually said "we could go faster without Finn"... awwww, I explained that Finn was still little and he'd get better, blah, blah, blah, and said "who would watch poor Finn? We can't leave him behind..."
Loch replied, "Go to sittercity.com", where does he come up with this stuff LOL?
Loch found one of my favorite spiders and got excited because there were egg cases, too! I call them garden spiders, but technically they are "Agriope" spiders and they are stunningly beautiful, I'm always talking to them in the garden :)
I had never seen the cases and will have to be on the lookout now because these beauties take up residence in my garden every year in late August and I have to be careful ripping out my tomatoes since that's their preferred place to hang out. They have a neat zigzag pattern on the web, and will usually collect their web in the morning and spin it again in the evening!
Shown next to my hand, the egg cases were over an inch long, each contains over 1000 spiders! The female stays in her web and guards the egg cases until they spiders emerge. They are not aggressive at all, and it is said to bring good luck if they are in your garden, although here they are in everyones garden! There are other colors of orb spiders here, but this is the most common variety.
more cases spotted near a bird observation platform
Above is what a wild blueberry bush here looks like - to the right of the kids, it's called a "Northern Highbush" blueberry - very different from the wild blueberry bushes of northern AK, MN & ME, which are very low to the ground and produce tiny berries, but to me the smaller variety are more tasty. I'm sure everyone has their favorite!
After our ride
Finn "walked it off" and was feeling better so we went to talk to the Ranger for awhile so the kids could report the wildlife they saw. He keeps a neat little log in the check station where kids can write down what they saw and they get little activity books for the refuge on which animals, scat, tracks, etc to be on the lookout for. No snakes today, we've been on a roll!
Here's our post-ride comfort food dinner tonight - at the suggestion of Finn's Uncle Mikey I told him that someday when he gets older and gets really good at biking, the post-ride dinner always includes a frosty IPA ! He looked intrigued, so maybe that will inspire him! Yeah, uncles can be good for some things, like recommending a certain beer style to the children LOL! (and the kids' other 2 uncles will back up Uncle Mikey I'm sure!)
No yard work today, yippee!
How wonderful! I love it that you call them Thing 1 and 2. That's what we call the boy and girl and they even refer to each other as such and argue over who's which.
ReplyDeleteWe went to Snake Day today at a local nature center, but I really get inpsired when I see you doing so many nature hikes and such with the kids. I'm getting them out tomorrow and we'll see what kind of trouble we can find.
How enjoyable! For everybody but Finn, that is ;-) Poor little sweetie. Some day he'll thank you for cracking the whip.
ReplyDeleteYour boys are both so adorable! Someday when they no longer live in the area where you are now, they'll remember it because of all the time you took with them to get out and really get to know it. That's the way to get the feel of a part of our country. You did good, Mom! (I would have liked to have ridden along with you.)
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun adventure. Finn will thank you some day- even if he grumbles now. What great memories!
ReplyDeleteOh, and I LOVE garden spiders as well. I discovered a HUGE one in my garden this afternoon and was careful to not walk through it's web.
Have a grand weekend.
Judy
Poor Finn. I have a boy (all grown up) that doesn't like "outdoorsy" stuff. As a matter of fact, he tells me all the TIME how much he hates the outdoors....yet, some of his favorite memories growing up----you guessed it!--were the times I "forced" him out on walks, etc.
ReplyDeleteYou're a great mom...these guys are going to have such neat memories!
I, too, am fascinated by my garden spider! I even posted a blog about her. At first I was calling her Mr. Spider but her abdomen kept getting bigger & I thought to myself, "Wait a minute!..."
ReplyDeleteSo, needless to say, I love reading about how much you appreciate them - and the rest of your blog as well! :)
Looks like a fun bike ride! Sittercity! That made me laugh out loud.
ReplyDelete