I sat by the lake and watched the  goldeneyes do what they do. They moved back when I first got there but started to come in closer again after around 20 minutes, just like the lesson said! I was originally just going to leave the picture on the left side and the writing on the right, but then I started writing all over the picture and painting around the notes and it ended up like this. Noticing dead plants was a new one for me, but it was actually pretty interesting once I started looking, touching and even smelling them

I was in my backyard garden. It's in urban area surrounded by houses, but I can see the neighbours garden's too. There's a lot a concrete in the ground but some islands for trees or flowers. Biodiversity is low in general although one can see some buterflies, some caterpillar, snails, slugs, earthworms, wild birds, pets. The feature trees are 2 Persimmon trees that atract the "wildlife". This time of the year Spring is on the move, some flowers blossomed already. Even if the Persimmon trees lack leafs, birds use them as perch site for singing. The activity of the Magpies (Pica pica) was a thing to notice and created questions to explore. Their behaviour in the tree and later on the ground caught my attencion. Another highlight was a call sound of a European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) which is unusual to ear, based in the past experiences, although they are ubiquous species in Portugal. Also the lack of European Serin (Serinus serinus) calls or songs today was a surprise because I know their nest site.

I sat down in my backyard.  It was mostly cloudy with  now and then a softening sunny spell.  My garden is usually crowded with birds, but no bird showed up this time.  Maybe, the timing was wrong  and the birds  were having their  siesta.  I imagined then their  little  stomachs filled with the food I provided a couple hours ago... But I was far from being alone: I could hear bird songs all around me: Within five minutes, I recorded 10 species. As you can see on the list, they are not American, because I live in Belgium. Awaiting any bird to show up, I was mesmerized by the rocking twigs of the hazel tree in the chilly south west breeze. Gradually, they  put me in an almost hypnotic state. “Shall we droodle a bit” said the twigs.  The daffodils nodded in consent and together they started to write their invisible story in the sky. My hands followed this thoughtless dance and they started sketching the garden in front of me.  Suddenly, a little bug landed on my page telling me that my sketch was finished, and here it is!  Not an artwork, but  .. Who cares?  The beauty is in the experience..

I enjoyed looking at everyone's journal's so much! I live in the pacific northwest and sat on my deck. I sketched where the alder branches and douglas fir branches met because the contrast was striking.

It's been too cold here to sit outside for any length of time, so I took a 20-minute stroll around my yard a few days ago.  I found these snowdrops, the first new growth of the season.  I was amazed at how much I noticed, even in that short amount of time, and in such a limited location.

Yesterday I took a 15-minute walk in my garden and made notes about what I saw.  I couldn't sit, as it was 34 degrees out, but I came inside and wrote down everything I observed.  I was amazed at how much I saw even in such a limited space and time!  Here's my journal page:

I loved this experience! Noticed sounds first then tuned into looking at my surroundings. I hope to make this a regular part of my daily life. I think it would be helpful as I go through stressful times and enjoyable for its own sake as well.

I loved this activity and would like to make it a regular part of my daily life. The easiest for me to focus in on were the sounds. They seemed to be my entry point into the experience. From there I went on to looking at my surroundings. 

It was a beach with large outcroppings of sandstone; early morning, very sunny and warm. A place I’ve been before and normally would have moved on quickly. Not today....sketching the scene made me oblivious to how long I actually stayed! I was aware of wave action, the style and activity of the people on the beach....it even helped with my problems with proportion.

My comment and uploaded photo are not showing up here today.

I live surrounded by Pisgah National Forest in the NC mountains. Our community is filled with large pines, hardwoods, rhododendron and laurel, so it's almost like living in a forest. I just sat on my deck. Last night something made a loud bump on the deck and during my observations I realized it was the raccoon that had been robbing our bird feeder. We've been bringing it in at night to keep it, as well as bears, away. I don't think I would have noticed the raccoon footprints if I had not sat out there for a while.

