Northern Rockies Nature Journaling

On today’s episode, we’re thrilled to welcome Kathy Settevendemie, Treasurer and Secretary of Northern Rockies Nature Journal, as well as a dedicated Native Plant Specialist. With a rich background as a Montana native plant grower, past president of the Montana Native Plant Society, and former high school art teacher, Kathy brings a wealth of knowledge and passion to the world of nature journaling. As a teacher, consultant, and artist, Kathy's work at Northern Rockies Nature Journal is all about creating educational opportunities that connect people to the natural world through journaling, fostering a deeper sense of stewardship and community. Join us as she shares her journey and insights on how nature journaling brings people closer to both the outdoors and each other.

Wild Wisdom Takeaways:

1. Get outside and start small – Nature is accessible no matter where you live. Begin with simple observations like an ant crawling or the clouds shifting. Whether you draw or write, the act of journaling will help you connect to the world around you.
2. Create a practice of seasonal mindfulness – Like Kathy's botanical journaling, observing and recording seasonal changes—flowers blooming, weather shifts, or animal behaviors—can ground you in the rhythms of the natural world.
3. Join a nature journaling group – Sharing your work with others fosters community and can lead to new insights and inspiration. Whether you join a local group or connect online, learning alongside others enriches your experience of nature.

Northern Rockies Nature Journaling

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Intro & Outro: Bernie Baggs

Transcript

Your journal is going to spark memories of being there at that place. 
Welcome to Wild Development Studio. 
Join us as we venture into the breathtaking realm of wildlife arts and untamed adventures. 
With captivating stories from the field and ideas to dive into the visual arts, 
we'll ignite your passion for conservation. 
Get ready to develop something wild. 
Welcome to Wild Developments, where you can break free from the daily grind and rediscover your wild side with art and adventure. 
I'm your guide, Lauren, and on today's episode, I am thrilled to welcome Kathy Sedavandemi. 
Treasurer and Secretary of Northern Rockies Nature Journaling, as well as a dedicated native plant specialist. 
With a rich background as a Montana native plant grower and past president of the Montana. 
Native Plant Society and former high school art teacher, Kathy brings a wealth of knowledge knowledge, 
and passion to the world of nature journaling. 
As a teacher, consultant, and artist, Kathy's work at Northern Rockets Nature Journaling is all about creating educational opportunities that connect people to the natural world through journaling. 
This fosters a deep sense of stewardship and community. 
Join us as she shares her journey and insights on how nature journaling brings people closer together to both the outdoors and each other. 
Kathy, thank you so much for being here today. 
Oh, thank you for inviting me. 
So before we start talking about nature journaling, what was your background before nature journaling? 
And then how did you get hooked? 
Well, let's see. 
Growing up, my mom was always an avid outdoors person and we were always roaming around outside and watching the birds and whatnot. 
And I did a lot of hiking in the mountains and that sort of thing. 
So I was outdoors a lot. 
In high school, I did art. 
In college, I did some art. 
I ended up teaching in Alaska where you end up teaching things that you're not necessarily trained in. 
So I taught art. 
So I do come to this with an art background. 
And I've continued to pursue watercolor. 
And I use that in my journals all the time. 
And I came to nature journaling through a nature journaling class that was offered in Missoula by a woman named Nancy Seiler who's quite a wonderful artist and she did a six weeks class and took us to different parts of Montana or Missoula area and we learned how to nature journal and as a result of that class a number of us decided we need to do this all the the time so we formed a group which we called naturalists with brushes and we continue to meet every week um yeah and it's really grown from there um I would say I've grown the group has grown the whole movement I think is growing yeah I feel like it's getting a lot more traction and a lot more people are getting involved with nature journaling. 
So do you do naturalists with brushes and Northern Rockies nature journaling or those combined programs? 
Good question. Cause it's a little confusing. 
Naturalists with brushes are the local groups that have formed of people that go out and journal once a week. 
But Northern Rockies nature journaling is the umbrella organization um which works on doing things like annual conferences on doing the newsletter on doing workshops and classes for the public um so it's an overarching group so naturals with brushes are is part of northern rocky's nature journal very nice so i just did a nature journaling workshop through wild wonder foundation where where I met Valerie. 
Who's also part of Northern Rockies Nature Journaling. 
And out of the 95people that were there, we ended up in the same breakout room and we got to talking. 
