I certainly have zero knowledge, well close to zero, when it comes to nature although I really love being surrounded by it
I have felt judged when enjoyinh nature or its surrounding for not enough knowledge about it. Someone once asked me " with all the books you read as a bookworm and a bookseller I thought you'd know so much more".
I love learning and acquiring knowledge about a subject which interest me but there are so many ways to learn, connect or understand.
Thank you for your gentle reminder as always to take life as it comes and just be.
Hi Molly, just stumbled upon your calm and inspiring Substack - luckily with a tea in hand! Your slow, creative, gentle lifestyle is one that resonates with me...particularly as a writer (hopefully 🤞🏻) on the way to making a living from creativity full time. I'm also based in Scotland!
Thank you Molly for such a lovely piece of writing. It sounds like the perfect way to start a day.
I would consider myself a curious person which plays out well in my photography. I notice things that I can use in my compositions just because I am always interested in what is around me. Curiosity is also a great way to connect with nature and without it my life would be much poorer.
I love this, and trust me you are not a failure. I have had the week from hell, literally the worst week of my life (not to go into too much detail but my ex partner made false accusations against my husband which thankfully have been dropped but the worry was intense- I stopped eating, sleeping and swinging between binge eating and starvation, no mindfulness just sitting dumbstruck in fear) however it’s finished now but I’m still recovering and my body is screaming at me to look after itself. But, one thing that lifted me this morning was the sunlight streaming through my bedroom window, the sign that spring is starting to wake the earth up. And that hope of Spring is growing within me. We are honoured to live in a world of 4 seasons, and I’m drawing strength from this season and the changes and growth that come with it to heal and restore my body.
I have little boy of almost 4 years old and if I only asked half of the questions he poses me I would be immensely richer in my knowledge!
I am always embarrassed about how poorly is my knowledge of nature around me. My mum and dad know the name of every tree or flower or plant they see when they go for a walk ( my mum was able to go only to elementary school so this has nothing to do with school degrees !)
This autumn my mum and I went for a walk just outside the house where there are some trees and I walked that way countless time with my dog and only that day I realised ( thanks mum!) that there was an oak tree just outside the door! We collected acorns and dried leaves to make a centerpiece for my table. And keeping my nose up in the sky, I learned that the oak tree had some strange rounded things on the branch and found out it is house for egg insects and the tree creates this ball to protect itself.
All of this just outside my door, what if I learned to keep a guide (like you did recently in a video) and really watched the , unfortunately, little nature in my surrounding. I bet I would be astonished as my little boy is 💕 thank you Molly, I will adopt curiosity for more than a month and will try to connect more with nature whenever I can!
P.s. yesterday while cleaning a bit the garden in a sunny day, instead of looking up, I looked down a lot and spotted a toad 🐸 and lotsss of snails 🐌
Nature is everywhere, we just need to look the right way!
I loved reading about your nature diary Molly - it sounds like such a valuable practice and the type of daily noticing that helps in trying to better befriend and understand the natural world around us. In an interesting coincidence - I also recently wrote about learning to identify Beech trees and struggling, as part of a process in which I was also trying to reconnect and relearn nature at home in Scotland. In case you are curious to know about my experience, you can find it here: https://notesfromcatriona.substack.com/p/our-routes-to-our-forgotten-roots
Strangely (or not!) I chose 'curiosity' as my word for March last week, so this is very fitting :) And yes, I was inspired by you to chose monthly words also. February's was 'learn' and I think 'curiosity' is an extension of that.
When you wrote that you were secretly relieved the car wasn't running so you didn't feel pressure to go further afield to make the most of the weather - I so get this! My car has been the same recently and I had exactly the same feeling!
So lovely to read. You write so beautifully. I am observing birds in our neighbourhood. Just curious. They make my walks more enjoyable, nature's music!
I love this Molly, your writing and insights often resonate, but this was especially sonorous! I’ve felt at times that I’m almost “not allowed” to say I love nature - particularly trees and birds. Not allowed because I do not have the knowledge of ready identification and classification that sometimes seems to a gateway to being “allowed”, and not allowed because due to illness a lot of my nature interactions are from looking out my city window. But, as ever, it’s taken me too long to realise there is no gatekeeper, no permission needed, no standard to be reached.
Sounds a wonderful Sunday Molly. It’s a tricky one with learning isn’t it, but the core motivation surely must be because we genuinely want to learn more, not just so we can pass a test. It’s sometimes nice to not go further afield, and just to explore our local patch, becoming more connected to it.
Do not fret or be so hard on yourself…winter tree ID can be difficult for even those of us who are “professionals” haha. Alnus and Betula (like how I through in the Latin genus to inflate my own sense of uniqueness 😏) in a natural non-urban environment can be difficult to differentiate in the winter. I’m a Registered Consulting Arborist as well as a Board Certified Master Arborist and I still return to my guide books when it comes to winter tree ID.
