Keeping a record of what we see around us needs only a few minutes each day. When you look back you can remember all the things that you have learned about the plants and creatures that surround us. In the late eighteenth century Gilbert White kept a Naturalist’s Journal and we can still learn from what he wrote.
Gilbert White wrote about the weather, the birds he noticed, harvests of fruit and vegetables and the arrival and departure of insects and flowers. Amongst all these, he wrote about Timothy, ‘Mrs Snooke’s old tortoise’. He rarely wrote a great deal, but we can build up a picture:
1780
April 15thCucumbers swell. Tortoise sleeps on. Radishes are drawn.
April 21stThe tortoise heaves up the earth and puts out its head.
April 22ndTortoise comes forth & walks round its coop: will not eat lettuce yet: goes to sleep at four o’clock pm.
May 2ndTortoise marches about: eats part of a cucumber paring.
May 10thStormy all night. Tortoise scarce moves during this wet time.
Timothy begins to break his fast May 17 on the globe-thistle, & American willow-herb; his favourite food is lettuce, & dandelion, cucumber, & kidney beans.
May 25thTimothy the tortoise possesses a much greater share of discernment than I was aware of: & ‘’is much too wise to go into a well.”; for when he arrives at the haha, he distinguishes the fall of the ground, & retires with caution, or marches carefully along the edge: he delights in crawling up the flower bank, & walking along its verge.
You may have already started a Naturalist’s Journal by writing down your observation of one small event in detail. Why don’t you make notes about an animal or bird that you see every day? It might be your pet, or it could be
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