Wow! 100 posts already? Time does fly when you’re having fun 
In honor of this little milestone, I am giving away a nature kit to one lucky reader: I will include a copy of one of my favorite books, I Love Dirt!: 52 Activities to Help You and Your Kids Discover the Wonders of Nature
How to enter: Simply leave a comment on this post, describing something you enjoyed doing in nature as a kid, anytime from now through next Wednesday, March 18 at 8:00 EST. I will announce the winner (I’ll be using this random integer generator to choose the winner) in a new post on Thursday, March 19. I will send the package to (gulp) anywhere in the world, so don’t hesitate to enter if you don’t live in the States! Good luck!
Related posts:
{ 1 trackback }
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
As a kid, I must confess, I did not play much in the “dirt”. I greatly enjoyed taking pictures of flowers and trees though. My mom had a garden and our job was to help weed..I can’t say I enjoyed that too much at all but now I love to garden. My son is now two and loves to play outside.. I would love some ideas of how to discover nature with him and his sister as she gets older. Thank you for offering this giveaway. My fingers are crossed!
Lynnette’s last blog post..Sweet little nudges for a wanna-be green thumb
Congrats on your 100th post!
When I was a kid nature was an everyday part of our lives. There were no playstations, computer useage and hours of tv watching – it was all about the nature.
My favorite thing to do was swim in the lake surrounded by mountains at our grandma’s cabin and walk the endless trails exploring for rocks, pinecones and other nature goodies to bring home.
Shannon’s last blog post..knitty spring is here!
Congratulations on your 100th post! I look forward to future ones.
One of my favorite recollections of my childhood was “spotting game” with my hunter grandfather. “CK”, my grandpa, was raised shooting animals and birds for food for his 7 brothers and sisters and parents. He lived in Ukiah when I was growing up, and my brother, cousins and I spent weeks or months with him each summer. Every night, at twilight, we would all pile in his Ford (his car was always a Ford) and drive outside town to “spot game.” My grandfather had lost the sight in one eye in a mining accident as a young man. He drove very fast despite this disability. He chewed plug tobacco, and would occasionally open the car door while going way too fast and spit a big wad of tobacco onto the road. Throughout this wild ride, he would call out the various animals and birds, and sometimes trees, that he saw as we sped along mountain dirt roads. “Buck with 2 prongs” or “bluebird on the douglas fir”, etc. We kids tried valiantly to also spot game, but usually failed miserably. We spent the time with CK mainly trying to find what he had just mentioned.
Anne
We used to make mudpies with dried azaleas on top — we called the dried flowers “gramble.” I remember it like it was yesterday!
I’d love to have these great items! Thanks for the giveaway
Something I really loved to do out in nature as a kid was to go hiking all through the woods in back of our house with my neighborhood pals and brother and sister. We would make “forts” out of fallen branches play “chase” and collect bark and stones to bring home and put into our collections. As we turned into teenagers we would still hike but then spend hours climbing the boulders, building campfires and talking about the future. Such a peaceful, lovely time
Andrea’s last blog post..Houses on a hill
Oh so hard to choose, but I think my favourite would be walking around a local nature spot with my Grandmother. We did this at least once every weekend! I had several bushes along the way that were my “houses” and if it was fine I would paddle in the river.
We would always come back with pockets of treasures that varied from season to season. Conkers by the bagful and pretty leaves for picture making in Autumn, (walking) sticks in Winter and Fairy flowers (Violets) to crystallise in Spring. In Summer I’d write on laurel leaves, push them into my sock and wait for the magic pink words to appear and if I was lucky and ice cream for the way home!
Congrats on your 100th post!
Nicki’s last blog post..Menu Plan Monday
My grandma had a peony rose bush in her garden. One time when I was really little, maybe about 3 years old, I was left to play in the garden by myself. The peony bush was covered in beautiful buds which I thought were just like apples. I carefully harvested every single flower bud and proudly brought them inside to share with Mom and my grandma announcing that I had apples. Let’s say it is one of the few times I ever saw my grandma upset. She couldn’t be mad with me because she knew I genuinely had thought I was doing a good thing, but I’m pretty sure I ended up in floods of tears over my ignorance and the devastation I’d wrought on the blooms my grandma had so been looking forward to enjoying.
