Fremont's Leather Flower

Fremont's Leather Flower
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Young Naturalist
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Rianna was home sick yesterday, but it was too nice to stay in. We went to the Anita Goreman Discovery Center (MoDNR) and did some field sketching. We took Cathy Johnson's Sketching in Nature and looked at some journal pages she did, the details she included and notes, and did our own. I painted mine at home.

Fremont's Leather Flower is a Missouri Native, preferring dolomite glades where it blooms in the spring. The leaves last through Fall, when they become filigree ornaments gracing the Autumnal splendor.

Rianna's sketchbook page from yesterday:

"I was out drawing with mom and saw this Flower. I think its fun to darw. It is very prity and a Bug was on a leaf. Ther was tow of them."

She really tried hard to draw what she saw and get some identifying features included, we had talked about doing that before we started. We also worked on not disturbing each other and using the available time (while Mom was still drawing!) to fill in more and more detail.

I did as much of the pencil detail as I could and we ran back inside the center, worried that the rain would catch us (boy, the clouds sure were threatening-looking!). In the bookstore, we found some infor about the flower. We also found Peterson First Guides: Butterflies and Moths and Don Kurz' Trees of Missouri Field Guide that really wanted to come home with us...so they did!