Tag: winter

Snowflake Bentley

Posted on by Rachel Lonas


One of my favorite books I read with my girls when they were younger was Snowflake Bentley, a true story about the history of snowflake photography. In the late 1800’s Wilson Bentley was a Vermont farmer-scientist whose love for snow crystals started very young. His parents donated their savings to support his dreams to photograph snow! His book Snow Crystals is the “source text” for the modern day scientists who are continuing his enormous efforts in understanding the structure of snowflakes.

I brought Snowflake Bentley in today so the Maple Key girls could learn some natural history and more about drawing snow crystals.

We worked on how to draw basic snowflakes. I showed them how to form the 6 branches of a crystal by drawing 3 lines and then adding any oiLs (look at the shapes in the letters of oiLs — circles, straight lines, dots, angled lines, curved lines) to make a snowflakes.

I told them they could make them as simple or complex as they wanted. I told them that if they thought they were JUST doodling that they ought to compare what they were doing to real photos of snowflakes.

“Ice Queen” by Nathan Myhrvold Nathan Myhrvold / Modernist Cuisine Gallery, LLC

The oiLs pop out at you and the snowflake becomes less intimidating to draw because you see the shapes!

I hope that the next time we get even the least little bit of snow they will grab a black tray and a microscope and head outside to look at the flakes just a little bit closer.

In Praise of Reciprocal Memberships

Posted on by Rachel Lonas

One way I encourage families to keep a family culture of being outdoors is through a “hack” we learned about several years ago — reciprocal memberships. Where we are in Chattanooga, we have access to a place called Reflection Riding which is a member of the American Horticultural Society. This association allows its members access to any other affiliated gardens on their list for a discounted price or usually FREE. Financially speaking, it’s a no brainer to join. Here’s some math:

Visit Atlanta Botanical Gardens once = $126 for our family of 6

Family membership to Reflection Riding = $70 AND we can go to any of the 330+ gardens for discount or free.

If you have access to gardens that offers these benefits, take advantage of them for you and your family, especially in the winter season when you might be less encouraged to be outdoors. Sometimes you get a surprise like we did yesterday, having a beautiful day in the upper 50’s. In addition, some places have greenhouses year round. Seeing how they will decorate the poinsettia tree (see below) is one of the highlights of the winter break for us. Actually, it might be the largest reason we created the tradition of going every year right before Christmas!

Displays at the Atlanta Botanical greenhouse never get old!