MOTHER NATURE AND THE FOUR SEASONS

Mother Nature is some special lady!  Without her what would we do?  Most of us have four seasons each year.  There are of course some parts of the U.S. that have only one or two seasons.  Alaska is always cold.  Our little reindeer on the snowmobile probably lives someplace there.  Some of our southern and western states like Arizona and Florida stay pretty warm most of the year.

  For the rest of us, Old Man Winter sets in usually around Thanksgiving.  Tommy loves the snow.  He can't wait for it to come because he likes a lot of the things he can do in the snow.  Tommy's favorite sport is ice hockey.  As a matter of fact, his whole family loves hockey and they almost never miss a game on TV or go in person when a game is in town.

Tommy and his little brother John like to sled when it   snows.  They have a big hill near their home and Tommy pulls John on the sled to the hill.  He makes John walk up the hill because it would be to hard to pull him all the way up.  They get going very fast coming down the hill, especially if it has been a big snow.  Tommy really likes being big brother and giving John a thrill ride down the hill. 

  Susan, a friend and neighbor of Tommy and John's likes to watch as   they come speeding down the hill.  She grabs herself a big clump of clean snow and munches on it while she watches them.  Tommy's a great skier too.  He puts on quite a show coming down the hill on his skis.  John is so proud of his big brother.  He's always bragging about Tommy to his friends.

As Tommy is coming down the hill can see his house with smoke coming from the chimney and thinks it has never looked prettier, surrounded by snow.  Tommy decides one thing is missing, a snowman!  He makes up his mind that he, John and maybe Susan could make one that afternoon.  When they got home they all had hot chocolate and warmed up a little.

Then back outside they went to play in the snow. Tommy showed John how to make snow angels.  Then they got started on making their snowman.  They rolled up three different sized balls of snow, then stacked them on top of one another.  As they were working on him, Susan decided the snowman needed a lady snow woman.

While the Tommy and John finished up their snowman, Susan built her snow lady.  The guys admitted they looked pretty good together.  When the kids turned to go inside they thought they caught a glimpse of the snow people giving one another a kiss.  When they looked back they were just standing as the kids had made them.  Guess it was just their imagination!

Next comes most peoples favorite day of the year,   Christmas.  After that passes we soon start to see signs of spring.  One of the very first flowers of spring is the crocus.  They peak right up through the snow that is sometimes still on the ground.  When you see a crocus blooming, you can be sure spring is not far behind!

Spring is my favorite time of the year.  It's like Mother   Nature is making everything new again.  New flowers, new leaves on the trees, new baby animals and birds.  Everything is fresh with a new beginning.  The baby animals are all so cute and the birds are busy building there nest.  The trees are even just waking from a long winter nap.

  Time to wake up now Mr. Tree and get ready for a busy   spring and summer.  Everything in nature works together.  The trees get new leaves for the birds to build their nests in.  Some trees have to get a lot of strength to grow fruit also.  Like the trees here.  They will have wonderful red apples by the end of summer.

Here is a cute robin building a nest for her babies and look   what we have a few days later, baby blue robin eggs!  Their are so many different kinds of birds in the world.  Just look up and listen, sometimes we don't think about the wonderful things around us when we are busy.

The mom and baby ducks are so cute but what is this?  Our apple tree has had a baby too!  Isn't it sweet?  It will probably be to small this year to grow apples but this time next year he will be big and strong and ready for apples!  One thing very important to all of us, the animals, plants and flowers is water.  So as some people say,"April showers bring May flowers." 

The happy little rain drops are ready to water the flowers,   grass and turn everything nice and green.  The little rain drops love their job.  They are glad to know that they keep everything alive and healthy.  Tammy is a friend of Susan's and she just loves to walk in the rain.  She has gotten all dressed up for rain and is waiting for it to get to her house.

First she put on her rain coat and got an umbrella.       Finally she thinks she feels some drops of rain!  Tammy is right, a few little drops are dancing around her.  She likes the fresh smell of the clean air during and after a rain shower.  Playing in the rain can be a lot of fun.  Tammy likes to jump in the puddles of water created by the rain.

