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I was a bit nervous early last Saturday morning. My first ever nature journaling workshop with a bunch of paying customers! I had previously trialed the format and exercises with a few of my more tolerant friends as guinea pigs. And they survived. They even liked it!

But I was still rather anxious. Would the participants get into it? Would the workshop be inspiring? Could I do it? I was so preoccupied I forgot the most simple things that morning. For example, Ray had to gently remind me to open the gate first, before driving the car out of the driveway.

This was all a bit silly, as I had always enjoyed teaching, and have received plenty of positive feedback over the years. I’ve taught zoology, botany and ecology to Uni students. Taught Pony Club kids how to care for and ride their horses. And it was work as a penguin- and whale tour guide that allowed me to survive financially towards the end of my PhD. I think I was nervous on Saturday morning because inspiring people to get into nature journaling is really important to me. If I didn’t care so much, I may have been more blasé.

Several hours later the workshop was over, and I was much relieved. The workshop participants were a great bunch of interested and motivated nature-lovers, and every person seemed to get something out of it.

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We explored some of the many ways you can do nature journaling, and did a contour drawing exercise to warm up.

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We played with different art materials, and went on a short ecology tour of the site.

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The morning tea treats created by the talented Heather kept everyone busily journaling for the whole session.

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Some people didn’t want to leave! Many (most? All?) were inspired to keep going with nature journaling. Whoopee!

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A large part of the success of the event was the excellent organisation provided by Genevieve Robey, and the support and hosting of the Bulimba Creek Catchment Committee (B4C). Genevieve also took all of these terrific photos of the workshop – thanks Gen!

The best part is we’re doing it all again this Saturday at Minnippi Parklands. So if you’re interested in nature journaling, come along and give it a go!

If you can’t be there, you can still check out my new book Make a Date with Nature: An introduction to nature journaling. It’s free to download, or you can buy a print copy for only $9.99.

Sunday afternoon saw me relaxing the garden with a cup of tea and my dogs. And a bit more nature journaling, of course! :

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