My sit spot is my back porch.  From here I can see the activity of the Catbird.  He or she seems to favor the top post of the railing that leads to the upper part of my backyard.  This bird has been coming closer and looking at me as if to say, where is the food?  Until the cause is know for the bird illness in my area, the feeders have been taken down.  I notice a lot of activity at my neighbor’s colorful birdhouse.  I’m pretty sure this is the second of third time a nest has been made inside.  I will keep a close look with my binoculars to see if once again I can see a tiny head peeking out.  The cute Mourning Dove couple is here.  Perhaps looking for the feeder food, too. They stopped by my waterfall fountain for a drink. 

when I read the assignment I knew exactly where I wanted to go. I woke up bright and early to hike into one of my favourite parks. I felt truly at ease as there wasn’t another soul to be seen except for the chirps of birds and critters all about. A truly magical experience. I had my supplies and nature journal slung over my shoulder as I made my way deeper and went to a spot I like to forge wild onions. So as I sat I noticed that there was a small deer trail that went along the dried up river bed (that runs from the mountain and main focus of my city) until I found a beautiful opening that look untouched. So as I sat there and half a hour passed I noticed lots of movement in the upper canopy, and the bushes around me so I started taking notes. I wish I would have left out the water colour as I have very very little to no experience with it. I get it almost ruined my visitor picture, was it a finch? A sparrow? I’ll find out! the whole experience was transforming!

It is pretty hot here, and very humid, in Ontario.  I went out for 15 min and stayed so long my daughter came looking for me.  We have spent a lot of time sculpting the wild space between our yard and the golf course.  There are many snags, berries, and lots of native plants, making the wildlife fun to look for.  While I am out in the yard a lot, “working,” in it, I don’t often just sit there looking around.  I wanted to make the white edges on the hosta leaves.  I think I’ll need to get closer for that.  I really struggled to get the path to wend off in the distance, instead of laying on top of itself, like Candyland. I tried hard to look at what I was drawing, and not at the paper, and tried some of the techniques you recommended.  I have never made it past stick figures, bu I’ll keep trying.  It was fun to really look at the plants and the ‘negative spaces’ in my view. 

I have viewed many fine journal entries before attempting this task of a 15 minute sit and let nature unfold in front of me. Its been raining almost everyday in my area. I love the rain as it provides the necessary ingredient in making living things grow well. When the rains come, mushrooms come out and there was an interesting one growing outside my east faceing  breakfast room. This mushroom was not one that I have seen before in my yard. The shape of the cap was convex with a pale brown overall color with pale yellow rim margins. It was observed in a patch of decaying leaves underneath a waxleaf ligustrum. I was able to view it from another angle while outside. There were pores underneath the cap, not gills,  which meant a Bolete group of mushrooms.  I have not been able to specifically the Genus and species of this particular mushroom. To complicate  things, the Bolete group appears  in  several different families of mushrooms.  While looking around in the surrounding area, I noticed a green anole lizard on a small unknown tree that I let grow in order to shade my patio plants. I sketched white and,  also pink periwinkle flowers that I planted. Among the periwinkles was a deep pink to red tubular shaped wildflower that I left alone in my garden,  as I appreciate its beauty among my planted varieties. I like to walk and observe nature but I have remained close to home due to the inclement weather of late  which often includes abundant lighting strikes. 

  My terrace in the third floor and the birds

1. My sit spot was right in my front yard. I live right across the road from a wildlife refuge, so there is usually some interesting wildlife around. I set up a chair and sat with my journal for around 20 minutes. After only a few minutes a group of sparrows was splashing in a large puddle in the road(every time a car passed they would fly away and then return), two mourning doves landed in a tree a few feet away from me, 5 turkeys was walking around on the other side of the street, and I could hear dozens of bird calls coming from all directions.I quickly sketched the mourning doves and turkeys. I tried to sketch the sparrows, but they kept flapping around and I couldn't get the sketch to look right. 2. Seeing the turkeys and the sparrows was easy, but I would not have noticed the two mourning doves hidden in a sassafras tree if I was not paying close attention. I usually notice the bird calls, but sitting silently allowed me to hear an even wider range of calls.

My sit spot was a amazing! I got to notice things that I would have never have observed. Like the tiny ants scurrying about and the texture and colour of different flowers and leaves. I got time to sit quietly and take in all the nature around me. I collected a real samples of the flower I saw. It was really good idea to do a sit spot at sunrise because that's when there is a variety of birds. In other words, it's a bird paradise time!

