A Tribute to January and Edith Holden
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Book Cover
Image Credit: The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady
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“Made by Heinrich H&C (now part of Villeroy & Boch), the set comprises a plate, cup and saucer for each month of the year and features illustrations from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.” Entertablement.com
Edith Holden’s Country Diary book contains entries from all 12 months of the year. I have studied both of her illustrated nature journals for many years, and I credit her books for my desire to create my own month-to-month nature journal. I have created the monthly calendars and some extra pages. Feel free to print and use these pages to help you create your garden diary, too.
Free Printable 8.5″ x 11″ Garden Journal Pages & 2024 Calendar
In January, I noted that my first New Year Resolution for January is to add to my native plant collection in my garden. I plan to buy new native perennial plants and shrubs every month and to plant them in my garden.
Native Plants for Mississippi Gardens in January – Garden Calendar
My second New Year’s Resolve is to begin creating drawings and paintings for my illustrated nature and/or garden journal. Primarily, however, I plan to write just a few words about what I have observed outside during each day of the year. I invite everyone to join me.
This will be easier than you think:
Notice that Edith Holden’s entries are no more than a few words–just a quick glance at what’s happening outside. Following are 3 of Holden’s observations as noted in her journal:
“January 1 New Year’s Day. Bright and cold with hard frost.
” 5 Great gale of wind and rain from the southwest.
” 11. Visited a small wood on the canal ban, to get violet leaves. On moving away some of the dead leaves lying beneath the trees, I discovered a Wild Arun plant, thrusting it’s white sheath up from the soil. When I removed the outer covering, the pale yellow leaves with dark spots were quite discernable, rolled tightly round each other and beautifully packed away inside the white skin. I noticed that many of the leaf-buds on the elderberry bushes had burst into green….
“14 Great gale of wind and rain.” Edith Holden, Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady
Journal entries do not need to be epistles. Edith Holden does write longer and more elaborate entries, too. In addition, she copies writings from other authors and poets. Occasionally, she adds more scientific information. But I believe that her most important notes are those that she makes quickly–just a slice of her life.
Dorothy Wordsworth was a Nature Journalist who wrote in her nature journal 200 years ago–100 years before Edith Holden wrote. Following is one of her entries in her Grasmere Journal:
“SATURDAY.—Incessant rain from morning till night…. Sauntered a little in the garden. The blackbird sat quietly in its nest, rocked by the wind, and beaten by the rain.” Dorothy Wordsworth
I plan to start small with my journal entries — Just a few words to capture the essence of the day. Here’s my observation for today. I was in a rush today, but ultimately, I aspire toward the quality [albeit brief] of Dorothy Wordsworth’s entries.
Jacki Kellum Journal Entry for January 14, 2024
The sky was gray, and the air was frigid and damp. A bluejay landed on my trellis. Was he coaxing me to pour some warm water into his frozen birdbath? It was quiet outside, and I could hear a crow cawing from somewhere in the distance. Like the cry of a wounded soldier, his voice pealed across the winter sky.
How to Create a Garden Journal – More about the Nature Writer Dorothy Wordsworth’s Nature Writing
How to Create a Garden Journal:
My first piece of advice to anyone who wants to create a garden journal is to go outside and to look and to see, and then, to write.
Step 1: Go Outside and into Your Garden [No, your garden journaling is not an armchair sport. You can’t write in a garden journal while sitting inside and propped up, watching television. You gotta go outside.
Why Should You Create a Garden Journal?
I. First, Keeping a Garden Journal is a Way to Plan.
“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
‘Which road do I take?’ she asked.
“Were do you want to go?’ was his response.
‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered.
‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.’
Garden Planning is Serious Business for Me. I Plan My Garden Every Day. A Garden Plan Helps Us Know Where We Are Going, but It Requires a Serious Look at Where We Are.
Here is My Most Recent Plan to Add a Hedgerow to the Edge of My Garden:
I cannot begin to estimate how many times I went outside and measured and moved things to create the above plan for my hedgerow. Honestly, I have changed the plan since I created the graphics for my hedgerow-in-process. I need to update my most recent revisions, but the important point is that a continuous assessment is essential for making a plan.
Butterfly, Bird, and Bee Gardens – Plans and Plants – Consider Native Plants
Planning Also Involves the Delicious Leafing Through of Garden Catalogs, but Continuous Assessment Is Always Essential.
But there are other reasons for creating a garden journal.
“Making Regular Notes about What’s Happening Is Also A Way to Meditate–to Be More in the Moment.
II. Looking Closely at the World Around is a Way to Be in the Moment
A great deal is written about the importance of mindfulness. Making honest notes about what we see around us is a way to force ourselves to be more in the moment.
Notice in my entry for January 13 that I don’t look back at the rains that flooded my garden yesterday, and I don’t look ahead at the cold weather that is coming in 2 days. My first impulse was to do that, but that is not a mindful note about what is happening at the moment. I keep a blog and I eulogize in those posts. This is different.
III. Writing Concise, Honest Evaluations in the Moment Will Improve Your Writing Ability
Keeping a garden and/or a nature journal is important for everyone, but for those of us who do other, more serious writing, it is a way to sharpen our skills.
Too much eulogizing, and we quickly get mired in a snare of our own words. For this project, I will go outside each day, and I’ll look carefully. I’ll listen. I’ll smell. And write a few words. That’s all. But the exercise depends on truly “seeing” what is around.
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