I love living out here in the country. I suppose this falls into the realm of unschooling myself but I've been surprised by the transformation I've made in the 3 months of living here. I grew up in the city and I was always squeamish and nervous about things like bugs. Now, it's like I can't get enough of being outside. If I can get 30 minutes outside by myself before dinner, I feel like a little kid who has been let out to play. I walk through our empty neighborhood (about 100 acres, nearly all undeveloped) and sometimes I explore different undeveloped lots.

I cannot wait until the dead of winter because then it becomes safe for me to explore the woods. Right now, I have to worry about ticks, poison ivy and the like and venomous snakes. When I do go into grassland or woods, I do it very carefully and with trepidation. I always watch where I'm walking and I stomp when I walk. When I get out and back onto the road, I do a tick check on my legs. Oh, and I do wear long jeans and big boots.

Dh loves it here too but he doesn't understand my strong desire to go exploring here. I've also become slightly obsessed with identifying trees and plants. It's typical me; I get topic obsessions that I will completely immerse myself in until something else good comes along. Right now, I want to know what all the trees are. I want to be able to identify things when I walk and get to know them.

Much to my delight, I found that I can enter our dense backyard woods via a small path near the border of our lot. Our landscaper dug up all the weeds and wild grass from the front yard and he drove his vehicle back there to dump them, inadvertently packing and widening the path. So now, if I walk around the kid's playset and go over the corner of the lot, I can walk down this path and be inside our woods. Obviously, I'm still very careful about where I step. So far, the only thing I've seen near my feet have been some species of bee; they seem pretty busy and uninterested in me.

When I walked around and into our dense woods via this path, I discovered something that I couldn't see from our back yard: big beautiful orange flowers on some type of vine. Further investigation led me to believe it was "trumpet creeper". It explains the presence of a hummingbird that follows me around, because the hummingbird likes trumpet creeper. Hummingbirds are so bold and curious; they have no issue with hovering right in front of my face and getting a good look at me. Anyway, so now I know why we have hummingbirds and what they are eating here.

I also found a curious round green fruit on the floor of the woods. I only found a handful of them. I suppose they were about 2 1/2 inches in diameter, green and kind of leathery looking. I have no idea how I started narrowing the search down but I ended up on a page about black walnut trees. It seems that this fruit looks exactly like a black walnut fruit. You have to crush the fruit beneath your heel, being careful to avoid the dye inside which stains everything. Then, you should find a pit which contains the walnut meat.

Today, B and I took the fruit that I collected the other day and we crushed it under my heel on the road. The paper towels surrounding the fruit got stained with a strong yellowish-brownish color. Inside the fruit was a small withered looking pit. We're going to let it dry out for a few days and then crack it open.

I took some pictures of a tree in the woods that is very near the fallen fruit and which looks like it could be a walnut tree. It is slender but of course, it is in competition with quite a lot of trees. The bark is very furrowed. The leaves are alternatively compound, creating a fringe-like appearance. I will have to watch this tree through next spring to see what its flowers look like.

On my walks, I've been intrigued by a very large tree that stands near the corner of an undeveloped lot. I do not know why it intrigues me but it just looks different to the other trees. It's huge and it's attractive but it just looks different. The other day, I noticed that it had nuts all over it. Today, I managed to get very close to it and take several pictures of it. The nuts on the tree are oval shaped and very spikey. Based on the bark, the leaves and the nuts, I think that it's a beech tree.

The neighborhood used to be an orchard but it was cleared. Dh discovered that there are still several apple trees around. I walked to the one nearest our lot but although it was covered with green apples, it appears as though insects or disease have ruined the fruit. But the other two apple trees seem to look Ok. I'm sure the insects and animals will eat all the fruit; deer love apples. But I hope that we can get just one good apple from one of the trees once they ripen.

Living here is like living in a giant science lab. I spend my free outdoors time trying to identify the various plants. I share what I know with the kids. We've read various books about the animals we've seen here. B spends a great deal of time catching locusts. He doesn't hurt them, but he likes to touch them and talk to them. Even T is learning to become a bit less afraid of bugs. When we're outside, it's just blissful. The kids and I are learning so much and enjoying country life so much. I feel very lucky.