Chapter 1 of Tuck Everlasting contrasts the eternal, perfect freedom of nature, as opposed to the rigid, confined existence outside of nature. Treegap is the town at the edge of the Wood or Nature. “The road that led to Treegap had been trod out long before by a herd of cows who were, to say…
Category: Nature
Tuck Everlasting – Prologue
Prologue “The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of…
How to Write Short Reflections for a Nature Journal: How to Show and not Tell
Tuesday July 9, 2024 The morning was slightly overcast and the wind whisked through my roses. Branches swayed, until a dainty drip of water drifted from the sky. Another drip followed–and another–and another. A soft, summer rain peppered all around. Jacki Kellum ____________________________________ Yesterday morning, I stood in the rain for a few minutes and…
How to Write about Nature – Learning from Dorothy Wordsworth’s Grasmere Journal
Excerpts from Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journal DOROTHY WORDSWORTH’S JOURNAL WRITTEN AT GRASMERE (From 10th October 1801 to 29th December 1801) Sunday, October 25th.—Went upon Helvellyn. Glorious sights. The sea at Cartmel. The Scotch mountains beyond the sea to the right. Whiteside large, and round, and very soft, and green, behind us. Mists above and below, and…
A Pastoral Year – Summer – William Hamilton Gibson
A Pastoral Year – Summer – William Hamilton Gibso Farther on we see the lily-pond, with its surrounding swamp and its legion of crowded water-plants. Here are rank, massive beds of swamp-cabbage, and lofty cat-tails by the thousand among the bristling bogs of tussock-sedge and bulrush. Here are calamus patches, and alder thickets, and sedges without…
A Pastoral Year – Spring – William Hamilton Gibson
Published 1880 AS far as the eye can reach, the snow lies in a deep mantle over the cheerless landscape. I look out upon a dreary moor, where the horizon melts into the cold gray of a heavy sky. The restless wind sweeps with pitiless blast through shivering trees and over bleak hills, from whose crests,…
The Story of The Floundering Beetle by William Hamilton Gibson – Illustrated Nature Journal
Eye Spy: Afield with Nature Among Flowers and Animate Things Wm Hamilton Gibson PUBLISHED 1899 The Story of The Floundering Beetle AMONG my somewhat numerous correspondence from young people, I recall several wondering inquiries about a certain fat, floundering “beetle,” as “blue as indigo”; and when we consider how many other observing youngsters, including youngsters of…
Sharp Eyes Summer Journal Entries Gibson
The Bewitched Cocoons June 2d Gibson, pg. 69 Gibson, pg. 70. The Bombadier Beetle June 9th Gibson, pg. 72 Gibson, pg. 74 Gibson, pg. 75 Gibson, pg. 76 The Devil’s Coach-Horse June 9th, pg. Butterfly Botany Teachers June 16th, pg. 80
Let’s Start a Nature Journal — Let’s Sharpen Our Eyes of Perception
During the remaining days and weeks of pretty weather, I want to challenge everyone to take time to truly see what is around them–and to jot your observations in a journal of some kind. It might be a spiral notebooks–or a simple piece of paper. Rule: You must write your observation while you are outside–actually…
How to Create a Garden Journal – More about the Nature Writer Dorothy Wordsworth’s Nature Writing
If you are wondering how to create a garden journal, the most obvious answer is: Write. As usual, however, obvious answers are hardly ever true answers. Many times, they are insults thrust toward what a true answer might be, and while I often tell journalists and writers to do just that — just write! Nature…