She used to live by me and she was talking about Northern Rockies Nature Journaling. 
And she said that you're a board member and a treasurer. 
And she said, you've also been crucial in a lot of activities. 
What are some of the activities and events that you've been involved in? 
Well like i said the annual meetings are a really big thing um we're um in two weeks we're going to be at yellowstone national park um for our conference last year we were in kind of the northern parts of montana at the buffalo range um the kootenai salish bison range and then um. 
Before that we were in kind of southern Montana, but we have lots of plans for great conferences. 
So I'm involved in the conferences in the organization. 
I'm involved in teaching classes and sometimes that's just impromptu classes while we're doing the naturalists with brushes. 
Sometimes it's a specific class. 
Um we do things with the Missoula Public Library where we present classes for them um oh lots of organizations that we work with when you say uh you guys have conferences is that something that you guys run or is that a um you're doing a speech at a conference that's already happening no we actually organized the whole conference we um last year we had john mirror laws come um i don't know if you're familiar with him but he's kind of the guru almost internationally of nature journaling um which was very exciting and fun um and that was at the national bison range and then um sometimes we have keynote speakers and sometimes we don't this this coming year at Yellowstone. 
We're not having a keynote speaker, but what we're actually doing is Yellowstone Forever is the foundation at the park and we're dividing into buses and going three different directions with naturalists that are really familiar with those areas. 
And so they'll do a presentation on the area and then we'll spend time journaling. 
So yeah, we organized organized the whole thing. 
Valerie's, you know, does a huge amount of work. 
Um, and we have about. 
35to 50people each year. 
Um, and it's just a wonderful opportunity to get together outdoors and journal. 
So yeah, we, we actually do all the organization for those. 
Um, we're a pretty self -contained bunch. 
So if somebody listening wanted to hop into a conference one year. 
Or did they have to be part of your group or can they just show up? 
How does that work? 
You just have to register online. 
Unfortunately, registration is closed for this year because we're two weeks out. 
But yeah, it's just an online registration and you don't have to be part of the group. 
It's just whoever would like to participate. 
Very good. 
So we actually it's kind of cool because we get people from all over the country and um you know they have so many different perspectives and they come from different natural areas and so often they're just so excited about montana and uh what what montana has to offer in terms of nature so it's we learn from them and they learn from us and it's a really really valuable time very cool for somebody that wants to get started in nature journaling how do you suggest they get started go outside um yeah and it can be something as simple as having a piece of paper and a pencil um and there's lots of different ways to journal and one of the cool cool things about nature journaling is your journal is your journal and there's no one else in the world that has a journal like yours you don't have to make it any one way or or not but usually what we do is we settle into a place and think about or just listen just look just experience being outdoors and then find something that attracts our attention or something that that we're curious about. 
And, um, sometimes actually we do, you know, sometimes we'll do a landscape. 
Sometimes I'll do a plant. 
Sometimes I'll do a bird. 
It just depends on what attracts my attention that day. 
And then, um, we write down, we have a thing we call metadata, 
which is basically, it can be just the date. 
It can be the time. 
It can be the temperature. 
It can be the place. 
It can be, you know, just all of that information because your journal is going to spark memories of being there at that place and it's sometimes helpful to know when that was what was happening anyway and then um for example i've been doing a lot of botanical focused botanically focused um journal entries um and so i'll look at a plant for example example. 
And I'll maybe measure the height of it and write that down. 
I'll look at how many petals the flower has. 
I might look at how their leaves are arranged and all that stuff. 
I just start sketching down and you don't have to be an artist. 
I mean, you can just, it can be stick figure kind of plants. 
It doesn't have to be, you know, anything that you draw doesn't have to be even recognizable as long as it's something that you can identify with. 
And then we do things like write questions you know as i'm sitting and looking at a plant i can wonder why are the petals yellow you know which pollinators are attracted to this plant does this plant bloom for a long time or is it really short life you know all these kinds of questions all this curiosity which i think then can become fodder for returning home and you know looking up some of the answers to that so that we continue to grow. 
And sometimes people even take their sketch that they've made outdoors and improve upon it. 
You know, people use colored pencils, people use just pen, like a black pen. 
