Wildflower walk at Lake Louise State Park

While camping at Lake Louise State Park, we headed off through their prairie on a wildflower hike. They have such a gorgeous prairie down there with so much variety.

We had two great publications in hand:
1) "What's That Flower?" A field guide published by DK Publishing, you know it has lots of photos to guide your way!
2) The Shooting Star Trail Wildflower guide. This local guide was fantastic! It showcased local flowers, and we saw so many of them! It was also organized by time of year, which was very helpful.

Canada tick trefoil

Wild Quinine

Swamp milkweed

Black eyed Susan

Butterfly weed

From chrysalis to butterfly

Watching a butterfly emerge from a chrysalis is an amazing thing, and one we got to experience this year thanks to our fantastic neighbors!

They had received a caterpillar and watched it become a chrysalis, but then headed off to vacation over the 4th of July. We were happy to babysit while they were gone, and we hadn't even had the chrysalis 24 hours when it was transformed.

First the green chrysalis turned black. And then we started to see while markings on it. Then - all of a sudden - I looked over after naptime and there was a butterfly hanging upside down in the jar.

What a cool experience! We're not going to forget it!!

We were amazed that the caterpillar attached its chrysalis to the plastic wrap!

After letting her wings dry for at least 12 hours, we released her in our front yard.

The butterfly took awhile to come out but then simply disappeared on us. She flew up and was gone.

Exploring monarch habitat at Lake Nokomis

With a butterfly book in hand, we set off to explore the monarch habitat carefully cultivated around Lake Nokomis. We didn't see any butterflies (it might have been a little early this year due to the late summer we're having), but it sure was cool to see all the plants the butterflies (and bees!) get nectar from.

Learning on site

The monarch habitat is on the northeast side of the lake. Be sure to check out the Monarch Festival held there each year on the Saturday after Labor Day. It's such a fun time!

Learning to ID butterfly-friendly plants - including milkweed!

Parts of the monarch habitat area are under water due to the flooding this year.

If you're by a lake, well, you'll need to go swimming in it!

What gives me peace when I’m sad/mad...

I don’t recall what age I was when I read Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden: Or, Life in the Woods.” But apparently it struck a cord within me that still resounds when I have a quiet moment to ponder life, happiness and peace.

“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature,” wrote Thoreau.

What a phrase. “Tonic of wildness.”

And how true that need is. We can never have enough of nature. It’s where we unwind. Where we relax. Where we let be. Where we see God. There is something about being surrounded by the mysterious, unsurveyed and unfathomable — those things so much bigger than us — that is important to a peaceful life.

As TheMidnightCafe put it in her most recent blogpost: Surrender. Rest. Surrender. Relief. Surrender. Peace.

I need to regularly take my “tonic of wildness.” I need to sit outside on my deck and admire the ageless Burr Oak in my backyard. Oh, the number of birds it shelters. And bugs. And squirrels.

I seek out the wild in the city. This year, Minnehaha Creek has shown it can’t be contained and it has spilled over its banks, flooding paths, roads and fields. It has blocked traffic on Cedar. Travel along with it and you’ll be amazed by the roar of Minnehaha Falls right before it rushes into the Mighty Mississippi.

I look for the wild nearby, and I’ve found it in places I don’t expect. Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield is nestled up next to I35W, but you don’t realize that when you’re admiring the coyotes on the frozen marsh. North Mississippi Regional Park sits between I94 and the river, an unassuming place teaming with wildlife. Eloise Butler Wildlife Area hugs I394, but the noise of birds fills the air and you can see wild turkeys if you keep your eyes open.

And the place where I am closest to peace, the one spot on earth where I simply breath it in, that’s Voyageur’s National Park in Northern Minnesota. Camping and boating there recharge something within me that I don’t necessarily know was so empty. But the world is big there. It’s mysterious. It’s mostly untouched by human hands. You notice the wind. The sky. The rocks. The water. It’s basic and simple, but yet so amazingly complex. Sit in the sun on a rock near the water. And breath. In that place, I find peace.

This week’s topic dovetails with last week’s post on happiness. Peace and joy are linked together in my mind, and often, what gives me joy also brings me peace. And I find both joy and peace by living deliberately. By paying attention.







Here's another gem from Thoreau:
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth."

I want a backyard like this

I want a backyard like this children's garden at the U of Minnesota Arboretum.

What a fun stage! The curtains are made of burlap. We also had tons of fun using paint brushes and water to "paint" the walls.

Who doesn't like to climb on logs? Reminds me of my childhood.

This use bent rebar and burlap to create a changing hideaway.

What an easy ship to create.

I love how simple this fence is to create. Twigs and grapevines.

A Little Free Library makes this space perfect.

I absolutely LOVE this idea. My kids would have stayed here forever and played if I would have let them. They preferred having this box to catch the sand in part because then they could dig it out from there, as well. The other option was to have the PVC pipe empty right out onto the ground. In another area, water was hooked up to PVC like this to create a fun sand and water play area.

The perfect size stoop for a 15-month-old.

Consider planting easy-to-care-for vegetables and flowers in a Children's Garden. I'd like to plant these around my other plantings.

A living hideout!

Really, aren't you inspired?

With all the data out there about how kids benefit from natural play areas, it makes sense to create them in a small city backyard, doesn't it? I just so happen to have lots of downed trees and branches from the storms of the summer. With a little rebar and some PVC, I can envision a wonderful playzone for my kids.