(Photos by Robert Smith.)

If you were to find us on the trail, you might find us reading a poem, naming a plant, face to face with a fungus, or sketching a seedling. Or lying in wait for a gnat-catcher, chasing a swallowtail, dreaming with tree frogs in a mossy glen. This is our way of being a naturalist, and the way of being a naturalist that we teach. That is, we desire to live in nature, equipped with curiosity and little else.

Becoming a naturalist requires creative space and contemplative mornings and breezy afternoons. To this end, we will find a Muse in Oak, or at least give ourselves to that possibility at Waubonsie State Park on May 15 – 17th.  If you would like to join us, we have room for a few more curious and creative people, and those that want to be more so. 

You can come each day or camp, or rent a cabin. We’ll keep it small and spend our time under canopies of oak studying fungi and bryophytes with Katie Thompson, writing with John Price and Matt Low, doing woodsy art with Madeline Cass and Sarah Berkeley, and sauntering in the way of Thoreau.

Morning at Waubonsie. (Photo by Michelle Miller.)

Loess Hills Nature School: Finding a Muse in Oak retreat. Click Here