Forest Fridays: Autumn

I have had so many good walks through the forest this fall, but perhaps the most interesting and lovely times in the forest this autumn season have been during Forest Fridays with Mr. TOF as part of homeschool. We have a special nature notebook we are working through, supplemented by some other writing and science activities that have been keeping us busy on Friday afternoons, and getting us out of the house and into the beautiful forests. We have been picking different places to go each Friday.

What is exceptionally lovely about the experience is that while I’m often out walking in the forest, I don’t often stop and really look at things. Forest Fridays have given us space to slow down and examine things close up, and take note of things we might have passed by without noticing.

There have been a couple of lovely surprises, too, like the day we saw three bald eagles soaring and diving over the forest from our perch high up on a hill. Last week Mr. TOF and I were sitting next to a deep pool at the bottom of a waterfall in the forest. He was writing in the nature notebook, and I looked up and there was a mink sitting up on a rock so close to us I probably could have touched it if I wanted to! It watched us for a minute and then dove into the pool. We could follow its air bubbles with our eyes and see it swim underwater to the other side of the pool, where it excited and dashed around rocks, peeking out at us from here and there. It was a rather stunning experience. I haven’t ever seen a mink before, and let me tell you, we had a close up view!

We’ve had a lot of fun looking for seeds, toadstools, mushrooms, and of course collecting and classifying autumn leaves.