Tiny Gardeners

This is the time that gardeners of all degrees of experience and intensity are preparing to plant their flowers, vegetables, and herbs. What makes a garden of any kind balanced and healthy? That is the topic of my article “Biodiversity in the Garden”, and you can find it under the “Selected Writings” section in the sidebar of this website.

There, in your garden or garden-to-be, are silent partners that exist who can help make your gardening endevors a success. Taking care of their needs and hearing their wisdom is the key. This article may spark a new level of understanding for you about the true nature of your garden – that it is not yours alone.

Keeping a Nature Journal

A while back I began to notice that my handwriting quality was deteriorating. I was sending too many e-mails and not enough hand-written letters to people. The increasing pressure and speed of life and work pushed me to scribble hasty notes and sometimes illegible memos to myself and others. I didn’t like this one bit. After all, I had spent years practicing calligraphy – the art of fine lettering. Now my penmanship results seemed to be deteriorating. So as a partial remedy, I invested in a nice, $30 Waterman fountain pen. It was an elegant thing, and I made myself write with it for birthday cards and letters to family and friends. I used it to write my shopping lists and notes for stories and articles. This worked to help me slow down enough internally and externally to properly form pleasant, cursive handwriting once again.

In the same way, a journal of daily thoughts and observations about nature and life can help you to develop stronger observation skills, and build an archive of observations that tells an intimate story of nature through the seasons.

There is no right or wrong way to keep a journal, so I will just cover a few points about them in an effort to encourage you to take up the fine art of nature journaling. You don’t have to be artistic to draw a pine cone or a leaf or a beetle or a flower onto the pages that await you. Just keep at it. The main benefit of drawing is that is challenges you to really observe what is in front of you and not rush ahead filling in the details from your imagination. If you absolutely do not want to draw, take a digital photo of such things and insert a print into your journal. Be sure to include your observations along side. Remember that there are many famous diaries and sketch books in museums around the world. They are a glimpse into the past, a record of the process and progress of ideas and projects, and of important events. You might want to hand your finished journal to your grandchildren one day. Imagine if you had been given such a journal or diary written by the hand of one of your distant relatives? What a treasure that would be!

First of all, I would like to say a word about seeing. Looking and seeing are not the same thing. It may seem so at first, but think about it – you can look at a dandelion and still not see how many leaves, petals, seeds, or tiny hairs it has. How many wings does a butterfly have? It may look like they have two wings, but by observing carefully you will see they have four! Some birds hop on the ground while others walk, but do you know why? Keeping a daily nature journal can help you answer this and many other questions about the world outside while your journal becomes a unique work of art.

Traveling no further than your own backyard, local park, lake, or seashore, you can discover which animals use these spaces as their home, grocery store, or a place to raise their young. You can watch plants grow, and observe the fascinating life-cycle of insects. Above all, you will begin to see that everything has a unique place and purpose in nature. Make your notes, and have your field guides ready at home or on hand to look up your discoveries.

Try still-life or object studies to improve your observation and drawing skills. A found skull or other bone, a flower, a hickory nut, an interesting leaf shape, feathers, an old nail in a fencepost – anything will become interesting once you start to look for its unique qualities.

There are a few tools you’ll need to get started. Buy or make a sturdy journal with blank pages so you can sketch what you see and write down your comments, questions, and discoveries. Size is up to you. You can find these wherever you buy school or art supplies. You’ll need a regular pencil for drawing and writing, and may want colored pencils as well. Clear tape will be handy for attaching interesting bits of bark, leaves, feathers, and photos to your journal pages. A hand magnifying lens will get you closer to your subject to view more details, and a ruler helps your accuracy when recording the size of your subject. If you are more than a few minutes from home, be sure to pack a snack and some water along with a rain jacket. A plastic zip-close bag can hold your journal and camera and other stuff on rainy days.

Arriving at your chosen site, look around and draw a simple map of your study area. Try to imagine how it would look to a bird flying over head. You don’t even have to travel further than the area around your home. Draw in fences, driveways, shrubs, utility poles, the garage, vehicles, shed, flower beds, stone walls, and any other features that are present. Mark them down using simple geometric and blob-shapes – don’t worry about your drawing skills. Just indicate where things are in relation to each other. Find out which way is north (the red arrow on a compass points north) and note it on your map. Now, when you fill in your journal pages, be sure to make references to your map noting where you made each new discovery.

Find a spot in your study area that catches your interest. You will likely be the first person to really see what’s there! An area with a diversity of plants is a good place to start because a variety of plants often means that a variety of animals may use the area for shelter or for obtaining food. Don’t be concerned if you don’t have a lot of land to explore – that’s part of your expedition – to find out what exists in even the smallest patches of earth. Here are some suggestions for backyard type places: grassy areas where the lawnmower blades can’t reach, sandy areas, rock piles, under and around household objects, fences, hedgerows, wet places, shady spots, and sunny areas.

