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 looking and seeing what your are observing.

No sitting inside on a couch and trying to imagine what might be out there. Take a few minutes–walk outside–look, listen, and observe. Then write a few words.

I have a copy of Wm Hamilton Gibson’s Sharp Eyes, and I’ll be sharing a few of his observations with you. I hope that helps you get started. [Gibson’s book was published in 1898.]

Save your thoughts. We are just getting started with this project.

We are “Sowing Seeds in Sonnet Ground.”

“Sharp Eyes, then, is, in brief, a cordial recommendation and invitation to walk the woods and fields with me, and reap the perpetual ‘harvest of a quiet eye,’ which Nature everywhere bestows….to laugh, to admire, to study, to ponder, to philosophie–between the lines–to question, and always to rejoice and give thanks!” Hamilton Sharp Eyes, pg. viii.

“The retina must be on the alert. A boy who has wooodchucks in his eyes as he crosses the farm is sure to see his woochuck, while otherwise he never had got a glimpse of him….the havit of observation…quickens the powers of perception….

….the eye….must store up its harvest….” Hamilton Sharp Eyes, pg. xiv.

“A botany lesson in a cobweb.” Hamilton Sharp Eyes, pg. xv.

Summer

“Dew Diamonds. Glittering fountain of ‘horsetail’ plant. The tearful jewel weed. .. The meadow grasshopper and its song. … Musical beetles. The insect orchestra and its various instruments. … Fireworks at home.” Hamilton Sharp Eyes, pg. xiv