Nature Journaling is easy; Write about Nature

        A few days ago I came back with some weary, fellow Master naturalists from Charlottesville, having gotten there for a 9 a.m. training concerning wetlands at the local library. And our trainers didn't show! We called them and decided upon our "own" training the following weekend, and did some foot traveling on Market Street and this brick floored area called The Mall, as well as visiting some farmland owned by Virginia Tech near exit 205.
     Which leads me to my point: experiences outside are much more vivid and better remembered if you write about it soon after it happens, in your own nature journal.
     I've kept a number of little notebooks over the years, and now also blog about nature (at http://naturethinker.blogspot.com) now too. With the incredibly warm temperatures we've had (just love the spring temperatures, my favorite temps of all!) there is much to want to record and remember. 
     Just the other day we visited church friends and under a bare, grayish trees was a burst of color on their front lawn. I eyed these crocuses, these purple little light bulb shaped flowers, with the light orange stamens and pistil, and also their pencil thin bright green stems and skinny leaves, and smiled. I didn't have a camera or sketch pad handy -- I tend to write about nature more than I illustrate it -- but the memory of this harbinger of spring is still fresh in my mind. Perhaps I should sketch them later on, on a sketch pad I have in my office.
     Keeping a nature journal doesn't have to be an expensive venture. If you can't afford an art pad you can fold typing paper in half, punch a hole through it, and tie it together with a colorful slip of yarn or ribbon you have laying around the house or apartment. Then you can record your thoughts about what you have experienced outside, on a particular day. You can use pen or pencil, or even a thin marker if you have your art all planned out and definitely won't make a mistake! Journaling, describing what you see and how you felt and all the colors and shapes that abound, can only enhance the outdoor experience.
     If only people "would" stop to smell the roses, sketch them, think about them, how they are a perfect part of the day, we would have less violence and worry in society today. Everyone now, go outside and sketch!