Many creatures need to stay moist and cool. Too much sun would dry them out, so they stay down close to the soil or hide underneath leaves. Carefully part the grasses and leaves and you’ll see what’s going on down there. A magnifier can help you find teensy bits of chewed seeds, insects or insect parts, animal tracks, fungus roots, mouse hair, or miniature plants. You will also see what soil is really made of (and it’s not “dirt”).

Like a detective solving a puzzle, begin asking yourself questions about what you see. “What happened here? What is this telling me? What can I learn from this?” This helps to direct your attention and focus the mind. You may not know the names of trees or plants or insects, but you can certainly describe what you see. For example, reading this description: “a small insect about the size of a pea, black head, red-orange body with nine black spots on back, short legs, very shiny and smooth, found on a tomato plant”, you would probably guess correctly that it was the familiar Ladybug. Once you get a good description down in your journal, using a field guide can help you identify plants and animals and learn about their official names, habitats, and behavior.

Also on your journal pages include the time of day you are making your observation and what the weather was like. If you keep your journal for a full year cycle, you can anticipate for next year when certain plants flower, when bird species arrive in the spring or depart for the winter.

Try to spend at least 15 minutes each time you journal, and vary the time of day to see what takes place during the morning, afternoon, and evening. Sometimes it’s best just to sit still and watch carefully. That’s how you’ll realize things like larger birds, such as pigeons, crows, and turkeys walk rather than hop because they spend most of their time searching for food on the ground. Smaller birds, like chickadees and finches, spend more time amongst the safe tangle of branches in trees and shrubs where hopping is a more effective way of getting around.

Don’t let the weather deter you too often – there is a world of beauty waiting for you out there in the rain when everyone else is indoors. On days like that, you may choose to make journal entries once you’re back at home where it is dry.

With regular attention, your nature journal can become an exciting record of your discovery of the unique nature of your backyard – or anyplace you travel.

Inside Looking Out

Journal Entry: 4-21-10

All too often I find myself bound to a desk by the invisible chains of deadlines and duty. Negotiating and interacting with an office landscape composed of file cabinets, telephone, computers, wires, to-do lists, email, bookshelves, tools, ring-binders, papers, dust, florescent lights, and a bloom of yellow sticky-notes all around me – while outside, a soothing natural landscape calls to me. I hear the songs of birds just beyond the office window as they defend their territory, try to attract a mate, and warn of predators nearby. I catch the scent of blossoms, cut grass, warm asphalt, and spring ponds on a breeze that flows like a gentle brook through the open window by my desk. They distract me, as they should, from my less than organic program of modern life. I struggle against the distractions to “stay on purpose” and reach my work goals and objectives, yet I don’t want to deny nature’s invitation. By the end of the workday, I often feel that I have done nothing so meaningful or productive as the work of a honeybee, or a dandelion, or a finch.

Honeybee coming in for a landing on a dandelion flower. (Click to enlarge)I realize, of course, that I do in fact contribute good things to the world and people around me, and that I achieve satisfying results within the context of my techno-industrio-human-made reality. It’s just that all life, at the individual level, is so fragile and short despite its inherent strength, endurance, and longevity. I am an individual and I live within many shifting contexts at once. We modern humans are the only species on earth that has created such complex realities to supplant a natural existence. When I have to resist dropping my work to go outside and explore the glorious spring weather and see what is taking place amongst the developing plant and animal life, or feel guilty if I do, something feels very wrong.

I wish to join in the playful antics of fox kits, or ride the thermals for sheer acrobatic pleasure as I have witness crows and vultures do. I want to sit and watch a flower grow from soil emergence to full bloom, learning what I can from it. Instead, I drive seventy miles a day, push papers, return phone calls, answer email, make plans, solve problems, inspire and encourage everyone else to get outside in nature, and share what I know of the marvels of the world. On a good day at work, I do manage to get outside and explore nature, or at least work outside in it. Having spent more than a decade in a “cubicle-world” before my escape, I know I am blessed to be able to do what I do.

Like many others who have a heart-connection to the natural world, I long to live in peace with nature and revel in her beauty as the rule, not the exception. To feel a twinge of envy as I watch the simple freedom and agility of a chipmunk is to be reminded of my desire for wild wit and strength – innate abilities somewhat withered by the so-called conveniences of modern society.

Earth Day 2010

April 22nd is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Please do something, anything, to demonstrate that you care about the earth. I know that most of you already do, so perhaps you can motivate another to action. Show them how. Support them in taking action. Invite them to help you with your action.

