I got outside!

The mental hurdle of "finding the time" to go outside can sometimes be huge, but the resulting relaxation is worth it. Last week I spent all day at a workshop. By the time I got back, my brain was fried and I had a headache. After going outside to do my Biomimicry Chicago June iSite, I felt so much better. Purposefully taking the time to sit down, relax, observe is not just good biomimicry practice, it's good for the body and soul.

I started by doing a five minute warm-up exercise from the book "Keeping a Nature Journal" by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth which got me in the observing mode.

Then I went into my June iSite and focused on the fern. An ancient species, the fern is well adapted to a forest's low light understory. I was amazed at how the form you see at a macro scale was repeated again and again to much smaller scales. Possibly an efficient way to gather as much light as possible? My mind of course went to the large broad leaves of the rainforest understory. Why are they different? But of course, I'm just doing a 20-30 minute iSite, so the answers to that question would be for another day. I'll tuck that question away in the back of my brain though for if there ever comes a time when I am working on a similar challenge. Then I'd dig deep.