Nature Walks with a Toddler

to Read (

Words)

GUESS the time I was woken up this morning? 7am? 9am? Nope all wrong - 5am on a Sunday!!
Ohhh the pain!! I am full of cold right now too which dont help the mood and I had the joys of nightmares last night that I wont go into - (must be the overdose on hot chocolate, trying to ease the croaky throat!) Anyway, up early all dressed and ready to leave the house at 8.30am sharp!! Aren't we good? The sun was out so it quickly changed my mood!! I put Michael Bolton on full blast in the car which pleased the other half - NOT..... and off we went. We went on a Nature hunt. We loved the Autumn Walks last year so I have been secretly pretty excited about Autumn landing again!! We have a wicker basket for Little N which is great for collecting bits and bobs. She actually carries it around proudly too so that's a win for me who is always lumbered with everything!

I did point the berries out to Little N but she knows she isn't allowed to touch them. We spoke about how important they were as they feed the birds through the cold winter. I sneaky picked a few to bring back home as I wanted to add some to the Sensory Jars I am busy making this week.

I adore the sun filtering through multicoloured leaves like this!! So peaceful and calming. Do you know why the leaves change colour in Autumn?
Chlorophyll gives leaves the colour green. During Autumn/Winter when the weather is much colder, daylight decreases and sunlight isn't as plentiful. Plants and trees will often stop making their food via photosynthesis, so Chlorophyll is no longer produced. This is why we start to see the array of Autumn colours that we do. The colours we see on Autumn trees and bushes were always there within the leaves, but the green covers them up. Learn something new everyday?

Little N was looking at the Conkers in their husks hanging in bunches on the tree. I know some people in the UK are having them fall already, but we aren't quite yet. One thing we have spotted and managed to collect many of are acorns!! Infact I have never seen so many acorns as I have this year!! We have a couple of squirrels that come to visit our garden, daily. Little N is keen to put a few of them out to see if the squirrels take any to eat!! I can just imagine waking up to find all my garden dug up by squirrels who have excitedly gone about hiding them all for the Winter months. We will give it a go and see how it turns out!! After a walk we headed back to the car and at the top of the drive way I stopped and turned around. I couldn't resist this snap with the bright red post box!

My thoughts ran away with me a little. Just imagine how beautiful this spot would be during a snow fall?? I can't wait to share with you this week our Sensory Nature Jars! Have you been out on any Nature walks lately?? Have you had any interesting finds or snapped any good photos?? Come and share them with us on our Facebook page!!