Doing a couple of things this fall that I’m really looking forward to.
Thing 1:
Montana Master Naturalist program (online, via Zoom)
which is sitting on top of a handmade blank book for note taking.
I’ve been wanting to do a naturalist course for a while, but we don’t have one here, so my options are to do one for Oregon (Channeled Scablands –> ecoregion adjacent), one for Idaho (nothing in the panhandle, which might have been doable), or Montana (based out of Missoula, in the Northern Rockies ecoregion (level III). (To be more granular, if you look at the level IV designations, both Missoula and Spokane are in valleys adjacent to the mountains. Spokane is in the “Spokane Valley Outwash,” which is kind of amazing, in that water rushed through here on the way to the basin after some ice dams burst.) Montana had a few different options, and they focus on nature journaling, which aligns perfectly with my interests… and reasonably closely with my ecoregion… so, win-win.
Thing 2:
Last fall I took a sketching class with Sorie Kim. I loved everything about it (except cars… I cannot draw cars, or trains… anything with wheels might as well be from another planet).
This fall I get to take an animal sketching and creature design class with her, and I. AM. PSYCHED.
It should be kind of intense, which is fine. I like drawing animals, and creature design, while out of my reach at the moment, is intriguing.
And, because I am a person who likes to draw and paint in my nature journals, any sort of structured way of thinking about sketching is helpful for me.
I’m glad to get to do these things right now, because it will likely be a while before I can concentrate on drawing and nature journaling…
… because in the spring, I start graduate school.
Carmen Yount 