Home school club was spent painting the beautiful (and invasive), non-native black mustard that surrounds us along the coast of California. I used to munch on the flowers as a kid and never really knew much else about the plant other than it was edible. While researching for home school class, I found out that legend says, the missionaries from Europe planted the mustard seed, all along the El Camino Real to show the way to each Mission. Mustard plant is also mentioned in the bible and it’s pretty terrible after it goes to seed and browns, because it makes for perfect fire kindling (and that is not good living in dry and toasty California). However, its been a part of my life ever since I can remember and living so close to the ocean now, it’s beautiful yellow just blankets the hillsides in the spring and makes for some lovely photos. It’s now toward the end of  spring and the end of the lovely yellow mustard season, so we decided to get out to one of our favorite spots and paint it before it all browns.
The girls got to use acrylic this time on canvas’ and they really enjoyed the different medium. I read a sweet story called Miss Maple’s Seeds and we enjoyed painting and exploring for the morning.