Nature Study - February Flowers 2015

This post is a tongue-in-cheek response to the Handbook of Nature Study's post yesterday entitled "February Wildflowers 2015".

So, I looked out my windows and decided to photograph my snowdrops:

and my hyacynths, daffodils and tulips:

I hope you have enjoyed this tongue-in-cheek look at my mid-Atlantic states February 2015 flowers. Maybe I can post something cheerier in a month or two or three...

Why Squirrels Fly...

This incredible video shows why squirrels seem to fly -- why they need to!

As Clean as a New Fallen Snow

So... I don't live on a farm or anything... I don't have any type of beautiful white field of snow to photograph, so I'll show what I've got -- a photo of my back deck.

 Doesn't that thick layer of snow look clean and pretty?

So for our nature study this week we tested the snow for purity. We started by collecting snow in a canning jar with a funnel.

When the snow stopped we brought the jar/funnel stack inside so the snow could melt. So at this point my son got excited about the experiment. He did the whole thing, showed me the results, and then dumped everything. And then I said, "Oh! I forgot to take pictures!" So I had to recreate everything. The results were easier to see the first time, but I think you'll still see well enough.

So full jar, funnel full of snow too, on the counter to melt.

Amazing how little water we got from all that snow! (See photo below.)

Next we poured the melt-water into a coffee filter to see how clean or dirty it was.

My son used to eat snow, in spite of my warnings. Now he says he won't ever eat snot again. Another thing we had noticed was not only how much dirt was caught in the photo, but also how dirty the filtered water still looked But I did forget to take a photo of that. 

I hope you enjoyed reading about our snow experiment!