Summer Nature Table

With the Summer Solstice just days away, I thought it was the perfect time to update our nature display. 

I thought you might like to see how we do this in our home. If you are keen to see past displays, you can see  our Autumn, Winter and Spring displays by clicking on the links.

The small bunting from the Spring display remains throughout the summer - it is a thoroughly British things so has to be a part of our display :o). On the right hand side of our shelf we have some feathers collected on a recent trip to the pond. the girls were delighted to find a swan feather to add to the shelf. In the corner we have -as always - the Union Jack and our palm cross presiding over each season.

I like to have something interesting stuck on the back board. During Autumn it was a fact sheet on the Hedgehog as we have a family who frequents our garden. For the summer display I have chosen a frog Idial from Nature Detectives.

This cute interactive download is relevant to our main focus area. We have been raising tadpoles for the past few weeks now and have followed each stage of the development with this frog life cycle idial. You can download your own free copy here.

Over on the left we have our copy of Brambly Hedge Summer Story. You will notice that this is always a feature on our shelves as we never tire of these delightfully illustrated tales. We have a jar of Razor shells collected on Morecombe Bay  Beach last year with a little blurb about these interesting creatures. Next to this jar of Razor Shells we have a sprig of pine with the flower that we collected on a nature walk. It is amazing the amount of pollen this thing puts out! Honestly, each day I have to wipe away the fine golden dust :o).

Just in front of the pine flower is a small shell I found in our garden. Sadly I think that this little bird did not make it into this world. We have loads of Magpie's, Ravens etc around and I am pretty sure one of them is the culprit. Still - an interesting addition. 

We also have the magnifying glass at hand to observe the small changes to our tadpoles.

Our centrepiece is of course our Tadpole Aquarium. As yo can see I have put a little yellow sticker onto our aquarium. On it I have noted the collection date of our frog spawn and the date of each developmental change that we see. 

Finally on the right hand side, in a teen weeny display bottle we have Caddis Fly cases.

We collected these on our pond study trip. The are fascinating to look at - what a marvel! Again you will see that I have dated our find. All this labelling is a recent thing that I have started doing for a few reasons. For one it reminds us of exactly when we found it - what season etc. Secondly, in the case of the aquarium, we can create a time line and understand how long development takes. To be quite honest with you, before now, I thought that the transition from tadpole to frog was quite a quick process. We are all learning through observations that it is not! And finally, little snippets of information on the objects we find, printed out and put next to the object on the display table, helps to impart a bit more knowledge to the observer in a quiet and gentle way. It's allowing the observer to quietly ponder on and connect with this bit of creation.

So - that's another display done until Autumn. Of course we will take away and add to as the season progresses. We are off to Cornwall this week-end so I am sure that we will bring back lots of seashore finds. Our aquarium will be moving on and new objects moving in. It is a constantly changing display - which makes it all the more interesting :o)

Blessings All.