St. Patrick's Day Science & Crafts

Irish or not, it's fun to get into the spirit of things this time of year, and remind ourselves that even with the sludgy, dirty remnants of snow lingering around, spring really is just around the corner.

This St. Patrick's Day, combining science and art to make our own rainbows, using those pennies we're hoarding away to do a little alchemy, and planting our own sources of "green" are just a few of the fun things we have planned.

Making Rainbows: 

1. Chromatography: use large round coffee filters and some markers or coloured candy to make your own rainbows. If you wish,, add a clothespeg and some pipe cleaners (sorry--"chenille stems") & eyes to turn it into a butterfly too. http://llemonade.com/spring.html#butterfly

2. Easy tie-dye: make your own rainbow that you can wear, or go for an all-green tie-dye shirt for the day. http://llemonade.com/adultsci.html#dye

3. Make some red/purple cabbage water indicator and create your own chemical rainbows with various household ingredients. http://llemonade.com/adultsci.html#cabbage

Alchemy: Turn Nails into (Leprechaun) Gold:

Oddly enough, it looks like I haven't yet put this copper plating activity on my site, so here it is for you.

What you will need:

pennies with a reasonably high copper content (Canadian, or if you use US, use ones from the 1980's or older)

vinegar

nails, washers etc. to be plated

Soak the pennies in the vinegar for an hour or more, then remove and wash well. Add the hardware to the vinegar solution and let sit for a few minutes, pulling them out ever few minutes to check on their progress. After a while, the dissolved copper will form a coating that looks like gold on the hardware.

This coating will not be as hard or durable as that made through electroplating, but it is still quite impressive and involves much less fuss.

Growing Green:

Did you know that clover, particularly white clover, is healthy for your lawn? It has a natural ability to fix nitrogen which helps enrich the soil. It is also very hardy and requires less mowing than most grasses. Add a little to your lawn as you celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Now is a great time to plan your vegetable garden too, take a closer look at seeds, and plant some sprouts for your salad.

How to plant your own play fort http://llemonade.com/plants#fort

Make a sprouting egg-head http://llemonade.com/spring#sprout

Using a cardboard egg carton to start seeds: http://llemonade.com/plant#egg

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Cool Poem to Share

As found in a newletter from our organic food supplier:

If the sight of the blue skies
fills you with joy,
if a blade of grass springing up
in the fields has power to move you,
if the simple things of nature have a
message that you understand,
rejoice, for your soul is alive.
~Eleonora Duse

The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful. ~e.e. cummings

Eggs, birds and other signs of spring

Today we went for a walk along the nearby river and saw lots of bird activity. Where we live, there are lots of birds--I am no birder, but I have seen finches, red-winged blackbirds, robins, starlings, geese, crows, ducks, chickadees, sparrows, cardinals and grackles in large numbers over the past couple of days. With the unseasonable warm weather lately, the gnats and other insects are out now, so the bird activity has increased accordingly. As usual, I forgot to bring along my camera.
We've also been watching Molly the barn owl live streaming (link in "wildlife links" post). Four of her brood have hatched and the last egg was expected to hatch a couple of days ago, so the kids are especially interested in watching.
Did you know that only fertilized eggs can grow to become baby birds? The chicken eggs we eat are not fertilized. When birds hatch, they first make an air hole in the shell called a "pip hole".
We have dyed our eggs with natural dyes this year. The blueberry, onion and beet ones turned out especially well. Our blender is out of commission at the moment, so I wasn't able to puree the spinach enough for the colour to transfer. The carrots were more subtle than in the past.
If you want your eggs to be shiny, let the dyes dry then rub a little vegetable oil over the shell.
For the dye recipes as well as ways to marbleize and tie-dye eggs, see my spring crafts page here: http://greensim.com/lemonade/spring#egg

Spring has Sprung

Happy Equinox!

This cool site has a great explanation about the Equinox: http://ow.ly/1oCy2

Check out the spring crafts and activities on the Lemonade site: http://greensim.com/lemonade/spring.html

In a few days we'll be celebrating April Fools' Day. The Family Fun website has some great food ideas for the day. For an interesting "twist", try making your own rubber chicken bones: http://greensim.com/lemonade/halloweengc.html#rubber