noticing autumn

The weather has turned back to typical August grey skies. Nights are cooling down more. I’ve even noticed that the Mountain Ash trees are starting to turn yellow. Is it really the brink of autumn? In Texas, I welcomed fall with all my being. Here… it’s great… but knowing that winter is right around the corner… um? For some reason, all I can conjure up are images of snow shovels.

As much as the thought of the looming cold, dark winter does not appeal to me, I am really enjoying sitting back and noticing nature’s transformation into it’s fall splendor.

We walked out to Point Louisa yesterday for some beach-combing. There are subtle differences in the land and wildlife. The colors are more orange now. The moss and lichen are going crazy. The snails are covering the seaweed by the thousands and the geese are flying in formation. South already? All the fireweed has turned to seed but the fields of clover are making the air smell heavenly.

We had an impromptu nature scavenger hunt, went tree climbing and found treasures for sketching. Bird did lots of bear hunting. Her favorite book right now is We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, and she loves to quote it: “swishy, swashy, swishy, swashy!”

My two favorite finds were a small green sponge and this strange piece of seaweed (?) that had the same exact texture of snake skin. I have no clue what either of them are. Any ideas? So cool! Also, check out this little piece of the ocean that looked just like a tiny brain. Slimy.

The boys were calling the long strands of kelp “whippie hippies” and tying them to their arms and legs. It was pretty darn funny to watch them–they looked like sea monsters!

Of course, the best part for me is sitting down to draw what I found. The kids walked around the small point with their notebooks and drew for at least an hour, coming back to show me their works of art every now and then. It makes this mama really happy to see her babies so inspired by the natural world. I hope they never lose their enthusiasm.

After our walk, we went by the school to see what teachers the boys will have this year. It turns out Mighty will have J’s wonderful first grade teacher for kinder! And J will be in class with some of his good buddies. We’re looking forward to the new school year as we welcome autumn.