Some people use watercolor, some people use books some people I mean everybody does different stuff um so it's really individual it's unique to everybody um so to get started yeah get a piece of paper get a pencil something to lean on and go outside and observe and be curious um yeah just get outside get a piece of paper and a pen or a pencil and just start jotting down questions and thoughts and ideas words numbers you know sometimes we count like how many flowers are in a bunch you know how many do you see or how many birds are there in this flock or what kind of tree is this and how many of them are around I mean it's just being curious being open and being quiet I mean I think one of the really beautiful beautiful parts of nature journaling is just that you're in nature and you know. 
Sometimes it can be raining, it can be cold or whatever, but you never see that you get involved in what you're doing and you just become part of it. 
You connect with nature and you know, I do, I think it's a really beautiful experience that I wish everybody had an opportunity to do. 
Do. It's kind of hard to get started on your own, but you can very easily. 
It's just people aren't really sure whether they're going the right direction or not. 
But I think the thing to say is there's not a direction. 
It's whatever is meaningful to you. 
I'm glad you, earlier you had talked about counting the petals in a flower, 
the leaves on the flower. 
Like people can look at a flower and be like, okay, what am I supposed to do with this? 
And how many times does somebody somebody count the number of petals they I think we just take for granted okay that's a flower but you're really kind of breaking it down and looking at the details of it which is something that I think a lot of people have gotten away from and like you said too about the stillness because everybody's moving so fast and getting outside and with your journal and and just kind of unplugging and being still is so important how for somebody that's new to this how can we we teach that because that's very difficult especially when I'm teaching children because they want to run from thing to thing and usually we're just we're drawing as we're running through the trail or whatever and just trying to to capture what I can out of them how do you teach people to to slow down I think it's intrinsic in the art of journaling you know when you go out I mean some we're all leading frenetic lives and it's really um crazy but when you go out and you know that what you're going to do is focus on some piece of nature and you're going to draw it that very act of drawing will will focus you will calm you down especially if the kids are separated a little bit if they. 
They all go find a different thing to find to journal. 
I mean, people can be together, but usually we don't talk very much when we're journaling because we're so focused on our connection with whatever it is that we're seeing. 
And I think children get very swept in to the whole focus, but they're sometimes distracted by other children around. 
But if they can have an opportunity to kind of spread out a little bit and have their own little space where they can see each other and still feel safe and all that kind of stuff, 
but where they're doing their own journal, it's their journal, it's their flower or their tree or their bird or whatever. 
And then they start to work on it. 
I think that'll happen. 
You know, sometimes it'll take a few times for kids to go out and not be squirrely. 
And a lot of that is just because they haven't had an opportunity to be quiet and to be calm and to see how wonderful that can be. 
And, and I really applaud that you're taking kids out because kids need that we all need our connection with nature, 
it's a, it's a deep human need, and kids especially need to have that avenue to bring peace to their lives. 
That's it's important. 
It was for an afterschool program. 
And the first time that I did it, I thought personally, I thought I'm like, 
Oh my gosh, this was a fail. 
Cause I had to adapt so much. 
And then talking to the teacher who was with me, she's like, there were kids that were engaged that aren't normally engaged in the afterschool program. 
And they really got involved. 
So that just like, that was the cherry on top of everything. 
And like, I, I felt successful after after that, but it's so important for them to get outside and get their hands dirty and explore like that. 
Yes. Yes. Well, I applaud you doing that. 
Yeah. Is there a particular activity that you find yourself going to time and time again when you're in your journal? 
That's an interesting question you know I think for me um because I am a watercolor artist I go back to to painting and I I tend toward botanical illustration you know I I um ran a native plant nursery for 15years. 
So that's part of who I am. 
So for me getting into the flowers, the phenology is a really important thing to me. 
What flower is blooming today? 
What's going to be blooming tomorrow? 
And kind of having a record just by keeping a journal of when each thing is blooming. 
And if I noticed any changes, are there more of them or less of them? 
Are they they more intense and color this year are there more pollinators um i mean all kinds of things so i i tend to do a lot of plants because that's who i am but you know like valerie is very much into kind of science and she's very much more into like ducks and animals and um we have a person in our group who's very much into dragonflies and and damsel flies and so the odin odinology whatever it is that she's into is just that's what she focuses on and different people have different things that they they focus on um i i think we like to go out and generally sit it and we journal depending on the day between a half hour and an hour every day uh that we go out together and then we generally have a time where we share our journals with each other so we get ideas from each other so we can see what each other is curious about um and that sharing time. 
I'm, it's at first, people are very shy about that. 
