On The Keystone Naturalist Facebook page, I have been sharing my daily nature journal pages. I’ve been loosely following along with The Wild Wonder Foundation‘s monthly nature journaling prompts.
March 20 – Spring Equinox has come and with it a project- a year of exploring the nature at home. Every day (or nearly) I’ll take my journal out and explore my home. Today I drew wild garlic, which grows in my yard. I plucked a handful to bring inside. The pungent smell filled my kitchen. As a little girl, I’d pick this in my parents’ yard until my hands would stink. Mom would give me a hot bath and forbid me from touching it again. Somehow, I’d always end up in it again, stinking all over!
March 21 – On the second day of Spring, a crocus bloomed in my yard. In five years of living here, it’s the first one to ever appear. I feel blessed to know it’s growing here, yet sad because it’s an invasive species like my daffodils and hyacinths. I won’t even try to remove it.
March 22 – Right in the front yard, a big clump of showy daffodils are budding. I expect them to bloom sometime next week. Each year, they grow back bigger and showier. I adore them. I think the buds swell up each time the rain falls, leaping up and reaching towards the skies. I would do the same.
March 23 – I took a walk to the launch today, searching for some peace after a busy weekend. The sycamore trees dominated my thoughts, towering high over me and loaded with seed pods. The water is low, revealing the lake bed. Lots of people are out fishing in the water. Robins are everywhere. I counted thirty on the hill over the parking lot. Song sparrows call incessantly, naming their territory with sweet liquid voices.
March 24 – Today is my 30th birthday. The pussy willow bush is blooming. As much as this bush perturbs me and obstructs my view of the backyard, it is beautiful in the Spring. The catkins are soft like Oliver’s paws. The weather was beautiful today, and it felt like the whole world was celebrating the season with me.
March 25 – As I walked up the sidewalk, I noticed a new flower in the yard, a dandelion. I plucked it and brought it in to draw. Taraxacum officinale, the Common Dandelion, is naturalized to Pennsylvania. Originally from Eurasia, it was brought to our country by early colonists. While I don’t mind them in my yard, I think it’s interesting how this “noxious weed” so many love to hate is the result of the actions of colonists.
March 26 – Rough, cold winds blew and prevented me from journaling outdoors. Instead I sat in my car at Millbrook Marsh Nature Center waiting for the bird club meeting to start. The bark of a Paper Birch tree blew in the wind. Pennsylvania is at the southernmost tip of its natural range. If it continues to warm, will we still have the Paper Birch growing freely in Pennsylvania?
March 27 – The remaining forsythia bush in the yard is close to blooming. This shrub is pretty in the Spring, but an annoyance at any other time. I hesitate to call it horrible, but that’s how I think of it in my heart. I can’t wait to remove this one and burn it to ashes this summer. The current drought is preventing me from burning anything.
Have you been keeping a nature journal this Spring? What changes in the environment around you have you noticed? Please share in the comments!
autumn's country diary 