Month: May 2012

Hawthorn along the edges of our farm are full white-blossom. Horse chestnut trees are flowering in white-pink spires, individual blossoms resembling elephant heads. Scotch broom, in flares of bright yellow. The brilliant red of Crimson Clover shimmers in our plowed and tilled field, The purple spires of lupine beckon us along a path. And if you look very closely at the three foot high Nettles, you’ll see dangles of tiny pale-green flowers.

Spring is a marvelous time to notice the sweeps of color. With each passing week or two, the colors shift, spreads of whites or yellows or pinks or purples appear and disappear. One of the simplest things you can do with a child (and yourself) is to just notice the sweeps of color. The bright whites of one week (say, of Apple) may have shifted to the the creamier, layered whites of this week (Hawthorn, here). The lavender purples of Self-Heal are long gone, but the pink-purple of Red Clover is just beginning to emerge.

What colors can you find in the landscape — whether of your neighborhood or a park or a wild place?

Kids (and you!) may especially love looking for colors of the rainbow — red, yellow, orange, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Let’s not overlook pink, or the many whites!

If you can pick the flowers (and if there are plenty of blooms), you and your child could pick one representing each color, and place them in a rainbow or some other design.

You could look for the different colors of green. Here on our Pacific Northwest island we have an abundance of shades of green! If the Inuit (eskimo) have 35 words for different kinds of snow, can you and your child come up with names for all the different kinds of greens you see? Or come up with names for the many kinds of white blossoms, or of any other flower or plant nature that is in abundance around you. Make them silly or poetic or practical! Play!