Chloe and the Pine cones

I really like going out for walks with my niece because she sees things that we can sometimes take for granted. She asks the 'whys' and 'hows' and really takes in what we try to explain to her.

I remember a few years ago, when she way into Dora the Explorer. We were walking around the nature reserve in Messingham and to keep the interest there, we plotted out the walk in Dora style - first we need to get to the bridge, then to the bench, and then to the field. It worked a treat - but what really caught Chloe's eye was the abundance of the fruiting body of the fungus, Fly Agaric. She's such a girl of nature.

I remember last year when I visited, we went around the garden looking at the seed heads of different flowers. We ended up taking apart some seed heads so Chloe could really start to get an understanding of what a seed was and the different sizes and shapes that they could be.

This time, though, Chloe had some information for me. She told me about pine cones and how you could tell which ones had been eaten by squirrels. I love seeing the world through her eyes.

I'm looking forward to next time and hopefully hearing more from her about what she's been learning of the natural world.