When you can't, or don't want to go outside, you can still do your nature journaling from inside! I just posted mine with narration video in the course. Find it under the Classroom tab :D The pic of my entry is attached here. I just used a photo of a scene from our county road that I like and made a quick sketch after writing some of my thoughts. Entries don't have to be long and the art doesn't have to be 'finished' or 'good'. But I've seen some journals from other artists that are absolutely gorgeous! That's never going to be mine, but I do like the calming effect from doing a little free-writing in front of an interesting scene, whether in person or on screen. Come on now, share one of yours?

It's even colder this morning (18*f here at Wild Ozark), so I will be doing my nature journal entry from the comfort of indoors again. Hats off to those plein air painters who set up easels and even paint outside in frigid temps... I can't even bring my self to write a paragraph and sketch with a single pencil on mornings like this, lol!

The first walk of 2026 is uploading now and the course is live. The video should be finished in about an hour or so. Here's what I found today: - yellow trout lily - cutleaf toothwort - Adam and Eve orchid - gooseberry - purple phlox - Dutchman's Breeches - Grape fern There is a fee for this course because of the time it takes me to research and write the paper, provide links for further research, and edit the videos. I hope you'll join me!

It'll be live probably by the time I finish creating this post. I hope you'll join me in this relaxing outdoor meditative practice. To find the video go to the Classroom tab and look for the nature journaling course. It's a free to join one. Or watch it at YouTube: https://youtu.be/hL0EBn3EKl8 No special materials needed. Today I used my regular notebook, ink pen, and a single colored pencil to sketch. My 'official' nature journal hasn't arrived yet - it's one I designed and published with Amazon so when it gets to my mailbox, that's what I'll start using. I'll show it to you when it arrives. See you outside!

I see woodpecker holes all the time, but not often low enough for me to get a good look at them, lol. Here's two I noticed yesterday. I made a blog post just now about the random sorts of things I notice when I'm outdoors: https://www.wildozark.com/woodpecker-holes-mushrooms/