This is a shot of my two daughters. We were on a nature walk. But since both were in college, I didn’t think of what we were doing as “nature study.” Nature study, I thought, was a homeschool subject.

Yet what else would you call it? Both are clearly students of nature in the photo. Once you have the habit, it pretty much sticks with you.

Looking back, I’m reminded that we’ve been doing this a long time — setting out, looking around, and learning more about what we noticed when we get back home.

Much of the joy of nature study was doing it together, and sharing so many discoveries. I feel less confident about going into the woods alone these days. Still, I’d like to return to a more intentional approach to nature study. The world is going crazy, but that only makes it more worthwhile to look outward at the amazing order and complexity and beauty in the network of life all around us.

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You can feel the chill in these photos of bluebirds, beaver-ravaged landscapes and ingeniously dammed streams, bare branches waiting for their spring clothing, busy salamanders scooting under and over the dead leaves choking cold pools.

But spring is in the works. The salamanders prove it. But you can feel a certain yearning in the sun and air for late winter to release its grip and let the growing season burst forth.

I wanted to touch base about a change you may have noticed if you’ve subscribed to this blog. Sometime in August, Feedburner, the service that has handled my email subscriptions, ended. I’ve been trying a new service, but I didn’t realize it included ads in the emails. I don’t care for this and plan to switch to a different plugin in the next week or so. The only catch is that I won’t be able to transfer the list of subscribers this time.

If you are an email subscriber and would like to continue, please feel free to re-subscribe! But whether you do or not, I wanted to express how much I’ve appreciated your interest and support. It has meant a lot to me that there are kindred spirits out there interested in what we see around us when we take the time to look. Thanks for reading!

My daughter and I have some art on display at the local library — pastels/paintings of hers, and photos of mine.

It was fun to work together choosing pictures. Hers are of horses; mine are of nature. After we hung them and left, it was a good feeling to know they were bringing some beauty and pleasure to others. It’s neat that the library gives people such an opportunity.

Around here, the winter feels long right about now. Really long. It’s been cold enough to keep us inside. The wind chill, combined with having to blaze a trail through the snow if we go on a walk, leaves us with nature study through the window.

Fortunately, the interest isn’t just through the window. Sometimes, the window itself becomes interesting!

My 13-year-old has taken lots of photos of interesting frost patterns on the windows of our house. I’d like to exhibit some of her work in this post — all of these photos are hers.

It’s truly amazing how many patterns — sometimes on the same window — Jack Frost can come up with.

This one looks like a cross section of some layers of soil — with burrowing creatures’ trails in the deepest layer.

One window might be a blank; the next, covered with feathers.

Or water droplets.

Or strange zig-zags, like an etch-a-sketch.

Edges look different than middles.

Some patterns look like deep sea creatures.

Now and then, Jack Frost paints a landscape.

When the sun shines through them, the edges and outlines come alive. The sparkling animation can’t be captured totally in a photo.

We like this single, solitary dancing star.

More textures…

This one reminds us of spring ferns…

This one looks like it’s sculpted into the window glass itself.

Some simply defy description. But the variety is marvelous.

They may be similar, but on closer inspection, no two patterns seem exactly the same.

I’m thankful that our cabin fever days are brightened by these beautiful examples of native crystal creations. And I’m thankful to have a daughter so skilled at capturing them on camera.