Outdoor Hour #20: Four Season Tree Study

Part of The Outdoor Hour nature study, hosted by Barb, was to pick a tree to begin a four season study with.  That was back in the spring, for challenge #11.  Which we are just now getting to lol.  Better late than never!  So instead of updating our study here in lesson #20, we are just beginning it. 

We picked a tree in our own backyard for the study, a crepe myrtle.  It is kinda special to us, as it was one of the few trees to survive hurricane Ivan in 2004.  It was actually uprooted, but still rather young, so dh and my father worked hard to upright and replant it.  Only last year did it start to show signs of life again, sprouting new leaves and blooming a little.  This year it is even more improved.  Here is a pic of ds in front of it.

Pretty pink blossoms and healthy foliage.  We are pleased.  All the stuff growing beneath it?  We have two bird feeders nearby and those are sprouts from what the birds drop on the ground lol. 

Ds making his bark rubbing. 

So, we read up a little on crepe myrtles and made a note of looking out for them on our drives around town to see the different types.  We also filled out our Seasonal Tree Study form and filed it in our nature journal to compare with the one we will do in the fall.

 

On the left is ds2's drawing of the tree, and on the right is ds3's rubbing.

Ds thought the part about smelling the tree was quite funny and didn't think I was serious when I read it lol.  Spiders and birds do love the tree, but we rarely get squirrels anymore (I guess they figure our little lonely crepe myrtle is not worth the effort of coming into our yard lol.  Or it could be our 4 cats :0)

I will have to say, the update to this study is probably the only thing that the kiddos are anxious for fall to come around for lol.  They are looking forward to noting how the tree will change.