On Earth Day, I will be working with 30 volunteers to continue clearing decades of dumped junk from the sanctuary property.

Inaction is perilous. Here is a link to the Official Earth Day website: www.earthday.org

"Hidden Valley" – © Michael Gambino, 2006

Finding Your Sacred Area in Nature – Part 2

Sorry for the delay in delivering Part 2 of this series. Hopefully you have had some time to locate a suitable spot for this practice of nature observation as discussed in Part 1. Remember that you must use common sense in picking a spot that is safe, too! At least one other person you can count on should know where you place is, but ideally, they should not visit your space uninvited.

Once you have a spot, what are you supposed to do there? Well, many things or nothing, really. Essentially your sacred area is a place where you can immerse yourself in the rhythms of nature taking note of the experience within you and the activity around you. You can sit or wander about as you like. As any good observer or explorer would do, you will begin by making a map of your sacred area, noting prominent features of the landscape and noting the cardinal directions (NSEW). You may add as much detail as you like to one map, but it will get confusing fast. It would be better to make a base map of the landscape marking down locations of stone walls, boulders, tree stumps, animal trails, water features, prominent trees and vegetative features, swamps, slopes, etc. You will need to use a birds eye view for best results. That is, envision your space as though you were flying above it all, looking down. Make your map using symbols (for trees, boulders, etc.) that makes sense to you, and include a map legend on the paper as well with a brief description of what each symbol means.

Here is an example from my own journal (Click image for larger view):

Note that the map can be rotated. When drawing your map, stand at the center of your space facing each of the four directions and place your words and symbols as if they are at the "top" of your drawing.

Once you have drawn a map of your sacred area, leave it at home, but commit it to memory. Sitting in your area, simply relax and take in the sounds, smells, textures, and sights. Note the time of day and weather as well as season. After several trips to your area at your usual time, vary the time of day you visit because you will gain new insights about your sacred area. Animals follow intervals of activity and rest through out the day, with different species being more active during early morning than late morning, while others are active the afternoon or at twilight.

When you arrive at your spot each time, sit comfortably in the center of your area and take a few deep breaths and relax. Slow down, both internally and externally. Once you are in sync with the flow of the landscape you will be mostly invisible to the creatures that live there or pass through it. Often I have experienced wondrous changes in my consciousness, perceptions, and have seen animals I would not have otherwise seen had I just been hiking through the area. Your patience and attention will be rewarded many times over.

Each time you visit, consciously ask yourself “what is happening here?” Use your senses deliberately – what are you smelling, hearing, feeling, seeing, etc. Our senses are such powerful gifts and usually it feels really good to engage them this way. This is active rather than passive meditation and observation. You will probably find that you feel refreshed, calmer, and even happier at the end of your time being in your sacred area. You might also experience what is really going on in your body, mind, spirit, and emotions. You may realize the depth of your fatigue, or the amount of caffeine you had, or you might become aware of body aches and complaints. Just notice all that you experience and observe, making notes when you return home.

Commit your observations to memory, and when your allotted time is up, leave quietly. It is best if you can return home and immediately make notes in your journal. Reference your paper map and make some additional notes to it if needed. The key here is using your “mind’s eye” to recall the experience and observations. This is an important element to the practice of nature observation and recall.

Over the course of years, many of us have our naturally sharp awareness dulled by the daily assault on our physical and emotional senses. Information overload has a numbing effect on our sensitivity. We spend so much time using our left-brain logic-processing centers to do our jobs, run our businesses, care for our family, and otherwise handle modern life’s daily demands. Often this means we push “slower” or “non-productive” seeming activities off our schedule when we feel pressed for time. (Sleep is our most commonly raided “time bank”.) There is a hidden price we pay when we strip away daily quietude, solitude, and creative and spiritual self-practice. Remember the “use it or lose it” clause in the evolutionary handbook? If we lose our ability to relate personally to the natural world from whence we came, then we are losing a vital and fundamental aspect of who we are, and it can ultimately be a detriment to the environment. Fortunately, we can remedy this situation by consciously engaging with subtle aspects of nature regularly.

This sacred area (or "secret spot") practice is a tradition that comes from the Cherokee people, and is one way to help awaken your senses and observation skills again. It may not seem like much–spending 15 minutes a day – but as the days go by you will develop a new understanding and ability to see nature. You could spend an entire lifetime of daily observation in your sacred area and still not exhaust the wonder and magic revealed to you by that small area of the earth. Your sacred area or secret spot will become one of your best friends and teachers.

In a future post, I’ll cover some details of keeping a naturalist’s journal and some tools you may want to add to your naturalist field kit.