...
As we watch the summer days depart
And the painted leaves in silence fall,
And the vines are dead upon the wall;
A dreamy sadness fills each heart,
Our garden seems a dreary place,
No brilliant flowers its borders grace,
Save in a sheltered nook apart,
Where gay beneath the autumn sun
Blooms our own Chrysanthemum.
*
Ah! She is not a “Summer Friend,”
She stays when all the rest have flown,
And left us flowerless and alone;
No singing birds, or blooms to lend
Their brightness to the autumn haze,
‘Tis she who cheers the dreary days;
‘Tis joy to know so sweet a friend;
No fairer flower blooms ‘neath the sun
Then autumn’s queen Chrysanthemum.
(Chrysanthemum by Hattie Knapp can be found in its entirety here.)
For any number of reasons, nature study can be harder to fit into the November schedule ~ we're too busy or it's too wet, cold and dark. All these challenges can stretch right on through the winter season as well. So, how about some indoor nature study for such times? One idea is to look at the birth month flowers of the year. Such a study would make a nice nature notebook all on its own, a project to work on when the inside is better than the out.
As you might have guessed then, November's flower is the chrysanthemum. Here's a look at the rest ...
- December - paperwhite narcissus
- a whole study on Christmas plants could be done as well
- January - carnation or snowdrop
- February - violet
- March - daffodil
- Easter plants, too
- April - sweet pea
- May - lilly of the valley
- June - rose
- July - larkspur or water lily
- August - poppy
- September - aster
- October - marigold
Can't you just see all the possibilities in that list? What a fun nature study this could be!
Now, chrysanthemums might still be blooming in sheltered parts of your garden, but old Jack Frost has seen to the last of the flora up here. I was pleasantly surprised to find beautiful dinnerplate mums at my supermarket this weekend, however. I eagerly grabbed a few because I thought they would make nice centerpieces for the Thanksgiving table. They look very pretty in tea cups or small jugs, just one gorgeous blossom to a vessel ...
(Important note ~ Chrysanthemums are toxic to felines, so if you have cats in your home, use caution. Ours - the flowers, not the cats - are kept on top of the refrigerator well out of reach. And on Thanksgiving, they - the cats, not the flowers - will be locked in my bedroom for the day.)
Now for my boys I'm going to keep this pretty simple. I'll just place the flowers in a vase on the table and let them draw what they see. Then we might label the parts of the flower. We'll also visit the withered remains of our garden mums and sketch what they look like, too.
I'll explain why these mums are called football mums (quite larger and showier than the garden variety) and we might learn about fight songs, which are traditional at this "homecoming" time of year. There are even varieties of mums named along these lines - homecoming, cheerleader, and quarterback (which I think looks a bit like the blossom in my banner above!). And it goes without saying we'll catch a football game or two over the weekend. ;)
With my youngest I'll read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henke, and we'll work on this coloring page. With my older boys I will read this beautiful German legend, which would make a perfect start to a Christmas Plants unit.
That's probably as far as we'll get, but here are some other ideas for studying chrysanthemums ...
- look up the meaning and origin of the word (Greek for "golden flower")
- for picture study: Monet's "Chrysanthemums"
- research the many varieties of mums
- copy the poem above
- write a letter requesting a garden catalog for the spring
- sip a cup of chrysanthemum tea, a popular herbal drink
- make these cupcakes just for fun
- prepare a small pot of mums for your Thanksgiving hostess
- make clever paper mum corsages for your guests
- stop in at the local nursery and ask for mum-growing tips
For more flower notebook ideas, stop by again sometime soon. I'll be dreaming up some December ideas before long. :) Also, for the whole Poetry Friday Roundup, stop by Big A Little A later today.
And oh yes - Happy Weekend!
