Weekly Nature Journal Project
November 2017
As I prepared to write this entry, I took a few moments to reflect on how much I have come to look forward to the time I can spend in my nature journal each week. It doesn’t feel like a chore but rather an extension of how I’m growing as a person, an Oregonian, and a naturalist. The outdoor time comes first, the observations and questions come second, and then keeping a record of what I have discovered comes with ease.
It’s always easier to make a nature journal page if I have something I’m excited about capturing on paper.
Here are my nature ramblings from the month of November.
I’m often mesmerized by the landscape scene out my back window. It is ever changing, even from minute to minute. The clouds, the water, the sky, the birds, the plants, the light…always something to marvel at as I stand, many times distracted from chores, at my picture window. I tried to use watercolors to make a record of a certain day and I love the way it turned out.
Recaps are some of my favorite pages in my journal. It gives me the freedom to include a lot of different random thoughts all on one page.
This page illustrates the “whole to parts” idea for a nature journal. Instead of just including a sketch of the whole subject, you add smaller sketches of interesting parts. On this page, I drew the seed head and the roots. Now I have a better appreciation for the grasses that grow out behind my house and their importance to the habitat and the wildlife that frequent there.
After researching the beaver, I wanted to make a page to highlight the things I learned and appreciated about this truly amazing mammal. I can look for signs of our beavers as we walk along the river and feel a connection because I have a deeper understanding of how they behave and live. I really hope we find their lodge and perhaps even spy them at some point in the future.
Don’t forget that I am sharing a nature journal page each week on my Instagram account if you want to see the pages as they unfold. Follow me here: Instagram – outdoorhourchallenge. And, if you want to create a page and share it on your Instagram for me to see, use the hashtag #OHCnaturejournal
Join us for the autumn season series of Outdoor Hour Challenges using the ideas in the Autumn 2010 ebook.