My Island Nature Journal ~ July

My Island Nature Journal will hopefully be a regular monthly feature here on my blog! I love spending time in nature all year long and enjoy sharing my little discoveries. Sometimes I write a separate post for a particular topic studied, but I also love to look back and write these report-style posts. 

Aren't those small white widflowers pretty in the photo above? I noticed them at the edge of a wooded trail. I looked them up in the Peterson wildflowers field guide and learned that they are Feverfew flowers. 

July was a truly magical month! If you haven't read the posts about my amazing experiences at the Brave Writer Retreat and leading the Nature Appreciation workshops there, check this post and this one too! 

I have loved spending time in nature this past month. The weather has been amazing. The majority of my time in nature was either at the beach or in my backyard, but I did venture out in nature too. I enjoyed several walks on the Confederation Trail and explore trails around Andrew's pond, as well as my usual nature trail near our home. 

I continue to share my love of nature through my photos on Instagram, almost every single day. I haven't touched my nature journal. I am seriously thinking of adding nature pages to my bullet journal instead, when I start my third journal..which will likely be in a couple of weeks. My current bullet journal only has a few blank pages left! 

I really enjoy reading Barb's Outdoor Mom's Journal each month. I am accepting her invitation and answering a few of her questions this month, and maybe I will continue each month. Barb's questions are in italics. Doing a mixture of nature journaling via my instagram, blog, and bullet journal feels like a good choice for me. 

* The most inspiring thing I experienced in nature in July was... attending a Herb Walk on the Confederation Trail, learning about local wildflowers and plants. We learned the benefits of several plants, how to harvest and use them. It was something I have been interested in for many years. It was amazing to learn from someone and being shown each plant as we walked on the trail. A few of my favourites were Queen Anne's Lace, Pineapple Weed, and St John's Wort. I took as many notes as I could.  I hope this will be a regular event. 

Herb Walk

In the garden, we harvested...strawberries! We have 8 strawberry plants we had added to one of our square garden spaces in early spring 2015. The first year with these young plants was very lean, but this year was amazing, especially in July! 

Strawberries!

*I read... The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Ogwood by Sy Montgomery. This book is about her pig Chris and was a delight to read. The Good Good Pig is on my Nature Books To Read in 2016 list. I have read 4 books so far, 6 to go!

*A photo I would like to share... On one of my nature walks on the trail near our house, I noticed this light pink wildflower and took a quick photo of it. Once home, I looked at the photo again and confirmed with the help of my wildflowers guide that the widflower was yarrow. I also noticed the insect on the flower! I hadn't seen it when I took the quick photo. My friend Dawn helped with identifying this as a golden-haired flower longhorn beetle. 

Several flowers were in bloom this past month around our garden. I love seeing them and enjoy walking early in the morning to each plant to look at them. From top left corner, clockwise: light pink musk mallow, bouquet of st john's wort with sweet william flowers, white sweet william, hens and chicks flowers (i think!), blueberries, buttercup, sweet william, zucchini flower. Daisy in the centre!