Exploring the Great Outdoors

  When I hear the word explore, I usually think of traveling to exotic places far far away. However, I am slowly coming to realize that sometimes our greatest adventures can happen in the most unlikely of places. I have here in town since I was in second grade, with the exception of the four years I spent away at college, that is a grand total of about 12 years. And until this Sunday, I had never been to Barfield Crescent Park!

  The purpose of my visit to the park was to play Frisbee golf. (If you are not aware, there is a great Frisbee golf course located at the park.) What began as a Sunday afternoon athletic activity, quickly turned into an exploring adventure. There are a handful of holes on the course that are actually in the woods. When I discovered this, I was immediately concerned about poison ivy. I am always on the patrol for poison ivy when I am in the woods. And since I have no clue what it looks like except that it has three leaves, I assume every vine looking plant with three leaves is poison ivy and keep myself far away from all of them.

  Finally, after all these years of being afraid of poison ivy and being completely in the dark about the characteristics of this pesky little plant, I decided I needed to figure this mystery out for myself. Because, as we learned in class, students learn best when they are able to take an active role in the learning process. So..I started taking pictures of all of the plants I thought could possibly be poison ivy, basically all the green vine type plants with three leaves. Then I came home and searched out photos of poison ivy online and did a quick compare and contrast.

                                                    Here is the picture I took: 

                                                   
  Based on my research, that big leaf right in the center is in fact poison ivy! This experience has made a lasting impression and now I will recognize poison ivy in the future (hopefully).    

 While in the woods, this beautiful wild flower caught my eye. From what I have concluded, it is an Indian Pink. 


                                              

  I also saw these interesting marks on many of the trees along the path of the course. Any guess as to what they might be?