A Spring Walk

Some firsts of spring

Today is the first day of September, the first month of spring! We have been waiting and waiting for its arrival. We welcome the warm rays of the sun kissing our face. When I stepped out the door this morning, I told Lach I was going to check the weather to see if it was going to rain. He followed behind me in his pajamas and said, "Nope! A sunny day!" and it has been so far.

It is also Thursday which means it is they day that Lachlan and I have our weekly special morning tea. We walked down to our local cafe for some tasty treats. He had his usual chocolate muffin and I indulged in a vanilla slice. Noelle sat in the pram wondering when she'd have teeth so she could join us.

When we finished we walked across the street to the park we and played on the equipment. Lachlan opened a fruit shop and I bought things for a fruit salad. Lachlan also suggested I buy some rice to but in it too...interesting! We finished our fun by going down the slide, well I WENT down the slide. Lachlan decided it would be fun to catch me. I worked very hard not to plough him over when I got to the bottom. He successfully caught with outstretched arms and we exchanged a nice cuddle. A lady went by with her grandson and asked who was having more fun, him or me? I think we shared in the fun equally.

A closer look

Afterwards we took a stroll around the park and Lachlan began to ask his usual questions. He wanted to know the names of every flower and say them back to me. We saw ferns and star jasmine growing up rocks. We spotted what would be the last winter wattle in bloom of the winter season. I love wattle. It has become one of my favourite blooming trees in Australia. It is just gorgeous. I picked a sprig of wattle from the tree and shared its vibrant yellow colour with Lachlan. We decided to take little cuttings of our favourite plants so we could look at them more closely at home.

Fern and Wattle Rubbings

We examined them with a magnified glass and noted the similarites and differences. We smelled each flower and realised some were very pleasant and others not so much! My main objective was to make a sun catcher out of the samples but I realised that the only baking paper I had was not wax so I'll have to leave that one for another day. Instead, I showed Lachlan how to do a classic paper rubbing with the leaves. Something so simple that probably every one of us has done, but is magical to a child. That is why I like this activity, it reminds us that magic and joy can be found in the most simple things.  He loved how he could make the leaf appear just by using a crayon. Here is his result. He was very pleased. Tonight I think I'll go get some wax paper so we can make that suncatcher tomorrow; just in time to hang beautifully on our kitchen window to catch some spring sun.