Essays

Moseying: Outdoor Recreation Activities

Author and Former Midlander to speak at Sibley on Saturday
August 4, 2010

At 10  a.m. Saturday August 7th, former Midlander Dr. Susan Tomlinson of Texas Tech University will be signing her book How to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook and giving a program, including readings from her works.  In the afternoon she will present an advanced training  to the Llano Estacado chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists.

Filled with useful and encouraging instruction on field sketching, note-taking, and identification, How to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook was written for the beginner and experienced naturalist alike, and offers something for anyone interested in keeping a personal narrative of encounters with nature. She was awarded the Isotope 2008 Editor's Choice Award for Nonfiction for Pentimento, an essay on what it means to love an ugly landscape.

On her website, she states, "My new book, How to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook, is a gentle treatise on the how and why of keeping your own personal record of the natural world, based on years of experience in teaching, writing, and art. Published by Stackpole Books, How to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook is now available in bookstores everywhere."

Laird Christensen, co-editor, Teaching About Place: Learning From The Land  said in a review of the book; "Like the works of Clare Walker Leslie and Hannah Hinchman, How to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook reveals the act of field journaling as a path that leads to deeper perception.  But what sets Tomlinson's book apart is an approach shaped by her years as a scientist working in the field...in all, Tomlinson offers a wonderful marriage of the scientific and aesthetic approaches to field journaling."

Dr. Tomlinson comments, "I was born in Texas and have lived  in the American southwest all my life. My writing covers a diversity of topics related to the desert and prairie landscapes, including natural history, gardening, and sustainability. I am also an avid woodworker and maker of canoe paddles, and write about the artisanship associated with paddlemaking. I have a BFA in art, and an MS and PhD in Geology, and teach in the Natural History and Humanities (NHH) degree program at Texas Tech University." Dr. Tomlinson was also a longtime member of the Midland Naturalists.

The NHH degree program is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the environment and the human relationship to it. NHH students learn from a variety of disciplines toward this end, including science, philosophy, literature, and the arts. Though it is focused on the natural world and mankind's place in it, the degree can be customized to fit a student’s future academic and occupational goals, such as nature or environmental writing, the study of law, natural history interpretation, and photography.

Dr. Tomlinson further explains, "The field journal is a powerful component in the naturalist’s bag of tools. With it, the naturalist documents plants and animals, creates maps of discovery, and chronicles field experiences. In this course, we learn the culture, history, and purpose behind the naturalist’s journal—both traditional versions, like those of Lewis and Clark, and more contemporary versions, such as those kept today on “blogs.”"

For someone wishing to learn more about the Natural History and Humanities courses, visit this website and read "On becoming a llanera" by one of her students with the nom-de-plume "Leedle." It is an informative and articulate introduction to "interdisciplinary" learning.

Dr. Tomlinson also writes a charming blog, and explains her purpose for the blog; "Though I live in a fairly big city, in a typical suburban neighborhood, I think of myself as a homesteader on that prairie. After all, to homestead means to lay claim to a place by working the land, and that is just what I am doing in my garden. I am laying claim to place. My blog, The Bike Garden, is my irregular diary about that adventure. You can expect conversations about rainwater collection, garden design, bicycle commuting, replacing lawns with prairie grasses, community, building things, chickens (a future addition to The Bike Garden), victory gardens, and just about anything else that comes across my field of view on any given day." Dr. Tomlinson also draws a weekly cartoon on her blog featuring two chickens.