Naturalist Monthly

HELLO SEPTEMBER!

What’s in a name:
According to the Roman calendar which began the year with the spring in March, September was the seventh month. "Septem" is Latin for seven.

A poem for September:
I meant to do my work today--
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.

And the wind went sighing over the land
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And the rainbow held out its shining hand --
So what could I do but laugh and go?
-- by Richard LeGallienne

Monthly Hack:
As summer wanes and fall creeps along toward us, I feel the excitement of a new season brewing. September brings us opportunities to revel in the last days of summer proper - which ends properly with the autumnal equinox. (The spring and fall equinoxes occur when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator, making night and day approximately equal length.) This year, the autumnal equinox will occur on Monday, September 23.)

This month brings us an abundance of fruit in the Northern Hemisphere and the bounty is plentiful if you know where to look. All of the fruits and seeds are showing themselves now as the flowers of summer fade.

A gardener once told me that if you want a healthy garden, then you need to leave your flowers alone when they wilt and look ugly so that they can reproduce on their own. She pointed out that this often means your garden isn’t always the prettiest. But, that's the way for it to be the healthiest. The life of every fruit began as a glorious flower. Each flower had to be pollinated in order to create its fruit. Once this occurs, the flower begins to fade. At the same time, a seed is born. The seed then continues its life journey to make a new plant. This time of year we get to see the fruit from the flower's hard work. I love thinking about how magical this process is. And, it's one of those "everyday miracles" that we often forget to pay attention to with wonder.

In our very technologically savvy culture, today’s children don’t get the opportunity to watch seeds grow in person. This is easily corrected if we know where to look - and you don’t need a garden plot to accomplish this - just a few things that are easily found at your grocery store will do. Here’s my easy hack to germinate a bean right at home:

How to Germinate a Bean in your kitchen window

Materials:
- Dried beans (black, pinto, kidney etc work great)
- Clear Ziplock sandwich bags
- Half sheet of paper towel
- Water (to dampen the paper towel)
- A window and sun are also needed for this experiment to be successful

We found a delightful experiment in germinating the dried beans from the grocery store - such as black beans or pinto beans. I bought a very small amount of black beans for about $1. Once you have your beans, take a paper towel and get it wet, wring it out and lay it flat. (I prefer using a half sheet of paper towel, but it doesn’t really matter.) Then place five beans in the middle of the flat paper towel and fold it in half. Press it down to help them stay put. Place this bean envelope into a plastic sandwich bag and tape to a window. We checked on them each day. As the roots began poking out, we drew a picture of them in our nature journals. As the seeds developed, we enjoyed adding to the picture so that we ended up with several stages of the germinating bean on one page. It is so exciting especially for the little ones! (I have provided pictures of this process in my Instagram highlights. My IG handle is @joycherrick)

Nature Journal Prompt:
Pick one:
Write down the temperature and today's date. Explain how the weather feels or describe an observation you made while you were outside.

Draw a flower from your yard and draw it in your journal. (hint: find a coloring page of your flower online to help you draw the basic shape - or trace it.)

Copy a poem from a book (or online) into your journal about one of your drawings. The poem can go on the same page or opposite page as the picture you drew.

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Reflections from a naturalist:

Cultivating Creation
This term we are studying Cultivated Crops as per the AmblesideOnline Nature Study rotation. I’m learning that to cultivate is a joint activity with God and His creation order. We are currently growing pumpkins and corn in our tiny garden. Once school started back, my watering routine slacked and we started to see the results in dry limp plants in our garden. Now we’ve fortified ourselves once again to water each morning.

I don't know that they will make it though; my efforts may have come too little too late. But that doesn't mean that this crop is a complete failure. We are learning so much. Next year we will know more about crop spacing and the nutrients we need to put into the soil so that it will yield a better crop.

One lesson my garden is teaching me is that my walk with the Lord is just like a cultivated garden. If I learn how to care for a garden from an expert gardener then I will be very likely to yield a better result than if I just "wing it" and hope for the best. In addition, Mother Nature is working against me to grow my garden. The rains didn't come enough this year, and the weeds kept on in force. At one point, I thought I would just wait and see what would happen - they are plants after all. Such it is in my walk with the Lord. I need to feed on the word of the Lord each day and drink from His Living Water daily. I can't neglect my life with the Lord and think that I will grow into my potential. I also can't expect to be healthy and vibrant if I forget to include Him in my plans.

I heard a story of a man who planted two oak trees at the same time in his yard. At the end of 10 years, one tree was significantly larger and healthier than the other tree. What was the difference? The larger healthier tree was in the line of the sprinkler while the other tree had to depend on nature to water and care for it.

I have always felt a tension in my spiritual life between my work and effort to serve and learn about my Lord and God's Sovereign Will over me to sanctify me through His grace. Sometimes I wonder if my opinions, efforts, daily quiet times, Bible study etc matter since God is over all and through all and in all. But, it seems that my ability to grow in Faith, Hope and Love is somehow connected to how I tend my spiritual garden. God calls us to participate in "filling and subduing" the earth physically, perhaps this is a warm up for the spiritual disciplines that will bring us closer to Him as well. God allows us to join Him in his creation. We water it, and He makes it grow. He makes US grow when we come to Him through regular prayer, seek Him by reading the Bible and fellowship with other believers regularly. We are to be faithful, seek Him daily, and little by little, we will grow. Just as we are encouraged in Isaiah:

"For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept;
line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little..." (Isaiah 28:10)

Be encouraged, friends! It is God who works! May we rest in His grace.

Much love,

Joy