Journal Entry #15 Journaling and Nature Journaling in Your Car -

Are you journaling and nature journaling in your car? Where is your favorite place to journal or nature journal? Do you go to just one spot? Or move around?

I have always journaled wherever I’m at and it usually depends on my mood or the weather. A few places I’ve enjoyed writing and journaling with my notebook are:

the living room cozy recliner
in bed wrapped in a blanket with my dog
in the backyard
the front porch
in the kitchen while I’m cooking
in my driveway
at the coffee shop
at a favorite restaurant
airport and on the plane
and many other places

Journaling in Your Car

But my favorite place to journal is in my pickup. There’s just something different about the atmosphere of being in a vehicle, getting away from the same old routine rut of the house.

I’ll need to just get out of the house for a bit and drive, usually to a nearby park or the cemetery.

The park that I go to has a small lake where I can watch ducks, coots, and Canada Geese. It’s also where I watch a Great Blue Heron that was the inspiration for our brand, Magic Heron Creations.

At this park I’ve watched a Kestrel raise her young in the broken lamp post at the edge of the parking lot. I’ve counted geese by the thousands in the fall.

journaling and nature journaling in your car

One winter, there was a duck out on the far side of the lake and he was struggling to move around on the ice. I made a call and before long, several men came with a small boat. They carried the boat around the shore to the other side and then tied a rope to it.

I watched through binoculars as one man dragged the boat out on the ice until he reached the duck. He caught it and held onto it as he climbed into the boat. The other men then pulled the boat back across the ice. They took the duck to the wildlife refuge to recuperate.

I’ve watched the seasons change, come and go, at that lake, all while journaling through notebook after notebook. All while sitting in the pickup looking out the window. Each season sets the tone for self-reflecting in a journal.

Nature Journaling in Your Car

I’m new to nature journaling after discovering Claire Walker Leslie’s beautiful books and now carry a sketchbook around with me too. I’ll sketch what catches my eye and then write about it in my journal what is going on at the lake as well as my life.

The cemetery is another favorite place I like to go to journal. It is peaceful except for the drone of mowers and weedeaters. There is a pond with a few geese and a little footbridge. I watch as people come out to feed popcorn to the geese. Sometimes I spot a big goldfish or carp in the pond and watch the robins tug up the worms in between headstones.

One day my daughter and I were walking among the headstones reading the names. We happened to look up and noticed several lots away from us, a fox statue next to a headstone in the shade of a tree.

We stopped at the same time and I said, “that’s not a statue.” It was perfectly still in the shadows, and we stared at it for what seemed like an hour, but it was probably only a minute or so. Then the ‘statue’ turned and trotted off into the trees and we never saw it again.

My mood and writing changes to where I’m writing at. Sometimes at the house, my writing will feel stagnant and I can’t seem to figure out what to put on paper. That’s when I know it’s time to change things up and get out of the rut. So, I’ll go somewhere else.

Parking lots are surprisingly good places to write. There’s a busyness that’s going on outside of the cocoon of the vehicle where you can watch the world go by while remaining somewhat invisible and removed. Like when I’m in the coffee shop and I can be absorbed in the writing process with all the chatter and shop noises tuned out as background noise.

This distraction worked so well, that I wrote quite a bit on several projects like that. Then I found an app called Coffitivity that I downloaded on my computer of coffee shop sounds and I write with that when I can’t go out.

But mostly it is nature sounds that help me write better. So, when I can’t get outside, or go to the park or cemetery, I will find an 8 hour video of nature sounds on YouTube and play it in the background all day. It changes the mood and vibe of the house and even the dogs are more relaxed to it while I write.

Nature journaling can be done anywhere too. At home, you can use books and videos, look out your window or sit in your backyard as inspiration. Parks, cemeteries, fields, forests, lakes, and ponds are great places to slow down and sketch what is showing up for you.

You can find nature just about everywhere. When driving down the street, I take notice of abandoned lots, taking time to observe the lone dandelion pushing its way through a crack in the cement. It gives me insight into the message of resilience that I can learn from dandelion.

This morning, I watched Marley Peifer’s new video on nature journaling from your car, and it brought back memories of all the places I have been where I spent time writing and nature journaling.

Take a look at his video and then grab your journal and sketchbook and go journaling and nature journaling in your car. You never know what new discoveries lie ahead, either in nature or within yourself.

How to Nature Journal From Your Car! The Nature Journal Show