It has certainly been a busy weekend. It started early with us having Friday off, and we got going at a good time to go to the Cranberry Festival located a little over an hour north of us in Warrens, Wisconsin. It is full of crafters, flea market booths, food, and, of course, cranberries in every way imaginable from a huge cranberry whoopie pie to cranberry and apple pie to celebrate the cranberry harvest. Unfortunately I didn't bring our camera, or I'd show you a picture or two. It was a beautiful fall day, and this little town of less than 400 was bursting at the seams with thousands of people. We had a great time, and I found a few things at the flea market booths. (The cranberry apple pie was delicious, too!)
On Saturday Mom and I took an ICE Resin class at the local bead shop. I had always wanted to "play" with resin but also wanted to know what I was doing and what sort of techniques were available. We learned a great deal and had fun. I tried to do different things (in the time allotted) regarding what the teacher discussed. I wasn't impressed with what the resin did to my little feathers, but it was worth trying just to know. It's pretty amazing stuff, and I'll probably do some more in the future.
After church on Sunday we did some hiking. Again...no camera. There is a state park that has a nice trail that goes back into a gorge. It has a rippling brook, deep sides to the gorge...and the trees were luminous! It was gorgeous and was a wonderful hike. This picture is from a news site (click here for the
CREDIT), and, no, this is not us...but this gives you an idea of how pretty it is.
It was a busy weekend. I'm glad we took advantage of the nice weather and got out and did things...while we still can since winter is around the corner.
Earth Day also happens to be my husband's birthday. So, we went on a birthday/EarthDay hiking adventure at a state park that is close to us. The name of the park is Devil's Lake State Park--not the pleasantest of names, I know. I guess it was actually supposed to be Mystery Lake, but due to a translation problem with the local Indian tribe it came to be Devil's Lake. Name or not, it is a beautiful area, and I highly recommend it to anyone passing through Wisconsin. It's a great picnic place as well. There is a lake, of course, with little beaches and cliffs on all sides with many, many hiking trails. It was a homeschooling adventure for sure, for we discovered violets (the Wisconsin state flower) in purple, white, and yellow (I didn't know yellow violets existed until I moved to Wisconsin) as well as saw wild strawberry blossoms and blueberry bushes with blossoms galore. We saw vultures, woodpeckers, a snake, and even a coyote. We looked at moss and trees and a tent caterpillar nest crawling with little caterpillars. It was a day of getting plenty of sunshine and fresh air and lots of discovery.
On the trail at the top of the bluffs we saw beautiful views of Devil's Lake and Lake Wisconsin and the trees budding into leaves. It was a great spring day indeed, and a day to enjoy and make discoveries in God's Creation. 
