Wildflowers: September 30, 2026

The Wildflowers eased into their day with a pet shop game and some cards while we waited for everyone to arrive. Once we were together, we settled in for a couple of books, including Alligator Stew, the book of silly poems that has become a Wildflowers favourite, and Have You Seen My Acorn?

With acorns already on our minds, we started talking about fall and what signs of the changing season we might notice on our walk. The girls came up with falling leaves, changing colours, acorns, cooler temperatures, and the fact that the sun is rising later and setting earlier.

Then we headed out to see what we could find.

Along the path, we started spotting some of those signs for ourselves. We saw the great blue heron, a familiar neighbour along the river, and one girl discovered some lamb's ear. She was very excited to call everyone over because "it's so soft." A huge fish in the river also stopped us in our tracks for a while as we watched it from above.

Our destination for the morning was the Blackfriars Community Garden. We wandered slowly through the plots, looking at all the different plants, flowers, and food people were growing. We noticed pollinators visiting the flowers and spotted a gray squirrel among the gardens.

There's a gazebo with picnic tables right beside the gardens, so we made that our home base and pulled out our field guides. Some of the girls headed back into the gardens, this time with guides in hand, searching for plants, mushrooms, animal tracks, and anything else they might be able to identify.

Others chose to stay at the gazebo and play cards with me.

I really enjoy these moments when we can all be in the same place without needing to be doing the same thing. One group was immersed in investigating the gardens while another was happy playing a game together. There was room for both.

Eventually we packed up and made our way back to Heron Tree Estates, where the afternoon unfolded in all sorts of directions. There was mud kitchen play, rope swinging, loose parts, perler beads, and plenty more reading. We read together in the hammock and then moved into the dome, piling onto the cozy pillow for even more stories.

We also spent some time with our nature journals. After a morning of deliberately looking for signs of fall, there was plenty from the day to think back on and record.

We finished things off with a trip to the park.

This time of year gives us something new to notice almost every week. The gardens will keep changing, the leaves will keep turning, the acorns will keep falling, and our familiar stretch of river will look a little different each time we visit. I'm curious to see what the Wildflowers notice next.

Thanks for a great day, Wildflowers!