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!

Colon Cleanse Best with Juicer, Dog Problems, Talk to Students about Nature

     Well, I saw an ad online that said Rachel Ray lose 32 pounds, something about Acaci berries and a colon cleanse. I should do a colon cleanse, but I need to get a juicer. Did you know that a juicer actually 'breaks down' the walls of fruit and vegetables? I tried a "juicing" recipe from Natural Health magazine that used carrots, romaine lettuce and mustard greens or some such green and it just created a big goop! And then I drank that three mornings in a row and actually made me, with my messed up intestinal track, constipated! Yes, I got plugged up by something healthy! I am going to get
a juicer now this month.
     And the danged dog-- what an expense. Spent over $100 (!) on a haircut and some shots, but the vet said he had an enlarged testicle and yet, surgery would be risky and require certain tests (as he is 11 years old). Not my dog, our fifth stray dog and never wanted  this whiny mutt so it's the husband's call. The surgery alone would cost $200! Oh, will I ever have money?
      Well, my students are analyzing an excerpt from the book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. Some of them want to argue about the issue instead of just analyze, one student just "described" what was in it without analyzing the logic of it. They seem to need to be led by the hand, most of them. It is frustrating, and they wonder why they haven't gotten all As! Next week I will have a guest speaker  talk about  the town's trees so maybe that will help them see the value of nature more. One can hope.