I want to 'paint' the language of the grasses.

My 'Nature Journaling June’ concertina card is now available. You can find it listed on Etsy and in my Webshop.

Replace the word 'write' in the passage I am reading above with 'paint' and this explains why I nature journal.

Why I continue this practice that has become such a huge part of my life.

Turning the anger and dissolution at the situation in our world into creativity, love and connection.

The words are from Red by Terry Tempest Williams. I shared this wonderful quote with my Community Tier Patrons last June in a tutorial about grasses.

'I want to write my way from the margins to the center. I want to speak the language of the grasses, rooted yet soft and supple in the presence of wind before a storm. I want to write in the form of migrating geese like an arrow pointing south toward safety. I want to keep my words wild so that even if the land and everything we hold dear is destroyed by short sightedness and greed, there is a record of participation by those who saw what was coming. Listen. Below us. Above us. Inside us. Come. This is all there is.'

I am a nature journaler! A person who goes out in nature and journals my connection to what I see on my small patch here in Yorkshire. This begins with what I call my ‘outdoor journal’.

A sketchbook that I use to learn. Using it out in the field in direct connection to nature. I learn by looking, and then drawing. This often leads me on wonderful journeys of discovery and rabbit holes of inspiration. These journals are my most precious possessions. It is in these journals that I question, and make sense of what I see around me.

Then each month I choose some of these entries to add to my ‘studio journal’. A hand made concertina sketchbook, hand painted in watercolour. This becomes the ‘story’ of a year on ‘my patch’. Sometimes these can be 5 or 6 metres long by the end of the year. This has been my process since I first began keeping a record of my connection to the nature and land that I share space with. 2025 is my 9th year of keeping a nature journal.

This process of drawing the same subject more than once, helps me deepen my learning and connection. Often leading to me reading books, listening to podcasts and watching videos on a subject or species.

The next part of my process is to create a card each month or artwork that I can share with others. A further condensing of a particular time, month and season where I live.

My new card for June includes some paintings of grasses. This is a subject that I come back to every year. A plant that is often ignored and passed by. Every year I try to remember the names of the grasses that grow in my garden and those that grow around me. Grasses changed our civilizations many years ago as we moved from being hunter gatherer to farmers (think of wheat, barley and oats). We have a lot to thank them for. We owe it to the grasses to learn their language.

In Terry’s words ‘ I want to keep my words wild so that even if the land and everything we hold dear is destroyed by short sightedness and greed, there is a record of participation by those who saw what was coming’ . Keeping this nature journal is my ‘record of participation’.

I have written about this before for International Nature Journaling Week in 2020.

I also spoke a little about grasses in 2022 for International Nature Journaling Week. The video below is a screen recording.

What’s your ‘record of participation’? Have you thought about keeping one? Have you begun to learn the language of grasses?

Instead of feeling lost, or helpless in a world that feels like chaos, keeping a ‘record of participation’ is a creative positive way to find your place in the world, to make sense of it. Turning chaos into positivity, and connection.

I highly recommend this interview with Terry Tempest Williams for ‘For The Wild’. Turn fear and chaos into creativity and connection. Pick up a pencil, a piece of paper and begin to learn the language of the nature you share your place on earth with.

If you’re interested in what I add to my journals I share a ‘Diary of a Nature Journaler’ video here every month for paid subcribers on Patreon and on Substack, and I also share free access to my 2023 diaries over on YouTube.