Nature-Led Collages: Kerfe’s contribution

March 2, 2026 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 4 Comments

Hello Nature-Led Friends!

Am I a day late? Yes, probably. I want to thank Kerfe for participating and sharing her nature-led collage with us! She has been posting her art and thoughts for quite a long time now and I encourage you to visit her site at: https://kblog.blog/

Kerfe’s Collages

Abstractions of a beach scene, where the land and sea meet.

Extrapolations into I-ching Hexagrams

Kerfe says that she likes to visit the beach every year and enjoys placing things into I-Ching Hexagrams.

Hexagram #37 – Family

I Ching Hexagram – Family By Kerfe https://kblog.blog/

Hexagram #55 – Abundances

I Ching Hexagram – Abundances By Kerfe https://kblog.blog/

I love these! Kerfe’s contribution has inspired new lines of thinking in my own current musings and reaffirmed my belief that people share an innate connection to other people. I’ve currently been obsessing with the shape of hexagons as a framework to find solutions for systemic social issues. Hexagrams are different, but they’re still an ancient way of conveying social information in a symbolic form beyond the omnipresence of circles and squares in our modern lives.

Art is the oldest form of communication. When we drew with sticks in the dirt to convey messages beyond pointing and making whatever noises constituted as early language at the time. We learned to tell stories through pictures with pigments of mud, charcoal, and blood in places where it couldn’t be easily washed away. Sharing art, is a way of sharing a part of ourselves. It’s also a way in which we explore and process ideas within ourselves.

Why make art?

While this Challenge deadline has passed, that doesn’t mean you can’t still do it for the sake of doing it. Maybe you don’t think of yourself as an “artist”, that’s okay. If you feel like you need permission than you have my permission to go outside and play with sticks, dirt, shells or whatever. It won’t solve all your problems, but it can give you an ad-free break from social media. 🙂

What’s Next?

Posts on: Nature-led thoughts on AI, Florida Pictures 2026, A Book list: thoughts on current books I’ve just finished…I’ve seriously been tearing through a lot of books and making notes. My office is in a constant state of its “mad scientist” era.

New! Nature-Led Art Challenge: Collage

January 26, 2026 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 8 Comments

_{Annas Hummingbird Female, a quick snapshot 2026, By Melanie Reynolds}

Hello Nature-Led Friends!

It’s been a while since we’ve done something interactive! A few weeks ago, I learned about a “Learn Blender 100-hour Challenge.” (Blender is a free open-source 3D creation tool for making digital art.) As much as I would love to do the 100-hour Blender challenge, I need to focus on learning or refreshing other skills right now. We only have so many hours in the day, right?

If you have the time and inclination, I encourage you to make your own “challenges” to learn something new that you’ve been thinking about. I think a 100-hour commitment challenge sounds reasonable but write your own rules in a way that helps you break down a task into however many units of measure it takes for you to reach your goals.

Here’s my Nature-led Challenge to you/us:

Make a nature inspired art collage preferably using found bits found outside, but if you want to do a “classic collage” of cutting pictures out of a magazine or painting or whatnot that works too. If you would like to share your collage here, (I hope you will!) please email it to me no later than Friday, February 27.

No AI, the purpose is in the physical art of doing.

Below are two collages I’ve made as examples. I collected bits of twigs, moss, and other plant bits from around my yard. Collecting the bits took about fifteen minutes, the physical composition (playing with ideas and photographing took about a half hour.) Final processing included editing in Microsoft picture by playing with adjustments like Brightness, Exposure, Contrast and Sharpness. You’re welcome to play with picture settings too, of course. It’s part of the process. Since I didn’t use any glue, I was able to compost all my little bits when I was done which felt like an added bonus.

Collage 1: Fences

Collage 2: Islands

Are these the most beautiful collages ever? No, no they’re not. I could have worked on the formatting more and done better with the lighting to get rid of the shadows, but I’m working on not overthinking things so much. I decided I didn’t want to focus on perfecting the technicalities, I wanted to focus on the doing and the sharing. Sometimes you make “bad” art for the sake of making any art at all. Getting stuck in the weeds in the pursuit of perfection has not been a good return on my investment in time. The internal argument of “why make bad art” pulled lose an old memory about “Ralph Waldo Emerson and hobgoblins” and that was all I could remember. Once I stopped laughing at the visualization the thought brought to mind, I found the quote on ye olde internet:

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today. — ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essays: First Series (1841) – Self-Reliance

What do you think? I’m always open to suggestions!