[[I was more focused on observing and taking notes than drawing, so my drawing for today isn’t very detailed.]] I had just filled the birdfeeder outside my bedroom window, and watched the birds and squirrels that came to it.  I drew the Chinese Privet tree and the feeder, but also used my cellphone camera to get some images. I saw White-Crowned Sparrows, Mourning Doves, a California Scrub Jay, House Finches, House Sparrows and an Oak Titmouse.  There was also a young Eastern Fox Squirrel who couldn’t quite figure out how to get the seeds in the feeder, and an adult Western Gray Squirrel who was adept at stealing the seeds.  That squirrel also went over to the hummingbird feeder and tipped it just enough to get the nectar inside to dribble out, and he drank from the feeder!  Ingenious! I could hear the squirrels running across the roof, to and from the feeders. When the squirrels were around, the birds stayed back from the feeders but didn’t fly away. I could hear the sparrows “chirp” at each other, and heard the male Mourning Dove cooing to the female as he followed closely after her along the ground. She didn’t seem interested in him and kept avoiding his attentions by scurrying away. I could hear the wind whistling through the doves’ tail feathers when they flew in and flew out. The White-Crowned Sparrows were more interested in the suet blocks than the seeds in the feeder, and the doves ate the seeds that fell onto the ground. Some of the White-Crowns ate seeds off the ground, too; they kept looking up and around them every few seconds as they fed. Keeping an eye out for other birds and predators?  Some of the White-Crowns also flit up onto the window sill to peck up the seeds there.  They’d look up into the window as they fed. Didn’t observe long enough to see “intervals” of movement; but I’m looking forward to doing more observations outside at more remote locations.

Yeah i visit the spot two times the first one was of one hour and a half, and the second visit only 30 minutes. I could saw a couple of bats flying all around me, and stranges noises of cicadas and lizards.

For the time in the year I am pleased that a kitchen window is a kek to the rest of the world.

I visited the beach to observe the gulls and terns. I thought I would try a more common visitor to our shore. Spending the time to look at the gull for details is a wonderful method to learn about about this and all species. My drawings are still one dimensional and I am not ready for the including shadows, try that next time.

It's February in Maine so a bit too cold to sit outside but it was a beautiful sunny, windy day all the same.  I drove a few miles to the beach and sat and watched the waves crashing on the rocks.  While sitting there I spotted something on one of the rocks and broke out my binoculars.  there were 4 tiny little birds on one rock and they stayed there for the longest time just moving about on the small rock.  even with my binoculars I couldn't tell what birds they were or what exactly they were doing.  I did watch them move in chorus to the other side of their small rock when a wave approached that would shed water on their rock.  eventually they took off and unfortunutely I didn't witness their leaving.  Curious though there were thousands upon thousands of rocks in that area and they remained on that one only and I never saw any other birds anywhere in the vicinity.  as you can see I'm no great artist but I enjoyed myself and found it peaceful

I'm including a sketch completed on October 19, 2019. I was sitting at a place in back of our camp in the Tug Hill area, upstate New York.  I was at my sit spot in the woods next to camp soaking up the quiet, listening to the rustle of leaves caused by a red squirrel as he was preparing for the winter, I could hear the bird calls echoing around me, yellow, red, and rusty orange leaves were softly drifting in a light breeze to the forest floor all around me.  It was beautiful.  

I went to a favorite place this fall to watch the river and to see if any wildlife would appear.  The weather was warm but a big storm was coming.  It was very peaceful to just sit and observe the landscape for a long time.  The fall colors were very muted due to an early freeze.

1. The experience was peaceful. I usually hike through without spending much time resting in place. Finding a sit spot and being still provided a unique perspective on a trail that I have hiked hundreds of times. 2. Observing the sights and sounds came easily to me; the flowing creek and the prominent greenery were unique for the typical dry, Southern California climate. After I sat for a moment, I began to feel the cool, almost dewy air and noticed the fresh, sweet scent around me. 

Spending time out in our backyard doing this exercise drives home the truth in the above statement, on The Benefits of Awe. It was indeed uplifting and I found that words flowed on the page --so nice to describe what you see and are attempting to depict, I love to learn more about what I observe, this makes it so easy to remember. One additional  thing I learned in this exercise: do not use chalk pencils, unless you wet them.