These were all taken at the Harvard National History Museum.
Wordless Wednesday- Shiny Rocks!
Tag: trips
Wordless Wednesday- Fancy Rocks
These are all from the Harvard Natural History Museum. Nature is so cool! Enjoy!
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday- Maine Coastal Botanical Garden- Dahlia Garden
Hey Mom, remember when Grandma found the “dahlia” plant growing in her driveway? 🙂
Glass Flowers Exhibit
I have a fascinating exhibit to show you today from our out East Trip. You may get sick of seeing things from out there eventually, but I hope not! The trip was a bright spot in a really awful time of change in our lives. (I was in the process of managing a difficult time at work.) I haven’t felt like much myself for a while, but am slowly getting back there, so have a back log to catch you up on.
Today’s post is about the Blaschka’s Glass Flowers that are part of the permanent collection in the Harvard Natural History Museum. The website is here for more info or for a virtual tour. https://hmnh.harvard.edu/glass-flowers
Made from glass as teaching aids, the flowers were made by a Czech father and son team- Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, over 50 years from 1886-1936. They produced 4,300 glass models representing 780 plant species. They created special processes to capture the textures, looks, and parts of a plant. There were a lot more models than I could take pictures of and some of them did have a glare from the lights, so I was only able to grab a few pictures, but I wanted to share them with you.
The Blascka’s were frustrated with the lack of teaching materials for botanists and others trying to learn about the natural world and so decided they were going to make their own. If you saw some of these just out in the wild, you would honestly think they were real flowers. They were incredibly detailed.
I’m always in awe of what artisans can do and this exhibit was no exception. The craftsmanship and care that was taken with these plant artifacts is stunning. Part of the exhibit also included information about what it takes to be a conservator for exhibits like these, restoration, and other neat behind the scenes things. The exhibit went through a renovation in 2016 and it looks gorgeous. If you get the chance, I would highly recommend the Harvard set of museums. If you buy a ticket to the Natural History Museum, you get admission to four other smaller museums for the day as well. It’s definitely worth the price! I’ll leave you with one last picture to enjoy as inspiration for your trip.
Sarett Nature Center
We went to the Sarett Nature Center when we went to the west side of Michigan for Memorial Day. I just haven’t found the time to post about it yet. It was small, but had some really cool trails. There was even a small low ropes course in the woods! Here’s the website and some pictures.
We were greeted by the animal tracks from the featured picture, a loud bullfrog, and two buckets of carnivorous plants. (Listen, no matter what the Husband says, I was not attempting to push him into the bucket of carnivorous plants. He just happened to be standing next to it.) These were a type of pitcher plant. I think maybe we need to plant some around our house to eat all the mosquitos.
These were different tree rings from Michigan trees. The one at the bottom showed the age of the tree when historical events happened. It was really big!
These were Indigenous artifacts used by the tribes in the area. They had a nice display about the tribes and land they occupied.
They also had some skulls and other things. These were a moose and a white tailed deer.
There was an owl suspended from the ceiling in the bird and butterfly viewing area, which startled me a little. It kept turning, so it was hard to get a good picture. I enjoyed learning about the native birds and the ecosystem.
There were also some creatures! This is a chameleon and they had some turtles, frogs, and other lizards, as well as bugs.
Look at the long legs on that turtle on the right! Who knew they were so leggy? Kinda freaks me out, if I’m honest.
This iguana was super grumpy and judgy. I think I messed up his nap or something. 🙂 He had a very distinguished name that I now can’t remember, so maybe that’s just his normal resting face.
We even got to play in the woods before walking the trails! They had a cute little ropes course along the side of the trail that we climbed on. I’m super paranoid about poison ivy after getting it last year, so I wasn’t as brave as I could have been, but I kept seeing it along the side. The parts I did go on were really fun though!
We had a really good time. You’ll see some more pictures from the Nature Center in a tree picture post shortly too, but I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing these. It’s definitely motivated me to find some more nature centers and see what they have to offer!
Wordless Wednesday
Quilt square experiment
City Museum, St. Louis
Downtown Abby tea party
