My Nature Journal - Best of 2018

Summer 2018

Tūī chick in my garden

One of the most memorable experiences last summer was getting up close to a tūī chick in the garden and watching the brood flourish. I wrote about it in my most popular blogposts: Tūī Takeover. Our tūī provide a source of both interest and entertainment all year round. And...

Native shore bindweed

Staying close to home, I explored the Pukerua Bay coast, using iNaturalist to identify coastal plants and animals. These were popular posts, proving that what we find close to home, can be as interesting as on a big trip away. Here's one of the posts: A Coastal Walk

Autumn 2018 

Driftwood sign at Hokitika

In autumn, I did go on a trip away. I was lucky enough to visit the West Coast on an author tour of schools. It was inspiring to meet young people with a deep love for nature, especially the forest around them. If you missed it, here's my Forest Fungi and Whitebait post.

Kohekohe flowers

At home the kohekohe had a particularly splendid flowering season. This sparked lots of interest among my fellow trampers and local community, so not surprising I ended up writing two posts about kohekohe. Autumn Nature Walk and Unusual Trees of Aotearoa.

Winter 2018

Hanging club moss

Winter in the forest can be a time for some interesting discoveries. Finding this example of hanging clubmoss sparked a whole post just about this intriguing plant. On the Trail.

Zines are handmade magazines

Not everyone enjoys tramping in the rain and cold, sometimes we need nature activities we can do indoors. I responded to requests from followers to provide some ideas for children to Create Your Own Nature Journal. And linked this to some fun I had creating Zines. 

Spring 2018

Kiekie flower

I had a busy spring launching my new book "Animals of Aotearoa: explore and discover New Zealand's wildlife" but managed to squeeze in writing a post and children's activity inspired by this stunning kiekie flower - Nature's Symmetry.

Best Nature Book

I'm always reading about nature: non-fiction and fiction. My favourite non-fiction title was "Where Song Began" by Tim Low about Australian (and New Zealand) birds and their place in the history of birds. It's reviewed here What I'm Reading.

Best of Instagram 2018  #discovernaturenz

If you enjoy nature pics, then Instagram is the place to be. There are lots of keen people sharing great pics and stories about nature on Instagram. Here's my favourite's from among my 2018 pics. My Instagram name is DiscoverNatureNZ

Coming up in 2019

My summer reading

In early 2019, I'll be posting reviews of these two intriguing books. There will be more nature-focused activities for children, too. And I'm anticipating sharing more intriguing finds in my Nature Journal. If you haven't already subscribed to my blog, you can do subscribe by email (see side bar) or follow along on Bloglovin (see below).