Have you ever traveled one hour away from home and found yourself in another world? I’m just back from two days in the woods with our child’s class of fourth and fifth graders. We had a complete 24 hours in nature. Last night we had a camp fire, s’mores and a starry hike. This morning the scenery near the Wisconsin River was fern draped, mossy, with a touch of autumn.
Today we went on a pontoon boat, since the river was too fast for canoeing, to a small island. We hiked looking for signs of the season and tracks of creatures that lived there. The naturalist who walked with us found raccoon and deer tracks.
Wolf print; many deer and raccoons for it to eat on the island! Guess it doesn’t mind swimming for a good meal.
The limestone bluffs we saw edging the island were a geologist’s dream. We wondered how the odd angles in the rock were formed.
We saw that trees there are noble and brave, growing on cliffs with little soil.
Nearly all the students and even a couple of enterprising adults climbed through a cave tunnel.
We saw a heavy canopy of trees during our morning on Blackhawk Island; primarily oak, maple, and white pine.
Acorns are an excellent source of protein. They were a major food source for indigenous people of the land now called Wisconsin. Acorns are boiled three times to remove the bitter taste, dried and ground into flour for bread or griddle cakes. An acorn like the one above, with no cap on top is likely to have worms. Pick ones with caps if you’d like to try this.
Let’s check out a visitor on another plant; this year was extremely good for fungus. Any botanist know what type of mushrooms these are?
The Wisconsin River was lovely today. A few photos from her shores; deciduous trees reflected on the water, pines leaning from a cliff with one that’s fallen over, and more conifer images in the river’s mirror.
Kids and adults had a fantastic time exploring this piney woods in the land of limestone. Most felt the time was too short. I’ll sign off with my favorite photo of the river; with an upsidedown tree in a cleft between cliffs…
What is your favorite natural setting with water?
Gracias for reading Fake Flamenco! ¡Olé! –Rebecca
Fake Flamenco 
Beautiful pictures!
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Thank you very much, Cemile! The woods on Blackhawk island were lovely.
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What spectacular photos! You know I would have loved to be there. You certainly had perfect weather. Hugs, Mom
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Thank you! We would have loved for you to attend too. The weather was ideal for hiking.
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Looks wonderful!
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Thanks, we had fun in that radiant natural setting.
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Hi R, thanks so much for describing the pics! Now I don’t feel as if I missed out on seeing them! I love your descriptions and I am glad you had fun camping! xoxo
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Thanks Carol Anne, I was thinking of you and hoping to make word pictures for you.
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Qué maravilla de excursión!!
Un abrazo🌹🙋🏼♀️
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Gracias, lo pasamos muy bien, los jóvenes y los adultos. : ) Rebecca
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Lo imagino, con todo lo que cuentas ha tenido que ser una verdadera maravilla disfrutar de yamm bello viaje.
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Una salida buena para alimentar el alma. Era tan bello viaje, como dices, que no quisimos volver tan pronto a la ciudad. : )
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No me extraña, darían ganas de quedarse a vivir allí. 🙋🏼♀️🌹
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Sí, ¿verdad? Nos gustaría vivir allí 9 meses al año, cuando haya agua corriente. ; )
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So very beautiful. Living on a rainy island I have not one favourite water location, but several! But how about Lake Glaslyn in mid Wales — the photo at the top of the blog is mine, taken as we were walking back to her:
https://thecheesesellerswife.wordpress.com/2018/10/27/glaslyn-poem-poetry/
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Beautiful photo of Lake Glaslyn. I hope to get a chance to visit Wales one day.
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It is a bautiful country. We were planning to move there, but the pandemic has stopped that at present.
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Looks like a good place to quarantine and be surrounded by natural beauty.
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