They don't want to, especially if they're not very, um, advanced at, at drawing or whatever, 
they're, they're very nervous about that, but we're all, it's a very encouraging group and a very encouraging activity. 
There's no, uh, we don't allow the negative talk at all. 
Um, so it's just, it helps people feel good about what what they're doing. 
And yeah, it opens our eyes to things that we didn't see to see what other people saw. 
The phenology aspect of it. 
I noticed this year, a lot of things in our area started blooming a lot earlier than normal. 
Have you noticed any changes throughout the years in your area? 
Well, you know, it's kind of funny because my husband was asking me about that the other day. 
And, and I went back and looked at some of my journals and while it felt like this was a really cold, 
um, long winter, actually it's almost to a day, exactly the same. 
Um, yeah, because so much of what's happens with the native plants is tied to daylight hours, 
not just temperature, but also daylight hours and moisture. 
So in terms of when they come out, they're pretty much the same. 
I'm going to have to remember that. 
Because it oh every winter feels like the longest winter ever yes it does so happy to be out of it but yep yeah well we're just we're this is our the first two days of really warm weather that we're having here um and i have to say it's just glorious we're just loving it that's good do you have a favorite spot in nature that you like to go to I have lots of favorite spots um I love the ocean you know we we had a sailboat for about eight years we just sold but I love being on the ocean and on the islands and oh yeah that's great um but I you know my garden I have a huge native garden and that's my happy place it's my special place but you know I like to go sit by the edge of a river and watch the water just rippling and flowing and go to the tops of the mountains and look over the valleys and I mean it's just no I guess I don't really have a favorite I they're all my favorite it's just kind of like my plants but my plants are all my favorites um. 
Um, yeah, I, I think it's just so important for people to be outside, 
be, you know, put away the, you know, the television and the phone and, 
and actually we do use our phone to take pictures of what it is that we're sometimes journaling about, 
but, um, yeah, just be outside with nature. 
And on the subject of native plants, I try and preach that as much as I can. 
And I talked to somebody, kind of general public knowledge, and they loved the honeysuckle that are in our area. 
They think it's so beautiful and why should we cut it down? 
And I'm trying to explain from your perspective, how can you explain that to somebody about why it is so important to have native species? 
Well, first of all, I mean, it has to do with the ecosystem that you're in. 
There's a balance that nature has set up where in a system that has not been disturbed, 
each plant has its own space and it's worked within the microbiota and the system of plants and whatnot that are there. 
They all have their place. 
But when you disturb that, when one species starts to dominate over another, 
then that shifts the balance and things start to take over, things start to die. 
And why is that important? 
Well, you know, maybe today it isn't important, but pretty soon that, you know, 
that honeysuckle starts taking over this and this, and then some of the other plants no longer exist. 
And they and each plant is tied to the animals the insects the birds in that area and so when you start to lose part of the habitat you're affecting not only it's not just the plants it's all of the the ecosystem that are affected and um you know pollinators is a huge thing i'm sure you're familiar with doug tallamy and the work that he's done with pollen made pollinators are you i am not doug tallamy um he's on the east coast and he's written um bringing nature home um but anyway he does a lot of research on how pollinators interact with native plants and then compares that with how pollinators interact with non -native plants and the the difference is huge it's dramatic and certainly our honeybees you know which are not native um can come in and interact with all of the different plants and a lot of pollinators are uh specialists that just will have a certain few plants that they visit and others are generalists where they can utilize the honeysuckle or they can use whatever but again to keep things in balance you've got to make sure that you're you're feeding everybody you know and you're you're not yeah anyway i'm going off on a tangent but native plants in your area are really important to the whole ecosystem and so you know here in Montana one of my personal missions has been to make native plants available to people so that they can use those in their landscapes to benefit pollinators to develop and to to benefit actually the the whole ecosystem even if you're just in a city block there are still animals and and pollinators that interact with that. 
So that's the short, sweet, simple version. 
If you get me going, I'll talk on that forever. 
I'll have to do a whole nother episode just on native species. 
So for your watercolor kit, when you're out journaling, it's well, for me personally, 
I've gone through a couple of different brands trying to find the perfect one for watercolor. 
Color what what kind of brand do you like to use in terms of the pigments uh as far as like your the paper that you're using okay yeah i mean there's so many different components of a kit um i guess when i go out i take i i use i use journals and i like the moleskin that are like five by seven um you can open those up and those the the thing you want to have for watercolor is is you want to have 140pounds. 
