I suppose it’s the new awareness we have from last year’s summer study of Queen Anne’s lace. Or it could be recent rains. Or it could be that we didn’t really start looking for Queen Anne’s lace until late August of last year. Or it could be a combination of all those factors. Which, likely, it is.
It’s abundant. We point and yell, “Look!” everywhere we drive. Lace lines the roadsides to the north Georgia mountains where we trekked last week. Lacey patches are right across the street – almost as tall as Middle Girl.
“Nature study cultivates in the child a love of the beautiful…” ~ Anna Botsford Comstock, The Teaching of Nature Study
(Above photos of her taken with my phone when we quick pulled off the road).
And Queen Anne’s lace thrilled us in the usual spot we checked back in spring. When we went on a family walk that Sunday night before Memorial Day – there it was!
Ready for the picking.
We scooped a few blooms and brought them home to study up close. To sketch.
We also found a beautiful robin’s egg, right in the middle of the grass, while on our walk. We figured the recent winds and storms may have blown it out of its nest.
Our up close studies helped us appreciate. As I sketched my flower, I noticed the hundreds of little, tiny flowers…
… 
…the umbrella looking underneath, the pink tinges of a young blossom.
The children appreciated the certain color of green, the hairy stems, the dot in the center.
“The chief aim of this volume is to encourage investigation rather than to give information.” ~ Handbook of Nature Study
During sketching we noticed that the outside flower clusters open first, just as the Handbook of Nature Study says.
Queen Anne’s lace makes this Mama happy. It reminds me of childhood.
And it makes for some color dye fun! (Blue and red vases on my window sill in the background right now).
Join us this summer at The Handbook of Nature Study. Our hostess, Barb-Harmony Art Mom, has a June newsletter packed full of ideas to get you started – right in your very own backyard. We are jumping in again because we remember last summer’s Deliberate Delight!
How about you? Is Queen Anne’s lace lining your roadsides?
Nature study does seem to make you more aware of the plants and animals around you that you just wouldn’t have noticed before! I love, love, love your photos and your journal entry. I love seeing people’s journals. We plan to get back to drawing in our journals as soon as we are packed up and settled again.
This is wonderful to see…your follow-up to your spring QAL study with all its great observations really shows how we can make a topic our own. Your sketches and journals (including yours) are fun to see and very well done.
I am so glad you took the time to finish your spring study. Thanks so much for sharing your entry with the OHC.
The pictures are beautiful!
Queen Anne’s Lace is my favorite flower and has a deep meaning for me. You’ll find if you go looking for it next year, that it may not be in quite the same abundance. It is on a two year cycle. You will still see some, but the abundant blooms like you saw this year, likely won’t happen again for another two years.
Thank you for sharing this blog! I loved your sketch of the flower.