You should keep a nature journal, because it’s a lot more interesting than becoming self-absorbed journalling about yourself all the time. That’s what ‘modern life’ tends to want us to do. These books beg to differ. Use them to observe the patch of land outside your window, in your garden or in a local park or by the beach.
- Keeping a Nature Journal is by beloved artist Clare Walker Leslie, who has been nature journalling for years. This book features her drawing techniques, pages from her own journals (that she has kept for 40 years) and tips for observing the natural world in any location.
- Every Day Nature is a book on how noticing nature can change your life. You’ll find nearly all the natural wonders in this book, within a mile of your front door. There are 365 to look for – one for each day of the year. From mushrooms to meteors, from moths to mosses. This is a gift to transform how you see the world.
- A Cloud a Day Journal is by Gavin, who runs the wonderfully-named Cloud Appreciation Society. This interactive journal has a wheel at the back, to visually match the cloud you see, then find out all about what cloud you are looking at. Is it a cloudlet of the altocumulous clouds, or a rarer Lacunosus cloud (holes surrounded by fringes of cloud?)
Secrets of a Devon Wood is a gorgeous book by a talented artist, who will inspire you to take up your own nature journal. Jo journals the small wonders of the wood behind her home, and the pages here are exact replicas of the rich illustrations of a bog beacon mushroom, buff-tailed bumble bee and native bluebell – with notes on physiology and life history. A treat for the senses, and a hymn to the beauty of the natural world.
