Window Sill Conservatory

Microseason No. 15, April 14-19

You don’t need to live in a grand manor house to have a conservatory.

I bring the current microseason into our home by creating a window sill conservatory—a tiny museum of natural history— which displays a variety of the specimens and artifacts that I've recently collected.

Here are a few of the plants growing wild in our yard right now.

These bits of nature brighten our home and extend the pleasure of my daily walks.

When my children were young, we studied nature together learning the botanical and common names, artistic qualities, and ecological habits of some common local plants. Today, I continue to study the local flora as an ongoing hobby (obsession!) for myself.

It is an exercise in looking closely— this is lichen viewed through my 10x loupe.

One day, I found a lovely mushroom that had toppled over in a rainstorm. So I brought it home to use as a model for a watercolor painting in my sketchbook.

You can be the Curator of your own tiny museum of natural history! Enjoy making micro-seasonal displays and change them up however you want.

Do experiments and see what happens. How does a tree emerge from a nut, anyway?

Like this!

You can watch miracles happen while you do the dishes.

Pause to notice all the glorious textures, shapes and colors around you in each microseason. Play with some different combinations of natural treasures and let them bring you simple joy each time you pass by.

I wonder what your collection might look like?