Outdoor Hour Challenge. XI.

We have not exactly been walking in step with the Outdoor Hour Challenge website these past two weeks.

But that doesn’t mean we haven’t been outdoor-hour-challenging-it-up.

In fact, we’ve been so pleasantly distracted by all things outdoor and green and blooming and beautiful that we’ve just been plowing our own ground, so to speak.

(And I’m pretty sure that’s the point anyway.)

A family of eastern bluebirds is nesting in the birdhouse Kevin and Hawkeye built.

And for the past two weeks we have taken advantage of this mild, sweet weather and have hit the road for outdoor explorations.

One week it was Carl Sandburg’s homestead.  A place we are all fondly familiar with.  And this time – there were baby goats.  Thirty-minute old baby goats.  No.  I’m not kidding.  It was incredible.  (And, sadly, my camera battery died and my cellphone battery died.  No.  I’m not kidding.)

And last week it was Pisgah Forest – another familiar stop for the School of Keigley.  Uh, I mean – Wildwood Academy.

We brought some pals along for the Life Cycles class we were attending.

And we learned such astonishing facts about the life cycle of the tiniest creatures.  How ants corral aphids like humans corral cows.  (And then how ants drink their sugar water by-product.  Yes, the aphid’s pee.  It’s true.  Ants drink it.  I wouldn’t make this stuff up.)

The miracle of tadpoles becoming frogs.  Of butterflies emerging from silky cocoons.  Of ladybugs growing wings where once there were none.  Of ferns unfurling their way right into a dewy world.

It’s almost preposterous, you know?

The beyond belief, unnecessary, surprising extravagance of God’s creation.

After our class,

we had a simply lovely picnic at the edge of the Davidson River,

just a short journey from Looking Glass Falls.

Where the kids climbed the giant trees that had fallen and Bergen pooped in the woods – what’s up with him and Pisgah and poop anyway?

We stood at the bottom of the waterfall and felt the mist across our faces.

And we were forced to answer “no” to the myriad of unreasonable requests from our small fry.

“Can we take off our clothes and go swimming?”  “Can we come back tomorrow and go swimming?”  “Can we climb to the top of those high rocks?”  “Can we take off our shoes and wade in the water?”

But I was able to answer “yes” to one little question.

“Will you hold my hand?”

Yes.

 A perfect Outdoor Hour Challenge, if you ask me.