The Outdoor Hour - Challenge #14, #16 & #20

Just kind of 'catching up' really... we've got out of the habit of doing something regularly, we need to get back on track...

Here's the sunflowers... look how well they've done! It's great looking at them and thinking how we brought them on ourselves...



The sorry tale of the pumpkin plants... they WERE healthy and green... so we planted them out... then 2 of them were eaten over night... the next night the remaining pumpkin plant was set upon... in an effort to humanely keep off the slugs/snails, we broke some eggshells around the plant...

... didn't work! Poor plant!

However, a week later, we discovered leaves growing again on this plant, so we've covered it up (plastic milk bottle cut in half, with some netting on the top) and will see how it does... it seems to be still alive, but whether it will grow to produce a pumpkin is another matter! We just don't ever seem to have any joy with pumpkins... maybe next year!

We've done some pressing of flowers... mostly from the garden... Bubbles was fascinated by the process... I like pressed flowers... but they just aren't the same as they look 'in real life'... they lose so much of the colour. The microwave press we have works a little better at keeping the colours a bit more... but we didn't use it this time (it's the one at the bottom). The top press is my all-time favourite... so easy to use.


We've done a lot of 'looking up' in our books too... I love my wildflower book... I've had it for years now, and is definitely the best one I've ever had... Complete British Wild Flowers by Collins. There's some lovely wild flowers down here in Mid-West England, that we've not seen before in East Scotland...

This is our make-shift 'press' (basket of heavy items!) for the leaves we took when we did a 'tree survey' of sorts in the local park, where there are a plethora of trees, MANY of which I do not know (I'm more a wildflower person than a tree person!). I think we took leaves from about 15 trees... we've still to identify some, and I must remove the pressings to see the result soon... and then post about the trees. I have to say, the kids were not quite as enamoured with the whole 'tree expedition' as I was! But, they just about tolerated it! They WERE happy to examine "our" tree for our summer tree study though!


Here's "our" Sweet Chestnut tree, in Brinton Park... these pictures were taken about a month ago now... the tree was looking really lush and green... but we were surprised that there were no fruits starting, as the Horse Chestnut trees were already beginning to grow their conkers. We shall have to check back soon, and see if any are beginning to grow yet...


We've also decided to follow a tree in our garden, through the seasons... a tree we've never encountered before, and which we've only just managed to identify! I've had many people tell me that it is a Tree of Heaven... but, whilst the leaves are very similar, the 'flowers' most definitely are NOT! Finally, we have identified it as a Staghorn Sumac... it is really quite lovely to look at... but I can see that it is going to need to be kept under control! Apparantly it is a weed in Australia, and I can perfectly see why! There are small trees growing all over the garden! I have noticed quite a few around Kidderminster in gardens too. I haven't taken a picture of the whole tree since all the new flowers came out, but it is very pleasing to the sight. We are looking forward to seeing what it is like in the Autumn (my favourite time of year...).