Buds: September 21, 2026

We started our morning with one Earthkeeper taking note of the weather and declaring it, “Classic autumn weather.” A pretty accurate assessment!

Before setting off on our adventure, we spent some time looking through our books and learning a little more about toads. We’ve had good luck finding them at The Flats before, so we headed out hopeful that we might catch a few.

But instead of making our usual beeline for Silly Goose Beach, the kids wanted to stop in the grassy area at The Flats, which they’ve now dubbed The Meadow. Our mission was to search for toads, snakes and turtles.

Our oldest Bud is an especially talented “land catcher.” I have a few Earthkeepers who are incredibly skilled at catching things in the river, but this guy has a knack for spotting and catching butterflies, crickets, toads and all sorts of little creatures on land. He headed off into the grass to see what he could find while the rest of us explored the rockier part of The Meadow.

There was plenty to keep everyone busy. The kids searched through the rocks for fossils, sea glass and anything else that caught their eye. We ended up spending a couple of hours right there, which is one of the things I love about returning to the same places again and again. A spot we might usually pass through on our way somewhere else can suddenly become the whole adventure.

Over the course of our searching, we caught butterflies, bees and a slug, giving us a chance to observe each one up close. We picked flowers, spotted a red-bellied woodpecker, and even found some moss growing in a sunny patch where we thought a snake might like to live. No snake appeared, but searching and wondering was half the fun.

Back at Heron Tree Estates, the exploring shifted into building. The kids created a habitat in the Tuff Tray and got to work with wood and rope, moving supplies together and figuring out how to coordinate their construction. There was also plenty of time for the rope swing, raspberry picking and the mud kitchen.

Our wooden blocks, very kindly donated by one of our families, got another good workout too. What began as a construction project eventually became a house for our slug, which felt like a fitting way to wrap up a day spent noticing some of the smallest residents of The Meadow.

I suspect this won’t be our last long stop there. Now that the kids have given The Meadow a name, I’m curious to see what else we’ll discover there as autumn continues.

Thanks for a great day, Buds!