Saturday - Something New

Inspired by A Letter from Home (who shares her journalling on her blog) when I saw a social media post from the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy (below) I took a deep breath (social anxiety) and signed up. Then a couple of weeks later I asked husband to come with (chicken that I am) and signed him up too.

So, today we made our way to a new-to-us Nature Preserve and took a walk and had some fun. It was a really nice walk. Not a lot of colour but nice. 

First, we stopped at several spots along the trail and did some observation exercises. No drawing at first, just looking and listening and trying to notice all the things going on around us. Further along, we stopped and did a bit of drawing and writing. None of us in the group had ever done any nature journalling before. As our instructor told us, it's not about pretty pictures but observing and recording. I did more writing than drawing but she said that was okay. Perhaps as I became more comfortable with the drawing more would come.

It's dark as I write this and I haven't taken any photos of the drawings/writings I did. I'm no good at art, but I could see myself liking this. It is something I think I'll continue with. The instructor says she is going to send us more resources, so that will be good. 

We did do an exercise where we had to pick an Oak leaf, go off and draw it and then we put the drawings and the leaves on the ground (mixed up) and we had to match them up. After a bit of anxiety, it was rather fun. 

This was a free event, by a local nature organisation. It is something I enjoyed attending and something I'd do again! Not sure husband enjoyed the nature journalling, but he did enjoy the walk so I count that as a win!