Susan Olcott
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Winter Secrets
Winter can seem like a time when there isn’t much going on outside; in fact, the season offers opportunities to see things that are otherwise obscured by the growth and busyness of the other seasons. At our house in winter, for example, we can see through the skeletons of trees...
BEE excited for summer!
Our focus at this time of year tends to be on the flowers blooming all around us, bringing divine scents and bright colors to a formerly gray landscape. This year, however, it’s the bees that are captivating me. On a quiet day, I can hear their buzzing around our flowering...
Patterns
Late winter in New England means a kind of limbo between seasons. You never know what it will be like out — snow or mud or something in between. So when I was preparing for a visit to my twin daughters' classroom to teach a winter science lesson, I had...
Winter Art
photo credit: Phoebe OlcottWhen winter seems to be only shades of black and white, who doesn’t crave color? I often find I'm drawn to doing colorful art projects with my girls — like collages and painting. When one of my daughters recently suggested painting with snow, I was excited to...
Winter Seeds
I am thankful for the evergreens, especially at this time of the year when other trees are bare and many animals have migrated to warmer climes. Evergreens provide a bit of color, their green needles glistening in the winter sunlight, in our now mostly monotone winter landscape, and they hold...
The sounds of fall
The sounds of fall at our house are striking — literally. Our bedrooms are situated under two giant oak trees, and the squirrels have been busy scampering around in the canopy and up and down, shaking loads of acorns onto our roof. They are busy early each morning, often before...
“Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk!”
Every year, my family eagerly awaits a classic sign of summer in Maine. We look along roadsides, on rocky slopes, and in sunny patches of open fields, hoping to see a bright spot of blue. It has to be a tiny bright spot, though, as those are true wild blueberries....
Our butterfly project
In July, the world is in bloom. Midsummer fields are speckled with wildflowers and abuzz with insects and birds enjoying the sweet nectar. Eager to celebrate this bounty of color and sound, my kids and I ordered a butterfly kit to hatch Painted Lady butterflies. (Our kit came from Insect...
These boots are made for walking...into mucky water
What kid doesn’t love wading in mucky water and scooping up slimy eggs stuck to cattail reeds and rotting sticks? Oh, it's just mine? Well, we live in Maine and exploring local ponds is a great excuse to get outside in June — after waiting all winter for the opportunity....