   One thing Tammy is always careful about is thunder storms.  If she starts to hear thunder or see lightning, she heads for home right away.  Thunder storms with lightning are very dangerous and everyone should go inside to be safe right away when one comes along.  The spring rains bring beautiful flowers.

There are pretty roses with cute lady bugs and roses    with butterflies.  Did you know that reddish orange ladybugs are really boys?  The yellow ladybugs are the girls!  Kind of funny isn't it?  All this nice spring rain has made some beautiful plants and healthy animals.  Of course once in a while a nice family like the Thompson's wish the rain would just wait for their picnic to get over before it started.

The Thompsons did get to have a real nice picnic before the rain came.  Well, spring is pretty short because summer moves in pretty fast.  Look what we have on the summer sign, your right, boy ladybugs.  You'll have to tell your friends about that, I bet most of them don't know that!  It doesn't take long for the weather to get hotter and hotter.  The flowers are all looking their very best and the apples are growing on the apple trees.

Those apples look so perfect even the tree is reaching for some!  By golly,   she got some too and is having a delicious lunch on some of her own apples.  Well she worked awfully hard growing those apples, I guess she deserves a few, don't you?  They look so good it's making me want to head to the store for some bright red apples right now!

Summer is now in full swing.  The baby birds are growing up   and all the beautiful flowers are at there very best!  Mrs. Thompson has what people call a green thumb.  Those are people who seem to be able to grown any type of plant and they always look beautiful.  The Thompson yard is the prettiest in the whole neighborhood with her wonderful flowers.

  Families are packing up and going on vacation.  While they are camping out this family is doing a lot of grilling.  It seems all food just tastes better when it has been cooked on a grill!  A favorite spot for most people to go is the beach.  This little girl is have fun in the sand and is putting on sun tan lotion.  Uh! Oh!

Looks like she stayed out in the a little to long.    Boy, is she going to be sore!  We all have to watch out for that in the summer and use a lot of sun block.  You can also do what the next lady is doing, take a big beach umbrella to shade you from the sun.  The beach is fun but you have to be careful of the sun.

This lady is not only smart with that big umbrella but she   also has one talented dog.  Look how good he is with that beach ball!  Speaking of smart dogs, here's one bright guy.  When the summer heat gets to him, he stands in front of his owners fan to stay cool.  Smart guy, don't you think?  Maybe that's why they named him Einstein!

Summer has been lots fun but fall is coming in.  The first few weeks of fall almost everyone likes.  The extremely hot weather cools down and seems so comfortable.  This had been a good year for the farmers.  Just look at the nice pumpkins and apples the crow is looking at.  Lots of good things happen in the fall.  School starts and everyone gets to go back and see all their friends.

The apple tree's leaves were falling and one of the first fun holidays of fall was almost here, Halloween!  What a great idea, kids dress up in their favorite costume and go from house to house getting FREE candy!  Is that great or what?   Hummm, I wonder who thought of that?  Whoever it was must have been a very smart person!

This time of year the flowers   are starting to fade away outside, so we have to buy them at flower shops.  They keep us in beautiful flowers all year round.  Most are grown in greenhouses where they can be kept warm.  A pretty flower arrangement will be just perfect for our next big holiday, Thanksgiving!  We are all so lucky to have such a great meal on Thanksgiving.  It is probably the best meal we have all year!

Soon strong winter winds start to blow.  Then I bet you all know who we start waiting for next!  You got it!  Santa Clause that jolly little guy in the bright red suit. Christmas ends another year for us and Mother Nature.  A few days later is New Years Eve and a whole new year starts all over again.  With Winter, Mother Nature kind of cleans house and everything begins clean and new.

With 2008 we will all get the chance to start   fresh and make up for any mistakes we may have made.  Just like our baby Rudolph below, who hopes to help guide Santa's sleigh this year.  Maybe he will get it right this time.  Let's wish him luck and ourselves as well.  We can always improve on anything we do.

MOTHER NATURE IS LIKE THE "MOLLY MAID" OF THE WORLD.  SHE CLEANS UP OUR MESSES TO GIVE US A SECOND CHANCE AND A NEW START!