This year, I have been keeping a few different journals – one for nature, one for gardening, one for food prep, and one ‘regular’ journal. I have found that my nature journal is best kept using the iOS Notes app – yes, the bog-standard one that comes with any iOS device. I used to rely much more heavily on Google Keep, which is very similar. I’m not personally beholden to any technology companies, so I was hesitant to start relying on something proprietary that I couldn’t continue using with other devices. However, it has one killer feature that makes it worth it to me, and the app will still work even on very old iOS devices.
The main thing is that I can insert photos and videos directly into the text. (Google Keep puts all the photos together at the top.) This means that whenever I want to record an observation, I can snap a photo and tuck it right in with the notes. Brilliant!
My plan is to compile these notes each month and add tags. At the end of the year, I intend to put it all together as a little book, to serve as a little guide for what to expect when. Then if I keep this up, I I’ll be able to see what things are steadfast, and what changes.
The biggest downside to the iOS notes app is that I can’t seem to directly import the entries to WordPress – which would be quite good, because then I could showcase what all is happening now. I have great difficulty doing daily writing, and with any sort of social media there’s always extra things that need to be done to post it. And every step of difficulty is just one more spoon I’ve got to account for. Alas.
Regardless of what comes of it, keeping a nature journal has been immensely good for me. In the myriad moments of stress I experience, stepping outside for even a second and taking a glance at whatever plants are in reach is quite refreshing. But like meditation, it has its stressors too.
When I am in a highly populated with all the common landscaping plants, I can’t help but feel irritated that we still have a culture so lacking in understanding or concern about good agricultural and horticultural practices. I had no idea, for instance, that I would ever feel annoyance and anger upon seeing English Ivy. It’s such a lovely plant, and I’ve always found it so romantic climbing up the sides of buildings. But now that I know what it does when it’s not in its home environment, and I’ve helped clean up after garden escapees that spread far too quickly and easily, all I can wish is that no one would be allowed to keep it outside here anymore.
I also find myself despairing at all the invasive plants which just grow and proliferate everywhere. I listen to botanists and other workers in the plant world talk about the destruction caused by introduced species like Japanese Knotweed, and I am baffled that there is so little alarm as great patches of it proliferate here.
But even in this, I find that keeping my nature journal is helpful. When I write down observations relating to the climate chaos, it helps me to make peace with it. I witness it happening, and I save it for posterity. A little requiem for the countless species in every little patch of land.
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