Spring growth and tracking the changes

We’ve had so much rain here in California this winter, and it is allowing the grassy hills to remain lush and green into mid-April! As I look through photos and journal entries from past years, this time is often when the grasses have faded to a straw color.

• Wildflowers are beginning to pop up in a rainbow of colors. 🌈
• Dormant winter branches are leafing out with new spring leaf bursts. 🌱
• More birds are singing each day, and spring migrant birds return to my nearby nature. 🎵
• The sun rises earlier in the morning 🌅 and sets later in the day, meaning I have more time to walk my dog in daylight!

Tracking changes

Keeping track of my nearby nature and recording the observations in my nature journal helps me to understand the rhythms of nature and to notice when something is not following the pattern.

Watching a particular place and returning to it multiple times through the seasons, I develop a personal connection and gather nature knowledge. Sometimes nature shows me something I might not uncover in an online search or book.

And, when I journal it, I remember it better.

When I watch nature change and go through it’s seasons, I become familiar with it’s rhythms, cycles and patterns of growth. My interest and affection for it can continue to grow and my desire to care for its well-being blossoms.

This is the case for so many plants, animals and places I’ve come to know and love.

Connecting to the web of Nature

When we look upon nature with this kind of curiosity and deliberate attention, we feel a deeper connection beginning to swell in our minds and hearts.

Sustaining this awareness, we begin to see more clearly that we are part of the web of nature. We begin to feel our interdependence with all living things– we give and receive from each other. A well-known example is plants and photosynthesis.

Through the process of photosynthesis plants make their ‘food’ in the form of sugar. They absorb the carbon dioxide from our exhalation and release oxygen as a waste product. We and other air-breathers inhale what the plants exhale, and exhale what plants inhale! We depend on each other.

All it takes is just our desire and some actions to grow this meaningful connection with nature.

Nature Treasure hunt

Using your senses, you can expand your awareness of the world around you.

As we move through life, we often use our vision disproportionately more than our hearing, smell, sense of touch and taste.

Practice using other senses and see what you might discover. Often there are a multitude of extraordinary things hidden in the ordinary–deliberately using your senses, you can uncover these gems.

A gift for you

Here’s a fun way to observe the changes that you might find in the spring time. I’ve drawn up a few ideas. You can download your free Spring Nature Treasure Hunt here.

See what you can find outdoors. Add them to your nature journal!

You can absolutely use this sheet as a jumping off point and look for nature treasures at differnt times of the year or different locations, too!