Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Another Working Journal

I'm still stuck on the question I posed the other day:  when does your journal make you happy?  Monday afternoon my eleven-year-old grandson and I went hiking on a small mountain in my neighborhood that we've hiked many times.  We're always in search of a grave marker that was planted in the woods on the south face of the mountain to commemorate the first European settler in this area, who died on the mountain in the 1700s.  The marker has been swallowed up by development on that face of the mountain, so it's very hard to see it these days.  The one time Jacob and I located it in its newly imprisoned environment, the land-owner chased us away, and we only got a glimpse as we went back down the newly private road. 

So I had gotten the idea that if we climbed over the top of the north face and came stealthily down the south face we might be able to see the elusive marker as we approached from above.  We had heard of hikers who had done that (the irate property owner complained about them to us as she chased us away).  So we set out to find the trail, bringing along our adventure journal, which we've kept for several years to record things we do together.  This time we made a map in the notebook as we walked off the familiar trail to help us find our way home.  You can see that we found some beautiful clay, which we rubbed on the page while collecting some of it to make into paint. 

This little unbeautiful notebook is a great treasure to both Jacob and me because we look back into it to remember adventures we've had and to find out information we would have otherwise forgotten (how DID we attach the penny to the railroad track that time?)

6 comments:

  1. This is a great way to bond with your Grandson.

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  2. I love this journal Gwen! I cherish the pages that my grandchildren scribble in my sketchbook. Such great sharing....

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  3. I am a new grandma. Your adventure journal really has sparked my imagination. Perhaps I will set about to bind 3 new journals...one to record adventures with 5 month old Iris and 2 for the soon-to-be-born twins, Davis and Lydia. Keep on trekking, Jacob and Gwen!

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  4. Gwen, I just bought your new book. Love it and all of your work & always have, but just found your blog! Can't wait to see what goodness this brings!

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  5. I love the idea of an Adventure Journal! Gwen, will you be my grandmother?

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  6. Melly- I will! Now I will have five boys and TWO girls! I always need more girls in my life!

    Thanks for your comments, everyone. I highly recommend keeping an adventure journal, whether it's with children or grownups or yourself. I'm posting another page from one of the adventure journals right now!

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