Saturday, August 1, 2009

Volunteers, Periscope, and Bull Thistle


There are forty to sixty volunteers that help out at the Ballard Nature Center throughout the year. Here Mike and Debbie are washing a tank. I've often seen these two hard workers as they give of their time at the center. Thank you!



Mike also built some of the items inside the center, like this periscope that this lucky young man is using to identify wildlife.


Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. Fred Rogers


Woodland Trail in the summer.

This bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) is growing over five feet tall along the trail head of the Wetland/Prairie Trail.
What child has not stepped barefoot on one of these as they emerge in the springtime? I know I did. Birds may like the seeds, and the flowers have their own beauty, but I'll still keep my distance from these invaders, thank you!




bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare)


All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind. Abraham Lincoln

See the beauty in nature every day. C M