Category Archives: The Dirt: News & Events
Family Hike
Saturday, May 12th. 10am-3pm
Now parents can get a taste of camp too!
hiking!
The Nature Place is beginning a series of events for the whole family with a day hike to the top of Stockbridge Mountain in Harriman State Park. We’ll find a cemetery, the foundation of an old cabin, a magnificent pine forest – where we’ll do still-hunting – Hippo Rock, a hiker’s shelter, a Native American rock shelter and more.
This hike would be appropriate for families with children ages 6 and up. Once you tell us you will be coming, we will email you directions on where to meet and a list of reminders, i.e. appropriate clothing and the like. This will be a hike, not a walk or stroll. Come prepared to sweat a little, to huff-and-puff a little, to have fun with your children, to experience, with your family, another world that we hope you will want to come back to and explore further.
This program is limited to 30 people. $10 per adult, $5 per child.
Visit Us!
Our next open house is this coming Saturday, May 5th from 1-4pm. Come see us to learn more about The Nature Place!
Weekly Themes
We need your help!
We’ve come up with 5 of our weekly themes (those funny, poignant, scene-setting gems that generate the focus of our activities, skits, songs and more), but we want YOU to tell us the theme of our 6th and last week of camp this summer!
In a week or two we’ll choose one of your suggestions and announce it as our final week of camp. Anyone who’s loved a past week’s theme or feels inspired should chime in!
For some context….announcing the first 5 weekly themes for summer 2012:
Week 1: Taking Care
Week 2: Rock, Rhythm and Roll
Week 3: What Color is the Wind?
Week 4: Ask Ed…
Week 5: Green Olympics
Week 6: _________________
Help create camp, and tell us your ideas!
one of last year's fowl themes...
Gr-grr-growl!
Be careful when you’re out and about at this time of year. You don’t want to be bitten by the ‘lion’s teeth’! We’re kidding about the biting part, but there really are ‘lion’s teeth’ to be found wherever there are dandelions: Dent-de-lion (French for lion’s tooth) brings us to our name, dandelion. To find these teeth, first locate the well-known yellow flower and follow the stem down to the ground. Radiating out from the base of the plant, sometimes very flat on the ground, you will find the toothed leaves. Some people think they look like little pine trees.
dandelion and its teeth
Did you know…
…that the first dandelions were brought to this country by the early European settlers?
…that the dandelion has been used for thousands of years as a spring tonic, liver support, a great source of vitamins, wine, and a coffee substitute? keep reading…
Ed’s Corner
garden blend
Welcome to the April Dirt. It seems to me that putting these two words together, ‘April’ and ‘Dirt’, feels very right for this time of year. This is the month when people start to literally get their hands into the dirt, preparing their piece of the planet for flowers, vegetables, trees and shrubs. In some parts of the country it is also known as mud time, and for some with sensitive noses, the smell of soil warmed by the sun is an April delight. keep reading…
