When the world feels like it is in a dark place and things appear out of control, focusing on what brings hope can sustain us. Hope not only offers solace but also motivation to make positive change. Our nature journals can become a place to cultivate hope. Let’s share hopeful ideas and resources this week.

Artist and bird enthusiast Ria Kotze explores her curiosity and passion for nature through creativity. Her story has taken her on adventures to many parts of the world, and now her biggest adventure of all is following her paintbrush wherever it leads.

Being in nature offers endless opportunities to be surprised and delighted by all the wonders that we find there. When you are outside, tune your awareness to those things that are new and different, to those surprising moments that make you gasp from joy and wonder.

Nics is a business and personal coach from Edinburgh, Scotland. She is training to be a forest bathing guide and approaches her work and nature connection practice with curiosity, an open heart, and a firm belief in the awesomeness of individuals.

This month I will be using a set of prompts to inspire my garden journal. I invite you to join in!

Ane is a multilingual translator living in Basque Country. Ane’s work explores the ways that nature and creativity can foster wellbeing.

Windows are there to connect us with the wider world. Look out your window and journal about what you see. Can you see trees, or the sky? Can you see human stories unfolding? Sketch what you see and describe it with words.

Maja is a multi-creative Danish artist living in Sydney, Australia. Maja dedicated herself to filling a hand-made nature journal each month for a year and came to know nature in her adopted country more deeply through the process.

Looking back at our old journals can show how our practice has developed and remind us of techniques we would like to use again. Sometimes we can even answer our own nature questions! For today’s prompt, we will revisit our past journal pages and see what they can teach us.

Using her experiences in the natural world as inspiration, Naomi creates detailed fine art with the aim of connecting people with wildlife. She is passionate about using art to help support wildlife conservation projects around the world.

The traditional Japanese calendar divides the year into 72 microseasons, each representing a period of change in the natural world. Pay attention to the small changes that happen in your region and see if you can identify some microseasons of your own.

Every day for over twelve years, Mary Jo has posted a photograph of nature on her blog STILL. More than just a daily creative project, STILL has offered deep insights and connection to place.

Bringing play into our nature journaling practice is an invitation to lean towards joy and freedom and away from perfectionism and self-criticism. Start your journaling sessions with play – embrace all of your silly, wonky, imperfect, life-filled lines and have fun!

Katrin is a nature journaler from Germany and the founder of the Stuttgart Nature Journal Club. She finds joy in observing and documenting nature and connecting others with this beautiful practice.

Sofia Gazarian challenged herself to sketch the same bird each month for a year, as a way of tracking her sketching skills over time. Since starting this challenge, lots of others have decided to participate alongside her. Listen to find out how we can do the same!

Sofia has a passion for birdwatching. While cultivating a daily sketching habit, Sofia has learned that you can find birds and make amazing discoveries even in the heart of a big city.

Today we are exploring the corners of our environment, the neglected places that we do not normally visit. There are nature stories here too. Take some time to nature journal the things that you notice in a place that might have been overlooked for a while.

Jarod is a poet, author and podcaster who writes intimately about the appreciation of nature, the interconnectedness of all things, and the complex experience of being human.

International Nature Journaling Week is coming up again soon (1-7th June) and in this episode I chat about all the ways that you can get involved during the week.

Through her work, painter and printmaker Suzy Sharpe explores the ways that humans and nature are interconnected and how humans make meaning from this connection through creative expression.