Some journal entries capture a landscape or a natural experience but this spread simply records the time of a favorite Santa Cruz Mountains hike. This serves more like a daily diary entry than anything else: went on a hike at Fall Creek- took about 4 hrs. I sometimes draw a map (never to scale) but this time I used the trail map (gluing it into my journal with rubber cement) and recorded the time I reached each destination. On the right side of the vertical spread I added a few highlights from the hike. Including something I had never experienced before, an aggregation of thousand upon thousands of lady bugs covering a stump on the banks of Fall Creek. These beetles mass in large gatherings when it gets colder to conserve warmth. A sure sign that summer is drawing to a close. Again its about noticing the little things that paint a big picture.

The ladies gathering on a tree stump on the banks of Fall Creek in the Fall Creek Unit of Henry Cowell State Park.