Wander through last year's nature journal to anticipate this year's treasures

Revisiting pages from previous years is something I like to do for a few reasons.

1. It’s a fun stroll through my past nature experiences

2. I refresh my memory about what’s in season at this time of year

3. so that I can be on the look out for special treasures like fiddlehead ferns, mushrooms–

4. or anticipate a special treat like Ripe cherry guavas or special visitor (winter birds)

5. Decide on locations I’d like to visit this season for nature walks

6. be ready with specific questions I might want to look for that I was curious about last year

Sometimes in my nature journaling, my curiosity gets sparked and I come up with questions about a particular thing– for example, I might want to see if this particular mushroom is found in pine as well as other types of forests. Or maybe I wonder if that particular mushroom always grows from that fallen log– so I’ll go visit it again.

Add different nature information: Sometimes, I stop adding certain things in my journal- for example I used to add sunrise and sunset times but have stopped the past several months. So I might want to add information back on my pages.

Start up a new practice: Or my “Bird-a-day” Sketching practice– I did that for a few weeks in 2023 and then stopped… It feels like something I’d like to start up again this year- to practice my bird sketching with contour drawings- a low-stress way!.

I’ve been playing more with pen and ink so I might practice with how to draw texture and color values with just black.

So this month, I’ll be looking for more mushrooms, fiddlehead ferns, and Nutmeg mannikins at my bird feeder.

I invite you to take a stroll through my journal from 2023 here. Look for things you would like to try in your journaling or things in nature you would like to look for.

Then you can look through your journals from this time of year– What is something you’d like to find again?

Wander through my January 2023 journal pages.

You can also join the Spark Collective membership – a collaborative coworking learning community of people seeking deeper meaning and connection through the creative practice of nature journaling. We share our pages, insights, and stories about our encounters with nature. We learn and implement new ways to enrich our lives and explore our inner nature as well as the nature that surrounds us.

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