Drawing Yourself Back to Nature: Nature's Whispers

Whisperings from Angelina and the Wild Onions Journal Spread

Welcome to the second leg of the Draw Yourself Back to Nature Blog Hop! This nature journaling e-course promises a delightful journey and I am looking forward to getting to know and visually chronicling my backyard and neighborhood parks! If you would like to know

Kelly asked me to take an activity from the course and create a journal page around it. I chose "Nature's Whispers" because I am always feeling Nature is speaking to me -- sometimes loudly calling, sometimes softly in whispers. The above journal page is a result of me responding to Nature "whispering" to me. If you would like to know how I created this journal page go here.

If you would like to enter my raffle to win a hand-decorated Paperblanks journal leave a comment in this post's comment section and click on my Join This List button in the right-hand column.

And don't forget to continue on the blog hop by clicking on these links:
April 13 Kelly Johnson
April 14 YOU ARE HERE NOW (Also registration opens now for Drawing Yourself Back to Nature)
April 15 Grace Howes
April 16 Kiala Givehand
April 17 Kelly Johnson


Angelina and I often take walks around our yard and gardens, giving me a well-needed break from the computer or housework. I find these moments comforting, meditative, often playful. On a recent mid-afternoon walk, she led me to the far left-hand corner of out back yard, which faces the wetlands. Two river birches have grown up into that corner.

Angie stopped and sat about 6 feet from the second birch and the open wire fencing and stared out into the wetlands. I wondered what she was looking at and walked closer. Nothing was in the wetlands and them my gaze was drawn to the river birch beside me and I saw these delicate white wildflowers growing near the trees base.

I "knew" this was what I was supposed to notice -- these tiny trumpet like blooms. Just one little bunch. How did they arrive at this place? I wondered if they were a rare wildflower. They had such beautiful green lines inside of them and small golden stamen filled with pollen. I took a few pics and wandered back inside.

Finding them took me back to a childhood memory. I remember wandering in a small "woods" abutting a neighbor's yard. Really it was just a few scrawny saplings but it called to me (just like the blooms in my here-and-now yard). As I wove through my childhood "forest" I spied groups of bright white, tiny blossom -- all lined up in a row on one stalk. I was fascinated with their v-shaped little blooms with bright yellow tops. An unusual shape -- they were like magic finding them in such an odd place. Later on I identified them as "Dutchman's Breeches".

The blooms in my yard were only wild onions -- very common in this area of Northern California. In fact, we actually have tons of them in our front yard. But none in the back yard so these took me by surprise. But the memories they sparked in me were Magic!

To read about how I created my "Nature Whispers" journal page visit this page.

If you would like to enter my raffle to win the hand-decorated Paperblanks journal pictured below sign up for my newsletter here, and then leave a comment in this post's comments section. I will announce the winner on Monay, April 20th in a blog post.

To continue on the blog hop by clicking on these links:
April 13 Kelly Johnson
April 14 YOU ARE HERE NOW (Also registration opens now for Drawing Yourself Back to Nature)
April 15 Grace Howes
April 16 Kiala Givehand
April 17 Kelly Johnson

Enjoy the Draw Yourself Back to Nature E-Course! I'm already totally psyched about it! 

Nature's Whispers: What Called Out to Me the Other Day

Do You See What I See?

YAY! I've been asked by Kelly Johnson to illustrate one of the activities from her upcoming e-course "Draw Yourself Back to Nature" (registration opens April 13th). I chose the prompt "Nature's Whispers" with the task of creating a journal spread around that theme. Kelly describes nature's whispers as the little things in our surrounding environment that may go unnoticed, yet have great impact on us if we seek out and explore them closer.

This photo is for me an a perfect example of nature's whispers. I was walking on my favorite trail at Deer Island reserve and was drawn to a limb stump on this big beautiful oak tree, which had fallen from Sudden Oak Disease over the winter.

Do You See a Manta Ray or Horseshoe Crab?

I went over to look at it because there was an interesting shadow cast on it. The shape reminded me of a ray or skate or horseshoe crab. It reminded me of all the times as a child that I used to run on the ocean's edge on Captiva and Sanibel Islands. I was always so excited when the big, prehistoric-looking horseshoe crabs would wash up on the beach.

My Eye was Drawn to the Hollowed Out Limb Stump...

Then my eye was drawn down to a hollowed out place where a limb had broken way from the tree. The inside was filled with shredding wood and my eye was drawn again to a shape. I leaned closer and the image of a horse's began to take shape in my mind's eye...

A Horse's Head and Neck in the Crook of the Hollow?

Nature whispers...yes, She does! I'll be giving a sneak peak of my journal pages using the prompt "Nature's Whispers" tomorrow

If you'd like to learn more about Kelly's e-course "Draw Yourself Back to Nature : Art Journaling for Everyone" go here.

And to join the blog hop and a chance to win free seats to the e-course and some great prizes -- go here!

Drawing Myself Back to Nature...

Nature sustains me. Aside from the moments I share with my companion animals, I never feel as relaxed as I do when I'm walking in the woods, or sitting under a tree, or gazing at distant vistas. One of my intentions this year is to bring more of nature into my journals and altered books. This is an area I want to explore and celebrate.

Kelly Johnson, a "coheart" of mine, is preparing to launch an e-course "Drawing Yourself Back to Nature" -- so I jumped on this chance to manifest my intention to do just that! One of the lovely things about Kelly is that she makes drawing in nature a fun, exploratory, and engaging pastime. She works a lot with children so play is a big educational tool in her teaching vocabulary. And that's very important to me -- because historically if I I take a "serious" course my critic comes in and all things stop. Play and a sense of wonder is what encourages my creativity.