I love your writing and I find you to be an inspiration. Thank you.
I also try to embrace the mystery of listening to different bird calls, but sometimes if I hear a particularly unique call, I can't help myself and I use the Merlin app to identify it. It also shows me a picture of what the bird looks like if it's not within my sight range so I can appreciate the variety we have here on the west coast of Canada!
Thank you Molly for this post. I too have often felt guilty that I still have difficulty in identifying trees, even though I love them so much, appreciate their shade and beauty and often talk to them and thank them as I pass them. Thank you for reminding us that life is not a competition. As I walk, I take great joy out of simple things like different ways that light is cast through trees, watching birds have a tussle over a worm or simply appreciating the wind softly blowing the grasses. Love your nature writing Molly. Well done.
I suppose I do get a bit superior and judgy about other people's ignorance about nature, though more so about their lack of curiosity. (Not only nature, mind, I was puzzled that my elderly French friend I take shopping didn't know there were brown mushrooms as well as white ones on the supermarket shelves, I had to pick them up and show her... Anyway! )
But then I have to remind myself there are lots of things I know nothing about and have little head for, the above friend is much more knowledgeable than I am about music, for instance, and I have no head at all for sport (no real interest either!). And while it's good to be able to identify things, there's more to observing and learning about them than that. I often think, for instance, that much so-called bird-watching is just bird-spotting, ticking boxes and competitively collecting rarities, passing over all the interesting things you can discover, or at least ask questions, about them. For instance, why is there a solitary coot on the canal near us? He/she has been there for weeks, it's unusual to see them at all on the canal, though they hang out in numbers on the lake further on. Last year in the same spot there was a lone male teal third-wheeling with a pair of mallards, I learned they do this sometimes, often sneakily taking the opportunity to hybridise; I'm looking out for teal/mallard crosses but haven't seen any yet!
Winter trees are harder to id, aren't they? Alders are the only trees to have cones and catkins, I learned quite recently. There are a row of them near the coot place too, and the goldfinches love the cones, I think their beaks must be just the right size to get into them. I'm still not all that good at bird songs and calls, even with more access to recordings these days, I think it takes a special ear and maybe starting young.
I certainly have zero knowledge, well close to zero, when it comes to nature although I really love being surrounded by it
I have felt judged when enjoyinh nature or its surrounding for not enough knowledge about it. Someone once asked me " with all the books you read as a bookworm and a bookseller I thought you'd know so much more".
I love learning and acquiring knowledge about a subject which interest me but there are so many ways to learn, connect or understand.
Thank you for your gentle reminder as always to take life as it comes and just be.
Hi Molly, just stumbled upon your calm and inspiring Substack - luckily with a tea in hand! Your slow, creative, gentle lifestyle is one that resonates with me...particularly as a writer (hopefully 🤞🏻) on the way to making a living from creativity full time. I'm also based in Scotland!
Love the idea of a nature journal!
Thank you Molly for such a lovely piece of writing. It sounds like the perfect way to start a day.
I would consider myself a curious person which plays out well in my photography. I notice things that I can use in my compositions just because I am always interested in what is around me. Curiosity is also a great way to connect with nature and without it my life would be much poorer.
I love this, and trust me you are not a failure. I have had the week from hell, literally the worst week of my life (not to go into too much detail but my ex partner made false accusations against my husband which thankfully have been dropped but the worry was intense- I stopped eating, sleeping and swinging between binge eating and starvation, no mindfulness just sitting dumbstruck in fear) however it’s finished now but I’m still recovering and my body is screaming at me to look after itself. But, one thing that lifted me this morning was the sunlight streaming through my bedroom window, the sign that spring is starting to wake the earth up. And that hope of Spring is growing within me. We are honoured to live in a world of 4 seasons, and I’m drawing strength from this season and the changes and growth that come with it to heal and restore my body.
Hello Molly! I loved this post!
I have little boy of almost 4 years old and if I only asked half of the questions he poses me I would be immensely richer in my knowledge!
I am always embarrassed about how poorly is my knowledge of nature around me. My mum and dad know the name of every tree or flower or plant they see when they go for a walk ( my mum was able to go only to elementary school so this has nothing to do with school degrees !)
This autumn my mum and I went for a walk just outside the house where there are some trees and I walked that way countless time with my dog and only that day I realised ( thanks mum!) that there was an oak tree just outside the door! We collected acorns and dried leaves to make a centerpiece for my table. And keeping my nose up in the sky, I learned that the oak tree had some strange rounded things on the branch and found out it is house for egg insects and the tree creates this ball to protect itself.
