Smart Mom takes a Nature Walk (the hunt for Lady’s Slippers)

Meet me in the middle of the patch…

We hit the jackpot!

After discovering the solitary blooming Pink Lady’s Slipper on our recent Nature Walk (see Mean Mom Takes a Nature Walk), I got the bug in me to go look for some more!  I figured that if there was one, maybe our property had more!

Sabbath morning, I jumped out of bed, and headed over to examine the flower.  It had opened up more, and looked very beautiful.  Also, I stumbled upon our first Flame Azalea, which brought me great joy!  These native azaleas grow abundantly on our property, but this was our first for the year!

The Whole Family Searching for Lady’s Slipper flowers

Sabbath afternoon, somehow everyone got on board to go explore the ridge!  I was convinced (hopeful) that we might find a few more Lady’s Slippers.  We have the right type of environment, so why not go look?  But, I had no clue where, except for a memory that “somewhere on this hill” I had seen a little shoot last year.  Once we got our to look, though, I could not even begin to remember where I saw it.

We tromped around for awhile unsuccessfully.  It was a nice walk, although it was quite steep.  More Flame Azaleas.  Suddenly, I literally screamed out in joy, “Here is one!”  And, from there, we began to find little clumps and solitary plants almost everywhere we turned!  Before our walk ended, we had lost count of the number, but we believe we found at least 30 flowers!  Amazing!

Smart Mom, this time!

I am afraid I got hooked!  I “promised” the boys we’d go out today and take a quick look to see if we could find any more!  They were super excited, as only teen boys can be (eye roll).  Well, I decided to play smart today!  I promised a cookie for every new Pink Lady’s Slipper found.  

Well…why hadn’t I thought of that sooner?  My boys began to actually search like they meant it!  They were way ahead of me–finding flowers right and left.  I began to hear, “Mom, come on!  I found some!”  “Here’s a whole huge patch!” and “Come over here!  There are Lady’s Slippers over here!’  

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Suddenly I didn’t know which way to turn.  Everyone was finding flowers in three different locations.  

Then, “I get nine cookies.”  What?  

We tromped around for quite awhile.  When we’d found a whole bunch, my youngest wanted to keep on going so that he could earn thirty cookies!  So we kept going, getting tangled up in the briers.  Soon, we found more little clusters, and before we got back, he had found forty-nine Pink Lady’s Slippers!  I was amazed, and a little worried.  I knew that I didn’t have that many cookies baked!  

The total for our day was 92 flowers, and we tried to make sure that we didn’t overlap the flowers we’d found on Sabbath.  Now, this was all on one hillside.  Do you know what I thought then?  We have a whole lot more land!  I’ll bet there are more on the other ridges!  But that will have to be a hike for another day, because I am wiped out!

These are some of the pictures we found today.  

Enjoy!

And I got so excited over the Lady’s Slippers that I made a printable that you may color or just hang up to remember God’s care in giving us these little treasures to brighten up our day!  Click the link text (below). 

Click on the link below to print!

scripture print lady slipper

This is my first printable, so I’m pretty excited about it!  I hope you enjoy it!  Feel free to print off as many as you’d like, but don’t sell them, and please link back to this page if you share, not the direct PDF link.  I appreciate it!

If you love Lady’s Slippers as well as I do, or just Nature in general, you may enjoy this post.  In it, I provide a time line of the unfolding of a Pink Lady’s Slipper flower that I found last year at this same time–at our different property.  It is an exciting photo journey!  This link will actually take you to my post on this blog, then to my original post at my WordPress.com site.