Check out Kelly's description of her "Drawing Yourself Back to Nature: Art Journaling for Everyone E-Course". The minute she opens the course registration on April 13th -- I'm there!

In My Travels: Heaven

At the Marin County Fair earlier this month and caught a picture of a Sleeping Beauty. Heaven for a pig? A little bit of mud, some clean shavings and a bit of oat straw, a yummy breakfast, a warm morning, and of course an unending stream of admirers in awe of your off-the-beaten-track beauty.

In My Travels: Cotton Candy Feeling

I am only traveling around my neighborhood these days, and around my yard this morning. But what a pleasurable sight greeted me this early morning. I had hurried out the door for my morning walk, and when I returned the sunlight was playing in my border garden. The pink heuchera plants in turn were frivolously flirting with the sunlight. It gave me that fabulous cotton candy feeling that I love so much, wrapped up in yellow and green, and all of them waving hello as they danced in place. There went any doubts and concerns of the moment. Nature. The perfect equalizer.

The Mother's Heart

Close

Well, I was visiting some of my favorite blogs and stopped by The Dance of a Painted Lady, who in a recent post speaks most lovingly about trees. A kindred spirit, I thought about my most favorite tree in the world that resides on Deer Island. She's a California Bay Laurel that must be over 200 years old. I call her "The Mother". It's because I just feel so nurtured when I walk underneath her limbs. I have written about her several times here and I will most likely mention the great lady again, because she consistently brings a feeling of magic to my life. I took these pictures yesterday, it was still very wet and gray out. I took them because as I stood on the outskirts of her dripping, draping canopy, I saw across the way that her limbs come together to form a heart. I couldn't believe it! It felt like such coincidence, a cosmic joke, and a beautiful, loving gift -- all rolled up into one! For me it is just one more thing that serves as evidence that life is so much more than what on the surface it appears to be.

Closer

Closest

Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 179

Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 179: Beautiful, Naturally

And then there is this feeling that I get when in the presence of a big, beautiful tree. With leaves rustling and light dappling and branches making soft music. As if I am a part of it, as if it is meant to be this way, as if no questions exist, as if every "living" thing has its own unique purpose and path and I am a part of that.

Journal Page Creations...Day 113

Journal Page Creations -- Day 113: Touches Your Soul

If you let it, I have found that nature can touch your soul, and leave you in a different state: refreshed if you are tired; expanded if you have been feeling contracted; elated if you've been down in the dumps. Take a walk. Look at the flowers. Listen to the birds. Stand in the shade of trees. Watch the butterflies. Smell the air. Something always shifts for the better.

Mindfulness in a Feather, Part of the Whole

Often when I am walking on Deer Island I am aware -- I don't know quite how to describe it -- I am aware of my surroundings "peripherally." It may take me a few minutes of walking to rid my mind of its thoughts, but I gradually settle in to being aware of the whole -- a combination of sounds, (jays squawking, hawks calling, pipits chattering, grass heads popping, twigs crunching), colors (browns of the trail, golds of the grasses, green of the leaves), or sensations (temperature of the air, how bright or overcast it is, the weight of my feet hitting the path, sweat trickling down my chest, hair blowing in the wind). I guess I could say that I mostly walk with a sense of feeling -- I feel someone moving through and around and about as a part of the whole. I guess that's very zen -- it can be very much a meditative state. Often animals or objects will appear and grab my attention. And for a very brief moment they and I am still part of the whole -- until my focus lingers too long on that animal or object. So I stop and take it in. And then I start moving again. Today the Island's gift to me was a hawk feather, on the ground in the woods, blowing back and forth in the breeze. How beautiful, how charming, how mindful.

What a Beautiful Day

My California Backyard (photo by Elliot Atlas)

Today is another tax prep day for me. Uughh. Double Uughh. Yesterday I helped a client with her tax issues. Today it's "Hello -- again -- how much longer can I put you off?" tax prep.

In the in between hours (and I create alot of them), I took a walk on Deer Island (early AM), had a wonderful chat with an new/old friend, took my cat Zeus out into the backyard for a meander, attended a live chat shop critique on Etsy Virtual Labs. I would say the highlight was when I was holding Zeus in my arms, and a Red-Tail Hawk cruised by overhead. My heart soared with the bird, and Zeus butted his head up against mine. There we were in the California sunshine, nature saying hello, me with my lover cat in my arms, and all the other pleasantries I had experienced this morning were alive in that moment. How great was that?

Now back to those **** taxes!

What would it be like to not feel I "have" to do something? To just feel my mane blowing in the wind?

In the Trees

The first altered book I ever did was called In the Trees. I took a memory from my childhood -- playing with plastic horses in the tree roots of the huge maples that grow in Kentucky -- and created a book with images and plastic horses that reflected the feeling of those times in my life.

Today I took three small horses out with me to Deer Island and took some simple photos along those lines. My knowledge of digital camera function is abysmal, and so I kept it very simple with only a few settings of my Canon Powershot. I had fun placing the little equines in various tree limbs, boulders, spring waterfalls as I ambled along the path. I had my childhood Stuart Marx rearing stallion(a collectible now, $45 on Ebay); a solid bronze, tailless foal that used to reside in my mother's aquarium; and, a small, sprite-like metal horse that I bought in Vienna, Austria in 1973. All seemed to prefer certain locations, the white horse on a boulder or in the grass, the brass horse on the snakey oak tree limb, the little sprite horse standing in a hillside waterfall.

I had to quiet the voices in my head that were saying "You aren't a photographer -- what are you doing?" "You should be jogging, not dillydallying -- what are you doing?" "You should be pruning roses -- what are you doing?" Seems like the critic just won't ever shut up. But I don't have to listen, do I?

What would it be like to not hear all those voices? To just feel my mane blowing in the the wind?