Nature Journaling: A Close-up View

Smoky Eye Boulder Lichen Nature Journal Page

We’re surrounded by so much beauty and diversity in nature that sometimes it can be hard to know what to focus on. It can be easy to forget to examine the details. A great nature journaling idea is to zoom in on a certain feature of an item you see in nature. It’s a good discipline and strengthens our observation skills to focus our attention on just a small part of the whole.

This was brought to my attention in our study of lichen this month. Once you learn about something, it’s interesting how you begin to see it everywhere. That’s how it was with smoky eye boulder lichen.

smoky eye boulder lichen surrounded by moss

When I found this patch of bluish circles on a rock, I wasn’t even sure it was a lichen, but I came across it later as I was researching. I love the descriptive name. The “smoky eyes” are the apothecia- the fruiting bodies that produce spores.

I decided to keep an eye open for it again the next time I was outside. At first, I wasn’t sure I could find it again, and then all of a sudden, it was everywhere.

You can walk right past smoky eye boulder lichen and not recognize it. I almost didn’t notice the hand-sized rock sticking out of the snow below. But I’m learning to slow down, to take notice, to really see what’s around me. There are so many wonders around us that we walk right past.

How To Incorporate This into a Nature Journal Page

This inspired me to make a journal page about my experience. I started with the rock in the lower left of the page, then zoomed in on the patch of lichen. Then I zoomed in even further.