Hear the lively sound!!!

When I was a girl scout, growing up in Illinois, I spent a couple of weeks in the summers at Camp Tapawingo. One of the songs that we learned was "Hear the lively sound of the frogs in yonder pond: crick, crick, crickety crick, burrrrrrrrum!" (I taught preschool for a couple of years and the kids love to sing the song.)

Well, presently behind my home in the meadow here in Tennessee, there is a pond; at least it is there when there is enough rain to accummulate. Early in the spring, at night fall until late into the night, you can hear the frogs chripping. Often when I come home at night from class I announce as I enter the house "I can hear the lively song of the frogs in yonder pond!" It gets sort of old for my family - but it brings me joy to say it. It is sort of like having a moment of memory back to my days at camp.

Sometimes we have tiny little frogs come up on our windows when it is dark outside and the kitchen lights are on. You can watch them catch the bugs that are attracked to the light. Later in the summer we can often see tree frogs around the house. The little guy in the picture was on the side of the house right off the deck so I could get a really good look at him. It was so cool to look at his feet and see the little suction pads that held him to the house. Amazing!

My mama and step-daddy are farmers in Illinois. Besides growing crops, they have a garden where they grow vegetables and my mama grows flowers. My mama and I often discuss bird and flower issues of interest. She made a comment one day that stuck with me. It is a joy to live close to the land. That's where I am in my life. I take comfort from co-habitating with God's awesome creation and I am greatful for the freedom that I have to live close to the land.
Later friends! SkyBlueSue

Good Morning Glory!!!

At this point in the summer the only plants that continue to flourish are the morning glories. The picture is of the variety called "heavenly blue." Many farmers consider these a weed, as in the wild they grow and choke out other plants. In a domestic garden, they can be a thing of beauty. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this plant, they can be easily grown by buying a package of seed in the spring and planting them near something that they can climb. When the first vines begin to appear, you simply guide them to what ever you want them to climb and they literally "take off."

If you leave them to their selves for too long they will choke out whatever they can wrap themselves around. When they get overly leafy and I have seen no blooms yet, I start snapping off the wandering shoots of vines. I think this causes less plant energy to go to producing leaves and vines and results in flowers blooming. Each morning glory blossom lasts one morning. They are out when the sun rises and they fade and close when the heat of the day hits them.There are different colors, but my favorite is the big heavenly blue.

On a different issue, I have a question for you. In the night sky now there is a bright star that shines "next to" the moon. My daughter and I were speculating if it was Venus or Mars. Does any one know?
More later - SkyBlueSue :-)

The sky at night

Did anyone look at the sky last night over north central Tennessee?
The sun set like a huge red-orange ball on the horizon. It was a marvelous view as it slowly sank on the horizon and became larger and larger as it went down in the west. A couple of hours later, the moon was up in the east.It looked like a large search light shining down on everything below.

My daughter and I went out about 10 PM for a walk with one of our dogs. A walk before bed helps us unwind our brains and reconnect as a family after we both have had busy days. She is in her first week at college so her mind is racing on multiple levels.

The clouds were covering the moon as we began our walk, but the reflective light still illuminated our way as we walked around the streets of our neighborhood in the meadow. Our neighborhood used to be a farmer's field years ago. It is surrounded by trees as farmers fields usually are. I refer to it as the meadow or my home in the meadow because it is a word picture the ministers peace to me soul.

I have choosen a hecktic lifestyle as many of you probably have. I have found that when I take the time to use descriptive words for natural things it allows my mind to take a mini-vacation from the pace of my day. That's why I am blogging about nature. It is my creative outlet for ministering to my own mind.
more later - SkyBlueSue

Nature lover (rookie level)

Well this blog started out as a requirement for a technology class so it has been dormant since last spring. I decided that I needed some outlet for my love of nature so I decided to start bloggin again for that reason.
I live in north central Tennesse and of late the weather has been awsome. The past several days have been cool and a wonderful change of pace from the hot and humid summer that had previous hung over the land. With the windows open and the AC off it has been a joy. I am a fulltime graduate student taking night classes this semester, so I am at home during the day for now. I am working toward teaching grades 7-12 mathematics and will soon start 30 hours of classroom observations during the school day.

On to the joy of nature that I experienced yesterday. After several days of possible rain, as the sunset, a slow drizzle began to fall and continued for hours. I slept with the windows open so that I could listen to the soothing sound of the rain drops hitting the leaves on the bush outside my window. It is like music to my soul. It is comforting to me to listen and enjoy the "music" that God has created for those who will listen. At 4:30 AM the pace changed. Lightening struck with a loud wakeup call and the heavens unleashed the reservoir over the meadow in which I live.
I got up to close the other windows in the house. Since it was not blowing into my window, I left mine open so that I could enjoy the intense symphony of sound. It was glorious, the cracking of the thunder, the accompanying light show, the steady beat of the drops coming down. This went on until sunrise and now we are back to the calm coolness of the end of summer days.

Now as I write, I listen to the locus chirp and the occassional bird sing. This is the first day in a while that there hasn't been the sound of a neighbor mowing their lawn - that's a treat. The rain will have nurished my flower garden which was in sad need of water. Because I am mentally busy with school work, at this point in the gardening year, my flowers have to take whatever comes from the sky.

Well I need to get to doing some work. So I will close for now!
SkyBlue Sue

Posts later than this date are for personal edification, SEE ABOVE!!!

Posts before this date are for a class. SEE Below.
Thing 4 revisited; AKA thing 25:

Just when I thought I was done with the THINGS, I remembered I forgot my 2 outside blogs.
So here they are; 2 blogs that keep me updated on a mission team that we sponsor through our church. They are a young family with a toddler and recently born twins living in a flat in NYC.
A challenging life style for sure.
SBS

Thing 24

Animoto was my favorite activity in the 23 Things assignment. The entire journey has been a real eye opener. It has given me many tools to utilize in the classroom and on a personal basis.
I was disappointed to realize that after I completed the 23rd thing that there was actually a thing 24 - truth in advertising issues here. I would recommend eliminating Thing 16 which seemed to have repetative portions of an earlier exercise. Then re-number and have the 23rd thing be this thing.
That way when you reach the 23rd thing completion - you are DONE!
I feel that the most significant contirbution to my teaching has been in realizing the amount of on-line resoures that are available. In particular, I feel that the Blog and Podcast scenarios could be an asset to help students who miss class or need extra help. It gives me a way to reach students outside of class and also gives there parents access as well.
It has been a long journey down the path of the 24 Things. Now that this part of my journey is over, I begin the journey of continuing to make my blog and other resources relevant to my continuing journey in being a lifelong learner.

Thing 23 Thing 23 Thing 23

The credit at the bottom of our 23rd thing gives credit:
Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for the Mesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.
The main page for 23 Things credits: *Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006).

I do have ideas of my own that I will consider copywriting someday at Creative Commons when I am a sane person :-) Sidenote on the Not-Disney video: It was a great idea and I love the animation of "the company," but man it was hard to follow the cohesive intent of the instruction.
SBS