Some useful information, some anecdotes, some rantings, and some inspiration
from my quest to make my family and perhaps the world around me A Little Greener Every Day

Last week my friend Bethe Almeras’ blog, The Grass Stain Guru, celebrated its first anniversary. Bethe is a play advocate. She whole heartedly encourages everyone, young and old, to get outside and play every day, and since meeting Bethe I’m more likely to make sure I get outside . This winter has been a little tough to do that. Snow, snow and more snow were good for a couple of days sledding and a snowman or two. Then the novelty wore off and I found myself inside, staring out the windows at the gray sky that went on for weeks.

Last weekend, I had a lot to do. I ran the book fair at the boys’ school all last week, so I had planned on spending Sunday inside writing a lot for the upcoming week since I was going to be away from my desk so much during the week. But when the when the sun finally chased away the gray and the temperatures rose into the 60’s, I heard Bethe’s voice saying, “Play outdoors. You know you want to. You know you need to.”

So I threw the boys in the car and we drove to the woods. The area we went to had a pond running through it, and many huge trees that have fallen through the years that were just begging to be climbed on. Some of the trees made their way across the pond or part way across the pond. Those were the most interesting ones to my sons.

Signs that spring is urging to break out are everywhere – so different than what the landscape looked like just two weeks ago. Enjoy the photos, and make sure to pop over to The Grass Stain Guru and find your own inspiration for getting outside even when there’s “so much to do.”

This one is for Bethe - she's nuts for squirrels.

The boys started out crossing small areas of the pond, but after a while they were out in the middle of large expanses hanging over the water and wondering if they could make it back dry. Amazingly, they always did.

Climbing high up in the top branches of a tree that had fallen. It's amazing how high a tree can get, even when its on its side.

New life springing from dead leaves.

Fungus can be beautiful, can't it?

The ultimate sign that spring here - crocus.

A blog post waiting to happen. Who does this?

Signs on the trees alerted us to look for critters.

We tried looking up in the tree for nests, but didn't spot any.

We didn't know there were freshwater clams in this pond - there were thousands of them along the edges.

Checking out the fresh water clams.

After a nice hike, a little time for contemplation. There's a lot to contemplate when you're seven.