a little glimpse of summer

On Thursday, we had a high of 24 degrees! Fina was thrilled to be outside (from noon til 9 pm!), with shorts, a t-shirt and barefooted. Skipping rope through the park. Squishing her toes in the mud. Doing nature study with its brush drawing while outside! And playing, playing, and playing with her little friends. It was glorious. A break from winter! (You will remember my pics from last week. One week exactly!)

We know it won't last, so we enjoyed it while we had it! We don't have the Chinook in MB, but that is what it seems like. Maybe it was our "Indian Summer." We don't always have it that strongly either.

It is so nice to sit outside and paint. I did three entries myself. I could have sat there all day!
It is true that, in winter, you can observe a lot of things that get "crowded out" in the other seasons. So many things are bare, which brings to the fore the things that aren't bare, or the details you miss when they are overshadowed by vibrant foliage. We've been enjoying that in our nature studies this week. We tend to be pulled in by plant life in all of its forms. We see the birds, but they are harder to paint.

I studied this little tree. There were two of them along the path in our park. It still had full green leaves. I'm not sure what it is, but it is certainly beautiful!

The juncos are busily doing their thing right now. We're not sure what their story is, exactly, but they are flitting around, pecking at the grass, eating in large flocks. They are beautiful!

We are in the final stretch of our current free read, Nesbit's The Enchanted Castle. Fina really enjoys it. For some strange (unknown to me) reason, I find it weird, awkward, and sort of uneven. But I'm really not sure why I am having trouble with this classic! Chacun son goût, I suppose!