Thursday, April 30, 2015

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

This will let us sleep soundly....hopefully

Last year we had the unpleasant experience to be waken at night by the resolute shouting of the skipper from the next boat in the anchoring field, because we were drifting towards their boat and already hitting it....It was a clear nightmare....Thank God no one was hurt and no damage was done...

Children's Art: Glue on Canvas

Well, we are still in the experimentation phase.... Following the idea of Jean Van't Hul the children draw with glue on paper and canvas board. We had to let it dry completely overnight. Today we painted with standard school watercolor on top of it... Although I think we will get better results...

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Children's Crafts: Craftstick weaving

With an ill child at home it is always good to have some simple stuff, which can be done in bed.  Magdalena tried this yesterday and we are quite pleased that I found this wonderfully colored craftsticks in a local store. She put two craftsticks across to each other and weaved wool in different...

Lungwort (Pulmonaria)

Pulmonaria officinalis Lungwort of the family Boraginaceae is native to Europe and eastern Asia. It grows in deciduous forests. In former times Pulmonaria officinalis  it was used as medicinal herb against chest diseases and asthma...

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Drift wood

We found some interesting drift wood at the beach this weekend. Who may have nibbled all these neat holes into it?!? We will never find out.... And Wolfgang refused it on board in worry, that the master-builder might still be inside and would make Madita look like this very piece.... Captains of ships...

Stones

I love stones! And if I could I would gathering a lot more, but since I don't want Madita to sink I refrain.... ...

Woods

This weekend I took some pictures of wood, bark and dead trees, because the surface has kind of an interesting structure to me.... ...

Alder Leaf Beetle (Chrysomelidae)

This beetle and it's larvae prefer speckled alder. In rare cases of massive occurrence of alder leaf beetle complete defoliation can be the consequence..... This beetle is native to Euroe, Siberia, Kazakhstan and was introduced to the US in the 19th centu...

Lichen and moss

The observation of lichen and moss always gives me the feeling as if there is a remote tiny world beyond our reach... ...

Sonderborg/Denmark 04/24-25/15

This weekend we had to realize that it is still quite early in the year: It simply was too cold, rainy, windy and foggy to go for a decent family sail trip.  Nevertheless we had a wonderful weekend staying in Sonderborg, hiking in the woods and doing a lot of nature observation..... ...

Bluebell

This plant of the family Asparagaceae is native to West Europe and Northwest Africa. It is a rare plant which is specially protected and grows in deciduous forest or shrubbery. This picture was taken nearby the Sonderborg marina/Denma...

Mahonia

Mahonia is an evergreen shrub belonging to the family Berberidaceae. It is native to Asia, Himalaya, North America and Central America.  Mahonia was named in honor of the Philadelphia horticulturist Bernard McMahon. It is typically an ornamental plant. The blueback berries are edible...

Stitchwort (Stellaria)

 Stellaria graminea Stellaria media This weekend we found two different kinds of Stellaria in the woods. Stitchwort belongs to the family Caryophyllaceae and can be found all over the world but mostly in the temperate regions of the Norther Hemisphere. They are a good food plant for moth...

Friday, April 24, 2015

Children's Art: Painting Prompts

Yesterday we had like half an hour before dinner and I wanted to try out a new project, which I would love to use every now and than. I prepared popsicle sticks in a glas jar. On each stick I wrote one word like Musik, Spring, Hot, Anger, Family, Ocean, Red, Chocolate..... I ask the children...

Children Craft's: Nature prints

Once I saw this technique of printing nature structures in clay on Jean Van't Hul inspiring website The Artful Parent I know we have to try that out ourselves. It was a fun project from the very beginning :-) First we went for a walk in the neighborhood and collected plants we assumed to be suitable. We...

Please meet Audrey....

Maybe she is just a plant, but to the children she is almost a family member already, carefully fed and spoken to everyday :-) Although her official name is Dionaea muscipula, we call her Audrey in homage to a certain plant staring in the musical "Little Shop of Horrors" :-)) ...

Here it is.....

Finally I found one single red Magnolia in our neighborhood. All the other red Magnolia trees I know of do not show blossoms this year.....may be of the very mild winter we had, or just by chance? Anyway I am that at least this one shows it beautiful dark blossoms :-) ...

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Bleeding Heart (Lamprocapnos)

The Bleeding Heart belongs to the poppy family and is native to Siberia, Northern China, Korea and Japan. Their normal habitat is light humid deciduous forests in the mountains. It is a popular ornamental plant with pink and white flowers showing from April (in mild years) to Ju...

Juneberry (Amelanchier)

Ornamental tree native to the temperate regions of Northern Hemisphere. Great diversity through out North America with at least one species native to each state of US except Hawaii and the Canadian provinces. Two species are known in Asia, one in Europe. My dear friend Yao Tseng Chen found an interesting...

Beauty of the day

Each further day the magnolia are blossoming I enjoy their beauty, especially since I know for this year their time is almost over. I like the haptic of the petals and the fine architecture of the inner blossom. ...

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Children's Art: Free paintings

Friedrich decided not to work on black but the usual white paper we have. He made these three paintings yesterday in short time and I like them a lot, because they are so free and loose. And he named them immediately. "Heavy weather...