Another idea is to create a Nature-led version of Mad Libs. Mad Libs is a story game where people offer nouns, adjectives, verbs etc to be plugged into a pre-scripted story. I would pre-script the story, then ask for key nouns, descriptors and actions. If you volunteer a word, you may even find yourself in the story! I used to do this often when I did ESL tutoring to make money in college and for friends and family just for fun. You can even make it fancy and offer it as a low cost, personalized gift!

Have a wonderful week!

~Final note: If you click on the hypertext link of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s name above it will take you to more of his great quotes.~

December: Nature at Rest

December 31, 2022January 1, 2023 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 27 Comments

_{Lake Crescent 2016 By Melanie Reynolds}

Welcome to 2023!

My New Year’s gift to you is the picture above. Lake Crescent, located near the Hoh Rainforest, and one of the quietest places in the United States according to the Gordon Hempton’s project, One Square Inch of Silence.

To listen to the beauty of the Olympic peninsula and see more pictures visit Gordon Hempton’s website: https://onesquareinch.org/breathing-space/

“SILENCE IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF SOMETHING,
BUT THE PRESENCE OF EVERYTHING.”

-Gordon Hempton, Founder
One Square Inch of Silence
https://onesquareinch.org/

May you find peace and Joy in the new year!

Between the holidays and the crazy weather, I doubt many of you were quiet or restful for very long. This month’s photo submission was a bit of a washout. I kind of suspected this might happen. Life, like all forms of energy has its own ebb and flow similar to water. I’m neither sad nor disappointed.

Please join me in thanking Lisa Troute and Tracy Abell for their photo submission!

So cute!

_{Gopher Tortoise By Lisa Troute Jupiter, Florida.}

The Gopher Tortoise is a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in its native territory of the Southeastern United States. It is the only tortoise found naturally east of the Mississippi River. They can live up to 40-60 years in the wild and 90+ in captivity. (https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/reptiles/gopher-tortoise/)

Lisa says that a lot of animals use the tortoise’s burrows including snakes and small animals. I found this 1:45min clip on PBS Nature about how these other animals also rely on the burrows for safety during fires and hurricanes. This makes the Gopher Tortoise a Nature-Led hero in my book! Wolverines and Badgers might also make nice burrows, but they’re rarely inclined to share their home with others.

_{Unknown bird nest. Barr Lake State Park, Colorado. April 8, 2021 Tracy Abell / Another Day On the Planet}

While Tracy captioned her picture as “Unknown bird nest” I had fun playing Forest Detective and we think we know whose nest this is. Our guess is that it belongs to a Bullock’s Oriole. This type of nest is called a “pendant nest”. I did my original search calling it a “hammock nest” and some other people searched for it calling it a “sock nest”. Whatever you want to call it though, it’s an interesting nest and I love it!

Thank you again Lisa and Tracy for giving me interesting pictures and non-rabbit holes to follow!

Finally, let’s just call this bonus content. Do you need more inspiration for getting excited about nature? Well, check out this lovely fellow and his Becorns! This is a true pleasure to watch. I also appreciate that he has a calm, casual voice similar to my own.

Video belongs to: David M Bird

Nature-Led New Year’s Goals?

If you’re the kind of person who likes to make goals for the new year, what are some of your goals for 2023?

Can you think of how to make these or other goals, Nature-led goals?

Future Photo Submissions:

January: Moss Due: January 31st (Posted Feb 1st PST)

February: Unexpected Blooms and/or Ferns Due: February 28 (March 1st PST)

Fine Print: Photo Submissions Guidelines

Email to: natureledlife@gmail.com, Subject line: Photo Submission for [month] (Multiple months of photos in one email is fine.) Image: Attached as a .JPEG or .PNG file preferred. Captions each picture: Subject in the photo (if known), State/Providence & Country, Date (optional). Your name as you want it to appear, Your blog link (if you have one.) Feel free to add any interesting notes about a picture. I love interesting stories behind things! Let me know if it’s just for ‘my eyes only’ or if I can share any part of it with your photo. Pictures must be your own or you have permission from the Photographer to share it. All copyrights belong to their owners. This is just a free, fun, community site about nature.

As always, THANK YOU for being here and being part of the Nature-Led community!

But wait there’s more! Here is Dinah’s on the cusp photo submission for “Nature at Rest”!

Category: Nature-led Art

Nature-Led Collages: Kerfe’s contribution

New! Nature-Led Art Challenge: Collage

December: Nature at Rest

“SILENCE IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF SOMETHING,
BUT THE PRESENCE OF EVERYTHING.”

“SILENCE IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF SOMETHING,BUT THE PRESENCE OF EVERYTHING.”

“SILENCE IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF SOMETHING,
BUT THE PRESENCE OF EVERYTHING.”