All of this just outside my door, what if I learned to keep a guide (like you did recently in a video) and really watched the , unfortunately, little nature in my surrounding. I bet I would be astonished as my little boy is 💕 thank you Molly, I will adopt curiosity for more than a month and will try to connect more with nature whenever I can!
P.s. yesterday while cleaning a bit the garden in a sunny day, instead of looking up, I looked down a lot and spotted a toad 🐸 and lotsss of snails 🐌
Nature is everywhere, we just need to look the right way!
Have a lovely week everyone!
I loved reading about your nature diary Molly - it sounds like such a valuable practice and the type of daily noticing that helps in trying to better befriend and understand the natural world around us. In an interesting coincidence - I also recently wrote about learning to identify Beech trees and struggling, as part of a process in which I was also trying to reconnect and relearn nature at home in Scotland. In case you are curious to know about my experience, you can find it here: https://notesfromcatriona.substack.com/p/our-routes-to-our-forgotten-roots
Strangely (or not!) I chose 'curiosity' as my word for March last week, so this is very fitting :) And yes, I was inspired by you to chose monthly words also. February's was 'learn' and I think 'curiosity' is an extension of that.
When you wrote that you were secretly relieved the car wasn't running so you didn't feel pressure to go further afield to make the most of the weather - I so get this! My car has been the same recently and I had exactly the same feeling!
So lovely to read. You write so beautifully. I am observing birds in our neighbourhood. Just curious. They make my walks more enjoyable, nature's music!
I love this Molly, your writing and insights often resonate, but this was especially sonorous! I’ve felt at times that I’m almost “not allowed” to say I love nature - particularly trees and birds. Not allowed because I do not have the knowledge of ready identification and classification that sometimes seems to a gateway to being “allowed”, and not allowed because due to illness a lot of my nature interactions are from looking out my city window. But, as ever, it’s taken me too long to realise there is no gatekeeper, no permission needed, no standard to be reached.
Thanks Molly x
Sounds a wonderful Sunday Molly. It’s a tricky one with learning isn’t it, but the core motivation surely must be because we genuinely want to learn more, not just so we can pass a test. It’s sometimes nice to not go further afield, and just to explore our local patch, becoming more connected to it.
Do not fret or be so hard on yourself…winter tree ID can be difficult for even those of us who are “professionals” haha. Alnus and Betula (like how I through in the Latin genus to inflate my own sense of uniqueness 😏) in a natural non-urban environment can be difficult to differentiate in the winter. I’m a Registered Consulting Arborist as well as a Board Certified Master Arborist and I still return to my guide books when it comes to winter tree ID.
I love your writing and I find you to be an inspiration. Thank you.
My dog and beloved walking companion was also Skye! She's been gone two years now, but she is always in my heart. ❤️
I also try to embrace the mystery of listening to different bird calls, but sometimes if I hear a particularly unique call, I can't help myself and I use the Merlin app to identify it. It also shows me a picture of what the bird looks like if it's not within my sight range so I can appreciate the variety we have here on the west coast of Canada!
Thank you Molly for this post. I too have often felt guilty that I still have difficulty in identifying trees, even though I love them so much, appreciate their shade and beauty and often talk to them and thank them as I pass them. Thank you for reminding us that life is not a competition. As I walk, I take great joy out of simple things like different ways that light is cast through trees, watching birds have a tussle over a worm or simply appreciating the wind softly blowing the grasses. Love your nature writing Molly. Well done.
I suppose I do get a bit superior and judgy about other people's ignorance about nature, though more so about their lack of curiosity. (Not only nature, mind, I was puzzled that my elderly French friend I take shopping didn't know there were brown mushrooms as well as white ones on the supermarket shelves, I had to pick them up and show her... Anyway! )
But then I have to remind myself there are lots of things I know nothing about and have little head for, the above friend is much more knowledgeable than I am about music, for instance, and I have no head at all for sport (no real interest either!). And while it's good to be able to identify things, there's more to observing and learning about them than that. I often think, for instance, that much so-called bird-watching is just bird-spotting, ticking boxes and competitively collecting rarities, passing over all the interesting things you can discover, or at least ask questions, about them. For instance, why is there a solitary coot on the canal near us? He/she has been there for weeks, it's unusual to see them at all on the canal, though they hang out in numbers on the lake further on. Last year in the same spot there was a lone male teal third-wheeling with a pair of mallards, I learned they do this sometimes, often sneakily taking the opportunity to hybridise; I'm looking out for teal/mallard crosses but haven't seen any yet!
Winter trees are harder to id, aren't they? Alders are the only trees to have cones and catkins, I learned quite recently. There are a row of them near the coot place too, and the goldfinches love the cones, I think their beaks must be just the right size to get into them. I'm still not all that good at bird songs and calls, even with more access to recordings these days, I think it takes a special ear and maybe starting young.