Patricia

It was very frustrating drawing. The plant and leaves came easily but the bird was extremely difficult for me. I couldn't get the proportions right and I had no idea how to suggest the bars of dark color along the wings. The heft of the beak was something I couldn't capture. But I noticed the wonderful subtle shading of lights and darks and the frailty of the legs and grip of the feet. If I were photographing I would have seen the warbler's body as one thing. I would have thought about the overall composition and not noticed so much about the many different color and design elements that comprise this bird. The speed of photography is such wonderful thing. I kept erasing and feeling that I wasn't getting the shape of the head or the placement the eye right. 

I am a writer who loves to be outdoors. I was once a newspaper reporter, briefly a poet and then a high school writing teacher for 25 years. Now, I am retired, and trying to get back to my writing. I'm afraid to begin, not sure what I want to write. But I love plants and birds and creatures of all kinds--and have a huge garden and backyard chickens. I like hiking and camping. The idea of a journal seems safe and intriguing to me. I can begin by documenting my beautiful garden..not only the plants, but the caterpillars and butterflies and the little frog I found. I can take a walk into the woods with my dog and sit down and document little things on the trail. I would like to learn more about what I see--to be a naturalist in training--and I think this project will help me with that. I like the idea of writing and images mixed, so that you can write about the images and in response to the images. I like the poems of Mary Oliver, who has written a lot about the natural world in Provincetown Massachusetts. I always wished I could see something like a nature journal for the things that inspire her work. If Mary Oliver had kept a nature journal wirth images and words--how precious that would be! I love Annie Dillard's essays about the elements of the natural world. I love the way she can slow do2n one moment observation and have so many ripples of meaning spreading out format. And Virginia Wollf's essay, "Death of the Moth" is such a large work, morally, philosophically. Imagine a sketch of the moth! I like the nature journal style of Shayna Mueller, because she has a few drawings in squares and the some text about the experiences and observations. I also like that she uses her journal for studying. I hope I can do that too, to be a notice naturalist and maybe a poet or essayist who writes with authority and specificity. Pat