Fort in the Woods

I took the kids to a fort we found out in the woods a few minutes away from here. East Coasters will laugh when I call this the "woods", it's not, but it is for us as close as we'll get to the woods around these parts of Southern California. It's actually a collection of big heaps of dirt someone made along a trail we like to hike. It's hidden, but easily accessible if you know where to find it. The teenagers use it for a hang out as evidenced by the left over carpet, wooden furniture, graffiti and broken bottles. The kids like picking up the little plastic BBs and empty CO2 magazines they leave behind as well.

Unfortunately, my camera batteries weren't charged (some blogger I am!), so these are my ugly cell phone pictures from today. It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how much my son complains that he doesn't want to go or how much of a cranky mood we can be before heading out the door, a bit of nature cures it all.

As soon as we get there they start poking around, pulling on this, looking under that, crafting and creating ideas of what to play and do.

They found this dead tree with logs under it. Just a heap of junk, to a child, A FORT!










A snail!





A woman's touch...
(she doesn't realize it's caution tape with radioactive symbols on it - and I wasn't about to tell her it wasn't just pretty ribbon).



Not sure what this is for



A teeter tot of course :)





A door!



Fix the pretty ribbon first :)



It was a fun day - and they made me promise to bring them back asap!

We also noticed all kinds of green and yellow things have sprung up - grasses, weeds, moss, lichen, these spongy looking mushrooms...





is this sulphur shelf? It's a baby one if it is.



Spiraling wild cucumber shoots for bracelets...




Here's a shot I took a couple weeks ago of my daughter in the rain... see how the hills are all turning green? Can't wait for Spring!



Here's a shot from our local beach a couple of days ago.



A beautiful drive down PCH



We found several of these sandworms as we dug holes in the sand.



Well, it's late and I need to get some sleep! I know this blog has been so dull lately, but rest assured, Spring is coming and it's going to be a good one!!