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🌧 Rainy day journaling 🌧
On days like this- light rain falling all morning, I enjoyed a wander in the forest with my dog. She and I both enjoy all the fresh smells! It’s such a wonderful sensory experience!
A wet day in the pine forest
We take in the smells of fresh rain and wet pine needles and bark. Everything smells different than when its dry. The sound of birds active on a rainy day, fluttering from the ground to the tree when we approach. The rain drops falling on my coat with a tap….tap…tap…. And pit-ter pat-ter on the leaves and on the forest floor.
I really enjoy documenting what I’m seeing in nature– the first Douglas Iris, milk maids and fern fronds are a happy sight! But it can be hard with rain.
Fern fiddlenecks unfurling
First of the season Douglas Iris.
How to journal when it’s raining 🌧
How do you nature journal when it’s raining? I’m glad you asked! I have a few suggestions, and I’ll describe what I did this time.
1- Memory journaling
Leave your journal behind where it’s dry. Put on a raincoat. Notice nature on your rainy day walk.
Focus on the world around you as if you had a nature journal, and expand your awareness. Perhaps saying aloud what you are seeing to help you remember it. Sometimes just noticing is all you need for this day.
When you arrive home or to a dry place, you can choose to record them into your journal from memory.
2- Take photos
Use for reference for later journaling.
I like to take multiple viewing angles (above, side, below) and zoomed in and far view. I also like to use the photos for time stamp–in case I forget to note the time while I’m out.
Type notes: On my phone there is an option to make a text note for each photo– so sometimes I might use that-like how many i saw or what it made me wonder or other detail I might forget.
Entire plant with leaves
Close up to face of flower
Back of flower
Side view of flower to see details and structure.
3- Bring waterproof paper
I use waterproof notebooks by Rite-in-the-rain. The pages are waterproof and tear-proof and you can write on it even when wet! You can use a pencil or ballpoint pen. When you get home you can tape the pages into your journal, or transfer the notes to your journal by hand.
Rite in rain books: I have this one and this one. They come in several colors but I like the yellow covers so I can find it if i drop it in the forest.
Or you can buy sheets of paper, and clip to a clipboard. You can buy it here packets here: https://amzn.to/40M03TM
I’ve used these handy Rite-in-the-rain notebooks since my time as a field biologist.
What I did this time, I took my waterproof notebook and pencil in my pocket and sketched when I saw something. I made a list of birds I was hearing– and surprised that so many were so active on a day with showers. I wonder if the trees kept some of the raindrops at bay?
Even when a big raindrop fell on my paper, I was still able to draw crisp lines with my pencil. NOTE: this paper repels water, so watercolor paint will NOT work! But you can used colored pencil, ball point pen and pencil.
Water beads on the surface of Rite-in-the-rain paper
I completed this page at home in my mixed media paper journal, referencing my memory, notes, and photos.
Do you nature journal in the rain?
Do you use other strategies?
Would you like to try? If so, let us know what you find!
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