Tag Archives: nature

How to: Inspiring Writing

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“…smell the sea, and feel the sky

let your soul and spirit fly…”

Jim Morrison

With the end of the school year and the beginning of the SDAWP Invitational Summer Institute beginning next week, I find myself with a small window of unstructured time. Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of “work” to do…but I am determined to play this week and the CLMOOC is helping me.

This week’s “make” is to make a how-to.  You might notice that I tend not to follow directions in a literal way, but as I headed off to join the SDAWP Young Writers’ in Nature campers on a field trip to the Scripp’s Coastal Reserve today, I was thinking about how to write under the influence of nature…and science…and children.

As we headed off on our walking field trip, I already felt inspired.  There is something about kids with notebooks and their innate curiosity that sparks my own learning.  The kids had been learning about native plants–a favorite topic of mine (see this blog post) and Janis (their teacher) encouraged them to explain what they had learned to me as we walked.  I loved listening to them describe coyote brush and its adaptations and watching their keen eyes on the lookout for lemonade berry.

I love the earnestness of young writers at work.  This little guy caught my eye…and I love that he is framed with the gorgeous blue of the Pacific Ocean behind him.

Young Writer

And I decided to push out of my comfort zone and make a video of today’s experience.  I suppose you can loosely define it as a how to write under the influence of nature (and science and children) video.

Here’s a few lines from my own writing under the influence today:

Sitting on the cliff looking out into the vast endless ocean I see clouds crouch on the horizon, retreating from the blaze of the mid-morning sun.  Relentless breezes dance with my hair and with the natives on the cliffs.  Children hunch over the words that pour from their pencil tips, inspired by the sights, sounds, smells, and touch of this visit to Mother Nature’s living room.

And here is my video capturing the experience of writing under the influence of nature and writing and kids.

 

 

 

San Diego Fall: The Hue of You

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Living in a place like San Diego, seasons are all about subtlety.  Rather than piles of fluffy white snow or icy winds in winter, we have chilly mornings and nights and mostly sunny, cool days.  Spring is our rainy season (note: 10 inches of rain per year is our maximum!), the nights and mornings are a bit warmer than winter and most days are cool and sunny–although late spring brings the dreaded “May Gray,” that marine layer that pushes the sun away from the coast.  Summer in San Diego starts slowly.  June is characterized by “June Gloom” (just like May Gray), with the sun appearing for a cameo in the late afternoon before the fog rolls in again.  And fall in San Diego is gorgeous!  It’s warm and sunny, often well into November and even December.  But it can also be scary with dry Santa Ana winds that whip up the fire danger in our arid, desert-like climate.

Today we decided to trek up to a local mountain town about an hour east of my house in celebration of fall.  Julian is known for fall…filled with apple pies, apple cider, and other iconic fall features.  But those vivid red and orange and yellow leaves that shout fall in other regions, whisper fall in San Diego.  And even in Julian where San Diegans go for fall, the autumn hues are subtle.

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And they’re positioned between the greens and browns and reds of the pines and manzanitas and California live oaks that are native to the region.

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And then there are the iconic fall images we know so well…pumpkins, scarecrows, apples.

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So, the hues of you for me as a San Diegan in fall are a rich, but subdued, palette of oranges, yellows, greens, browns, and reds.  And I can feel them and smell them and taste them as much as I can see them.  Warm and dry and spicy…and yummy.  Like this apple dumpling I had today.

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What hues evoke fall for you?

Some Macro Play

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I love using my macro lens on my iPhone…but it’s not easy.  I have to take my case off and attach the lens to the magnetic ring…so I don’t take macro shots spontaneously, I have to think about using this lens and make the necessary preparations.

I definitely have days when I feel at a loss for what to photograph.  Things feel ordinary…or I feel like I have already taken those same shots some other day.  Today I headed out to my backyard with plans to sit in the shade and read for a while.  But when I headed out there, I noticed the aloe plant that has gone crazy!  It started as a small house plant…and now is obviously loving the growing conditions in the back yard!  This week on #sdawpphotovoices our photo-a-day focus is #scratchy…and what could be scratchier than aloe spines?  I took a photo with my regular lens…and then headed inside to attach my macro lens.

I love the way the sun behind the plant makes the spine tips glow!

In the same big pot with the aloe there is also a cactus that outgrew its tiny indoor pot and ended up in the backyard.  The long, thin, needle-like spines create interesting flower-like patterns.  I love that the top spines are a brilliant yellow, creating a beautiful sunburst!

These ordinary cactus almost look like exotic sea creatures when you get close!  My attention turned to the lavender plant–the one I wrote about here–that was almost killed due to neglect! The plant continues to improve, although it is not in full bloom right now. There are a couple of beautiful blossoms…and some buds developing.

And I wasn’t quite done…I noticed a “volunteer” plant–one that planted itself in a pot of dirt on the edge of the patio.  It was green, but in the last week it has turned to a rusty red-orange color.  I’m not sure if it is dying…or if it is a natural cycle of growth for this plant.

All of these photos are unedited…and I love the colors and the way the sun creates glow.

I decided to take one last photo…of a spiderweb down in a hole where my husband is fixing the sprinkler.  As I moved my lens in close, the web began to glow, catching the sun.

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Playing with my macro lens today helped me see the ordinary things in my backyard in a new way.  The colors popped, the patterns emerged, and the light created beauty that’s hard to see without looking closely.  And, as I always notice, opportunities to play and make help me find my creativity and the fun that is so often right in front of me.  And best of all, all this noticing piques my curiosity and wonder at the world around me.

Have you taken time to play today?

Fireflies

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Like tiny fireworks, sparks of light danced along the pathway as I took an evening walk the other day.  Fireflies!

If you’re from the Midwest, you’re probably thinking, “What’s the big deal?  We have fireflies every summer.”  But for a southern California native—a place where we don’t have fireflies, the opportunity to enjoy this natural spectacle is magical.

I’ve heard all the stories of childhood firefly wonders.  And the affection that those who know fireflies have for these gentle, easy to catch insects.  I was surprised when I first saw them up-close, they aren’t so magical or elegant when they aren’t glowing.  They are more of the sturdy, ordinary bug variety.  But when they do their thing…I am mesmerized!

http://news.discovery.com/animals/videos/why-tell-me-why-fireflies.htm

I love the way something so seemingly ordinary can also be magical.  I think of my students that way too.  It’s easy to clump students together in categories.  There are the ones who are slow to start, there’s the ones who race through every task without much thought or care, there are those who spend their time in their own daydreams, and those that never stop moving.

But watch carefully, create spaces for inquiry and imagination and play, and we all might just see those sparks of light…that magical natural spectacle…learning!