Prompt #1 - Explorer’s Journal Entry
Be an explorer and get more connected to your surroundings
When we’re stuck in a rut, trying to keep up with all our chores, tasks, appointments, and emails, we can easily get disconnected from the world around us.
We don’t notice other people, because our eyes are fixed on our phones. We don’t hear the birds in the trees, because we’re listening to a podcast. We don’t see the flowers, because our mind is elsewhere problem solving.
Being more connected to the world, to the people and the communities we live in, and to the nature around us has substantial benefits on cognitive function and mental health, and our wellbeing overall.
This week, we will spend some time away from our screens to connect ourselves a bit more to our local nature.
The Activity: Explorer’s Journal Entry
The next time you are going outside, take good look at the plants around you. It doesn’t matter if you’re going on a nice long walk or just walking to the bus. While you’re taking it all in, choose a plant that you are drawn to. Ideally a plant you know little or nothing about. Take a few pictures of this plant.
It really doesn’t matter what kind of plant it is. It can be a tree in your local park, a flower along the side of the road, or the moss in the cracks of the sidewalk (I love moss!)
When you’re back at home, it’s research time. Take a few minutes to find out what the plant is called, where it is native too, and any other interesting facts you can discover.
Take out your sketchbook or a piece of paper and create an old school explorer’s journal entry about the plant. Draw a picture of it and write down the things you learned.
This does not have to be realistic, you can make it a rough sketch or just a line drawing. You can even print a picture of the plant and glue it on the page.
Here is a nice example I found dating back to the 14th century:
My Example
I grew up in Germany and am now living in Sweden. While I find many of the same plants here, there are just as many that I haven’t seen before. In my neighbourhood, there is this very popular plant that people use as hedges. I’ve also seen the same plant the size of full-blown trees along the road.
When used as a hedge, the plants get cropped super short each year. The freshly grown leaves that emerge in the spring have almost a silver colour before turning a lush green, which I found super intriguing. Definitely not a tree I had seen before.
When researching, I couldn’t find any results in English. When I switched to searching in Swedish (thanks Google translate), I finally managed to identify the plant as the Swedish Whitebeam - Sorbus Intermedia in Latin, and Oxel in Swedish.
I learned that it is local to this area, which would explain the lack of English search results. It’s very resilient and especially good in wind, salt, and drought. It now makes sense why it’s so popular here because we have nearly constant wind coming in from the sea.
Armed with all this information, here is the explorer’s journal entry I created about the Oxel:
It was great to take some time and learn a bit more about the place I live in and the nature around me.
I’m looking forward to hearing what you discovered.
Happy creating!