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Nature Journal September 14, 2018 Everything’s turning yellow - the edges of the Ginkgo, the soybean field, the goldenrod out in the meadow and the mums on porch stoops.  Queen Anne’s Lace is curled up like a hard fist shaking it at the waning sun.  Monarchs are taking their last grand flights and flocks of birds are being shaken out like a coverlet arranged over a bed to be made ready for the sleep of Summer.  Things are getting tidied up for the coming Winter.  As are my thoughts.   Everything is mature.  It’s not in a hurry like the youth of Spring;...

I needed perspective. And Queen Anne’s Lace giving way to Goldenrod, but not before they curl up browning shaking their fist at the waning sun. A few short ones remain by the Clover that have learned to grow low from frequent mowings. Mowers train things to think they can only grow so high. Dandelions grow taller on fields not mown. Did you know that? I wonder how long it takes to grow again. If you’re allowed. Freedom takes time to make its effect.   And I needed the effect of Aster and apples ‘bruised and spiked with stubble’ and little girls picking little...

I am a Charlotte-Mason-educating single mother of 5 who reads Robert Frost and C.S. Lewis continually to her children. Because my home is full of children, it is full of…..  ~ nursery rhymes and fairy tales ~ nature walks and pinecones  ~ leaves we know the names of  ~ field guides of birds we know the calls of  ~ picture books and dress up ~ music to sing and dance to  ~ beautiful artwork  ~ nature journals ~ imaginations full of stories ~ grand conversations  ~ books  ~ and books  ~ and books  ~ and trauma (which brings me here)...