3 June 2021, 12:10 - 12:40 pm in Cape Coral, Florida                 Sit Spot: on our dock on Sapphire Canal The sky is overcast to the east; dark gray clouds are drifting northward. It's very sunny here but pleasant because of a light breeze to the north. - wind-blown ripples on canal water; large clusters of oysters on the dock pilings; water visibility only about 10 inches below surface - an orange butterfly is flitting among the maroon bougainvillea blossoms - three gardenia blossoms on the bush at the corner of the pool cage; buds on the bush next to pool cage door - small brown anole (2-1/2") skittering along the stone wall of the dock - one white ibis in neighbor's yard poking the ground for mole crickets/bugs/worms - mockingbird singing in the distance

I found my sit spot experience to be very relaxing and I stayed for 30 minutes rather than 15 because I lost track of time. I am looking forward to going back to this area for more nature journaling as the birds were very active and there were many different plants and fungi that would be fun to draw. I was near a well-used trail, so the birds were very accustomed to human presence and appeared soon after I sat down. Definitely visual and auditory observations came most easily to me, and while I did enjoy the scent of the forest, I forgot to write down anything about it. I attempted to estimate distance and size, but I am not sure how accurate I was.

I sat quietly in my converted bedroom (read studio) because it just is too blustery to sit outside. I will make it a point to go out and sit quietly by the river here in Milwaukie Oregon, tomorrow. I will bring my journal and do as Liz suggested. Looking forward to it. In the meantime - I sketched a couple of small pictures I found in these lessons.

It was partly cloudy and warm. 4/28/21. I chose to sit on a swing in my yard. It was quiet with bird song until some county work trucks came up the street and parked under my oak tree on the berm. I saw a lot of green plants so I looked for things that were not green, blue (sky) or grey/brown. That left the red flower stems on the air plants in the oak tree, and the orange head of the lizard in the driveway. I talked to him and he looked at me awhile and ran away. The next day the flower stems opened with long blue flowers with yellow centers. So small I wonder how they get pollinated. They lasted one day.  So, I drew the lizard's face and arm, and the flower stem. I don't know how to upload it. Maybe I'll try that next time.

4/29/21 - I sat in my backyard and heard many sounds - neighbors, traffic, then the wind, birds (sparrows?), bees buzzing, a big fly.  It was sunny and breezy, 84. I smelled the roses and orange blossoms. Even in my small backyard, in a suburb, after about 10 minutes I had some visitors.  A tufted titmouse flew in, got an insect, flew out.  A hummingbird checked out some nasturtium. I didn't sketch or draw at all. My journal looks like a checklist.  And, that's OK for now.  I liked sitting and seeing and hearing and smelling.

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Interesting to do this in a neighborhood on a day when everyone wants to be outside and everyone is making noise! Enjoyed the songs the scents, the breeze and the colors of nature nonetheless.

I really enjoyed this exercise. I sat in my front yard by a tree behind a low hedge. It was remarkably quiet with very few cars going by. I spent almost an hour out there. It was very therapeutic. I made quite a few notes and tried sketching a couple of things. I need more practice at the sketching! I noticed that I couldn't name all the plants and certainly couldn't id some of the birds I heard. This is something I will do again just for the pleasure of it!

I enjoy sitting and observing, but always have to make myself take the time, so this was a good exercise and I spent well over half an hour in my garden, in a spot overlooking the pond and bird feeders.   At first I just heard bees buzzing, birds chirruping in the distance and wood pigeons and rooks flying over.  After about ten minutes small birds started to come into the trees and to the feeders.  I did a couple of sketches, but not very successful - this is what I need to improve.    I couldn't observe the bees closely as they were in the flowers and I didn't want to move to disturb anything else.   After the session I went to look at them closely and identify those I could.  NB - I am in England, so the species are different to the US!

Multiple failed attempts at this, I am impressed with other submissions and have used them to self-inspire.  I have given myself ten days at this trying to accomplish the sit and awe to take it all in.   On my 4th attempt I was able to sit long enough to let nature come back to me, but I am seriously lacking the ability to sit and observe for 20 minutes.  My journal page looks more like a "to do list".  I am going to have to carry on and work at this aspect of Awe.

I've been doing this for years now and have been keeping a nature journal but wanted to up my art abilities so I could do more visuals. I live in MN and what I like to do is go to the same local spots over and over again...we have several marshes close by and I have photographed the same locations over and over again all seasons. Becoming accustomed to one location like that allows you to see nature change over and over again. Are the marshmarigolds spreading year to year? How is that old tree rotting, what lichen and fungus are on it now that were not here a month ago or last spring.

I sat out on my porch and faced West looking out at the small  border plots surrounding the stone patio.   There is little evidence of perennial growth, but it changes everyday. A few bits of green are appearing in the Iris root area, and some greenery was showing leaf growth between the patio stones.    Mostly it was sounds that I heard. A distant motor sound came for some time, perhaps some kind of tractor.  Although I didn't see any birds there were several varieties of chirps and tweets surrounding me.  I spent most of  my time illustrating the metal fence surrounding my small backyard thinking of light and shading as it was late afternoon and the sun was showing its influence.

1. I found this challenging.  I usually like to take pictures and them draw from them so I can get all the details more acurately on the page.  I tried to quickly sketch the overall scene without going into too much detail.