300kilogram, milligram paper, watercolor paper in your journal. 
And you can buy watercolor journals. 
The other option is to use blocks, which are blocks of watercolor paper that are kind of glued around the edges so that it stays flat. 
Because that's always a problem. 
If you have cheap paper, it's going to buckle. 
It's gonna i don't know good paper is really essential to to a decent journal entry because when you have poor paper it just doesn't look very good sometimes it all sprinkles and it doesn't blend well and blah blah blah so yeah i use 300hundred, 
um, pound paper or 440pound paper always. 
Um, I, I vary on brushes, but I would say have a number eight, 
a number eight round. 
That's your one go -to brush. 
Um, if you have other choices, I would go to maybe a number four, 
which is a finer round brush and maybe a liner, which is a real skinny brush that you can make um stems and and thin lines with um I would say I carry eight to ten brushes in the field because I'm doing all kinds of different things and it just depends on what I find you know do I want to do a big wash do I want to do um a lot of fine detail whatever um and then i always use um for a black micron pen whatever pen you use it needs to have archival ink it needs to not bleed when it gets wet um that's really important otherwise i could show you some big messes that i um and a pencil yeah well they didn't come out so happy but. 
Um, and then pencils, um, you can use anything from a number two pencil to a mechanical pencil, 
um, to your whole drawing pencil. 
It just depends on what you want, but just basically a pencil and maybe an eraser, 
although you don't have to have that. 
Um, I like to have something I can measure with. 
Um, but you can even have just a little piece of paper that has, 
um, you know, this is one two inches you know just some little thing and you can hold that up and guess okay well that must be 10inches or whatever there's lots of little tricks that you can do there and then of course um carrying water is something that you need for watercolors and my favorite one for my my hiking pack is a medicine bottle and i just um fill it with water it's just small it doesn't weigh way much. 
It's, um, you know, ideally you'd have two of them, one for your rinse water and one for your fresh water, 
but whatever. 
And then I always have either a paper towel or an old rag or something so I can dab up things. 
Um, yeah. And then you can expand. 
I mean, you can have so much stuff in your kit that you're like lugging things up the mountain. 
Um, the other thing that you really need to think about is something to sit on if you're not comfortable sitting on the ground. 
I know Roseanne Hansen uses a cut up yoga mat that she just because it's light and easy to carry. 
A lot of our girls in the naturalist with brushes actually a folding little folding chairs that they bring. 
I like a chair that sits me really low on the ground so I can spread my paints and my waters and stuff all out around me. 
Everybody has their own thing that they like to do, but think about being comfortable. 
Think about, you know, the things that you need to have when you're outdoors, 
you know, hat, sunscreen, bug spray, whatever will make you comfortable. 
So you don't even have to think about any of that stuff. 
That's a great tip. 
So where can people find you guys at we are at northern rockies nature journaling .org okay and we're also on facebook um both as northern rockies nature journaling and naturalists with brushes um yeah i know i'd encourage people you can sign up for the newsletter um you can see our events that are coming up on our events page yeah but make sure it's northern rockies nature journaling .org. 
And I'll be sure to tag that in the show notes. 
And before we go, what is one tip that you have for someone that would like to connect with nature? 
Go outside, you know, it can, even if you're just going out your front door and sit down and you know, 
whether you live in the city, whether you live in the burbs, wherever you live, 
there's going to be an ant crawling around. 
There's going to be a, maybe a flower. 
You can see, you can look at the clouds. 
You can feel what the, what the air is like. 
And there's always some part of nature outdoors and write about it. 
And if you can write about it, maybe try drawing something about it. 
And then you're on your way. 
And if you can find like -minded people that would like to do it with you, 
all the better. 
It's a wonderful activity to do with other people because you feel not only connected to nature, 
but you end up connected to each other in a very deep, peaceful way. 
And I would say, get outside. 
Thank you so much and until next time get outside and see what develops thanks for joining wild development studio we hope this exploration into the world of wildlife arts and adventure has sparked a desire to get outside and connect with something wild if you have an adventure that's awe -inspiring don't hesitate to share click the link in the description to submit your story to have it featured on our show or be a guest until next time keep connecting to the wild and see what develops the views opinions and statements expressed by individuals during wild development studio productions do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of wild development studio or its affiliates participation in any activities expeditions or adventures discussed or promoted during our content may involve inherent risks it is strongly. 
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