Writing for Nature

During college, we read a selection from A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold. He's one of the famous early writers about protecting the environment. I finally dug out my copy of the book and read through the whole thing. He has a beautiful way of describing the wilderness.

The introduction was by Barbara Kingsolver. I actually had to read one of her books in school too (Animal Dreams). And then I read two more of her books in college (Flight Behavior, and Prodigal Summer) since I needed to read a lot of environmental fiction. Since her writing includes environmental themes, it makes sense that she did the intro for this book.

In her intro, something worked its way into my brain. She said that a lot of what Aldo Leopold wrote would be similar to a blog post today. I'd just gone to Monterey, so my brain started plotting ways to turn my trip into an article. It's not specifically inspired by Aldo Leopold, but more from a number of nature writers including John Muir and Thoreau. 

While I was in Monterey, I wasn't planning on writing anything, like I had done for my Sacramento trip, but I kept thinking of little details that would be fun to include. And when I started writing, I kept getting more and more ideas. Though that usually happens with me. This is a far more thorough and polished account than my other travel stories. Those have always just been little scattered tales of my experiences. But this  is a full-on article/story/thing (Is it an article or a short story? Beats me). 

Now I want to write a lot more stuff like this. It's fun! But that means I need to get out and do meaningful nature experiences. Trudging down a hiking trail is usually too superficial to provide deep writing material. I've been crazy to get out and do stuff. Even small trips are exciting, since I've done so few trips during the pandemic.