Great giveaway and congrats on your 100th post!
We were so fortunate to grow up on 80 wooded acres as children in upstate NY…so we had lots of outdoor adventures – my favorite by far was picking and EATING all of the blueberries from our fruit trees. Note: Eating WAY more than picking.
LobotoME’s last blog post..{ in need of a break }
One year we lived in rural Mass and there was a beautiful forest in the back of our complex. I remember my brother and I spent hours in there acting out stories from the books we read like Narnia, Swiss Family Robinson, even Star Wars. We would come home exhausted but happy and full of stories. Living in the city now, I sometimes ache to be amongst the trees again. Hope one day I’ll be able to give that opportunity to my kids so they can act out their beloved Annie and Jack stories from the Magic Tree House series.
Congrats on the 100th post! Thank you for the giveaway and a chance to share my story.
oooh – I really want to win this. I have been wanting the dirt book for awhile…!
When I was little we had a little creek in our backyard with small surrounding woods. As an adult, I am a,mazed at how small it actually was because as a child it seemed huge. Endless adventures & discoveries awaited us on our “nature walks”. Most specifically I remember catching crawdads and naming them all “James” after my Dad.
What a fun book! Thanks for the opportunity to win…
I’m from Oregon, so we had lots of opportunities to get dirty growing up. My favorite activity was hiking and swimming at Fall Creek, about an hour from where we lived. There were great spots to jump in from the top of what seemed like a great, big boulder at the time. The water was really cold, even in the summer, so in between jumps, we would forage for rocks in interesting shapes. After we got home, the rocks we had collected always found their way into the garden, like little trophies.
Congrats on your 100th post!
There was this family friend who would take my brother, sister, and I from the city and into the mountains. We would all pile in his Toyota 4runner and drive a few hours east and into the Sierra Nevedas. We would hike, camp and ski and I have so many memories than include being relegated to the back with stinky ski boots and poky poles, but the trip through snowy mountains was always worth it.
Oh and CONGRATULATIONS! I am so proud of you!
happy 100th!
Our house was beside railroad tracks and about a month after the spring melt, there would be little streams of water in the railroad ditch. A group of us would collect broken bits of trees and fences, old cardboard and whatever we could find to build a fort a few steps from the stream. We begged our mothers for old towels and glassjars to dress up our rock table and we would catch tadpoles in the jars and feed them weeds. The boys would try and scare us by throwing rocks off the tracks into the water. We would visit the fort the entire spring and into the summer, until it got too hot.
kerri’s last blog post..cake in the cupboard
My earliest memories of nature and the outdoors were the days I spent with my pop. He’s a fisherman, so I tagged along on on many a fishing trip. I may not have learned the fine art of fishing, but just hanging out with him and being outdoors was the coolest. I learned to like worms, how to ice skate around ice fishing holes, and how sitting on the bottom of the canoe, dragging a stick in the water, watching the trees and sky was the best thing to do on a Saturday afternoon.
Congratulations Laura!!!
When I was a kid I loved car camping at Pinecrest Lake, CA. I had so many found memories of that place, my husband Shawn and I were married there (with a couple of great friends as part of our wedding party!!) I think the best part about being a mom is watching Ollie as he discovers the outdoors at our farm!
We miss you Laura!!!!
I grew up in the country and my mom had a huge garden. I was always curious and loved picking the vegetables when they were ready. I didnt realize how much had really stuck with me until I had my own garden and went crazy planting. Its so theraputic, and I still call my mom to ask her gardening questions.
Congrats for your 100th post. Well done.
As a kid I lived infront of a big school field dotted with huge trees. The great thing about the old days we kids play outdoors most of the time. It was safer before to be outdoors, with no crazy manics & deranged kidnappers, as compared to today. Everyday at 4pm kids from the neighbourhood, both boys & girls, would congregate at the field & we would climb the trees & also play ‘police & thieves’. The funny thing was, we never bothered to ask each other’s names. We just met & played. Kids! It was healthier those days. Ha ha.
baublelista’s last blog post..Beautiful Coral Necklace