“By being wide open to wonder, I would naturally feel a connection to another being, and that, I found, helps me understand what it means to be alive, what is required to survive, why we have hope.” - Amy Tan on nature journaling
Hello friends! I loved this quote above in an interview she did with Wendy MacNaughton (Draw Together with Wendy Mac) about nature journaling. I’m excited to see Amy’s new book, and you can get a signed copy here if you are interested. It even got me to try a little journal drawing of my crazy hummingbird friend which I included below.
I am so enjoying this holiday weekend! The heat has gone and it feels like early fall. Occasional migrants are flying over the lake, including blue-winged teal, ring-billed gulls, osprey, and great egrets. Hopefully after the lake traffic quiets down I’ll get some closer visits with the birds of fall!
Meanwhile, here are some moments of beauty for your day:
Sunrise, August 31, 2024
A closeup of those clouds because they were so unusual!
Susan Tweit called this a grinning moon and now it’s all I see - and I smile every time! I love the last slivers of the waning moon as it rises just before sunrise.
My young male ruby-throated hummingbird friend wouldn’t be so tired if he could just relax a little!
Relaxing is not yet in his repertoire.
Uh oh, intruder alert!
They are a bit intense!
It’s pretty amazing how fast they can turn. The last two shots are 1/10th of a second apart!
Feeder successfully defended.
My nature journaling attempt.
I wrote about finding rainbows Sunday morning and as that post was going out, I saw this one! I walk by that sign every day, I’ve never seen it reflect a rainbow - and there was no rainbow in the sky.
Cicada’s are really funny looking creatures.
Fall birds are such a mystery sometimes. I think this might be a juvenile northern parula…but I might be wrong.
Thankfully orchard orioles are straightforward to identify!
Eastern kingbird showing off that little “tooth” on the front of his bill, which is used to impale insects.
September is a month for egrets!
Plenty of bugs for the chimney swifts still, though we could use some rain!
Barn swallows looking very stately against the early morning light.
May a sense of ease slip in with this new moon and carry us through the week.
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Thank you for sharing your journaling and the links to Amy Tan's site. And thanks for the close-up of those feathered clouds. Beautiful! So true about seeing that sliver of a lulling moon as a smile in the sky! We can all use a happy smile up there! And that tooth of the Eastern kingbird! Who knew?! I will keep this post handy to be reminded of what it is like when happiness returns!
Love the artwork journaling!! And those hummingbird photos!!!
Thank you for sharing your journaling and the links to Amy Tan's site. And thanks for the close-up of those feathered clouds. Beautiful! So true about seeing that sliver of a lulling moon as a smile in the sky! We can all use a happy smile up there! And that tooth of the Eastern kingbird! Who knew?! I will keep this post handy to be reminded of what it is like when happiness returns!