A podcast episode showed up in my feed the other day: Why You Should Snap Pictures of Nature. I started listening while I unloaded the dishwasher in the early morning, and I finished it while I made my lunch. It’s on the Science of Happiness podcast, and in it, the guest talks about her-two week experience noticing nature:

I really like the idea of paying really close attention to what was very ordinary.

– Tejal Rao

She watched the progress of a leaf unfurling; she photographed it every day. “It looked like a, sort of like a leaf burrito.” She continually experienced awe.

Needless to say, I love everything about this: the focus on the ordinary, the awe, the photographing, the leaf burrito. So of course, I want to notice nature, too. Especially now that winter turns to spring, and every day something new is happening if I look closely enough.

After I ate my lunch that day, I went out and saw the crocus and snowdrops I blogged about.

Today, I saw my first bees of the season. In February. I had no idea they came out this early! I guess if there are flowers, there will be bees. As I poked around under the brown leaf litter in a flower bed, I saw new green sedum leaves coming through. I found a volunteer feverfew under the rosemary. And as dumped kitchen scraps in the compost, I saw a dot of purple out of the corner of my eye. The first vinca flower of the season.

The world is coming into color again, slowly slowly.