Betsy Rogers-Knox will lead you in exploring a range of basic principles and techniques through observation of Great Masters’ works of art and a variety of short exercises designed to open your eyes to the importance of composition. This Massachusetts Horticultural Society virtual class will take place Tuesday, February 4 from 9:30 am – 1:30 pm Eastern. $80 for Mass Hort members, $100 for nonmembers, Register at https://www.masshort.org/upcoming-classes/
Join artist and tracker Will Close on January 26 at 1 pm for this first in a series of natural history explorations. In this workshop you will get a chance to deepen your awareness and connection to the natural world through wildlife tracking and the use of nature journaling and field sketching. You will be guided through various foundational techniques designed to strengthen your observational skills. This workshop will be primarily held in the field. All experience levels are welcome. Additional explorations will be happening throughout the year.
Will Close is an artist, designer, educator, and wildlife tracker who specializes in the intersection of nature, art, design, and teaching. He holds a degree in Fine Art Painting from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and studied wildlife track and sign under Dan Gardoqui and Daniel Hansche. Currently, Will resides in Concord, MA where he maintains an artistic studio practice and is an outdoor education instructor with the Carroll School located in Lincoln, MA. His passion for nature illustration, tracking and sharing it with others, has taken him from the spruce forests of Maine to the Ecuadorian Amazon. Most recently, he was the inaugural artist in residence with North Country Land Trust in North Central Massachusetts.
For more information visit http://www.atholbirdclub.org
Your kitchen is more powerful than you think! In this Berkshire Botanical Garden workshop with Kimberly Geisler on Saturday, February 8, from 1 to 3 p.m., discover how common herbs and ingredients from your pantry, fridge and spice cabinet can be made into natural remedies for everyday ailments. We’ll explore kitchen-based solutions for cold and flu relief, stress, headaches, first aid, digestive upsets, and other ailments. Join us to unlock the healing potential hidden in your kitchen, and support wellness from the heart of your home.
Kimberly Geisler is a clinical and folk herbalist, medicine maker and educator at Transcending Roots Apothecary. Kimberly opened an apothecary and community space centered around herbal education in Philadelphia in October of 2019, which has since transitioned into a cooperatively owned healing center, The Sacred Path. Kimberly has now settled in the forests of the Berkshires with her husband and two magical children, building a botanical sanctuary and homestead, and further cultivating our relationship with the land and our communities.
Berkshire Botanical members $45, nonmembers $60. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/kitchen-witchn-herbal-remedies-your-kitchen
Olympic BirdFest, April 10 – 13, offers a major birding event in the wild and untamed Olympic Peninsula, hosted at the new facility of the Dungeness River Nature Center. The North Olympic Peninsula comprises a strip of coastlines and forests between the million-acre Olympic National Park and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The steep rise of the mountains allows birders to sample coastal, riparian, forested and montane habitats in close proximity. The Dungeness River Watershed, for example, drops from 7800 feet to the sea in only 32 miles. The central location of the Dungeness River Nature Center puts all these habitats within reach of birders.
Participants can choose to visit Neah Bay near the northwesternmost point of the continental United States in the territory of the Makah Tribe, or to walk the longest natural sand spit in the nation at Dungeness Spit, now under management by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. The Elwha River, freed in 2014 by the largest dam removal project in the United States, offers riparian birding. Other field trips will explore Sequim Bay, Port Angeles Harbor, Dungeness Bay, Ediz Hook and wooded areas and fields.
The April dates of Olympic BirdFest allow birders to catch wintering birds such as harlequin and long-tailed ducks, along with spring migrants such as the rufous hummingbirds that arrive in this area with the blooming of red-flowering currants in early April.
All proceeds from BirdFest support the Dungeness River Nature Center, helping to fund environmental education programs that connect people of all ages to the Peninsula’s ecosystems. Field trip leaders and speakers donate their time and expertise advance the River Center’s mission to inspire understanding, respect, and stewardship of the natural and cultural resources of the region.
Whether you’re a seasoned birder, a nature enthusiast, or simply curious about the diverse ecosystems of the Dungeness River Watershed, we invite you to enjoy the birds and landscapes of the North Olympic Peninsula with us! In addition to the field trips, birders may participate in presentations, workshops and a banquet (with great food, a speaker and a raffle of birding-centric items).
Sequim is the ancestral home of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe (a partner of the non-profit Dungeness River Nature Center). Their Tribal headquarters are at the head of Sequim Bay at Blyn. A tour explaining traditional Northwest Coast totemic art (totem poles, house posts, masks, and signage) at the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Center and their Seven Cedars Resort properties will also be offered. For more information about the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, see https://library.jamestowntribe.org/home where you can also find pre-recorded presentations by tribal elders and leaders on the Tribe’s culture and history.
The Olympic BirdFest is a partnership of the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society, Dungeness River Nature Center and Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. Proceeds from this festival help support the educational programs of the Dungeness River Nature Center. For more information, call 360-681-4076, or email: info@olympicbirdfest.org.
In nature, brilliant colors appear in myriad places—along the surface of a bubble, on butterfly wings, after a rainy day, or through a windowpane. Remarkably, many of these hues don’t involve any chemical dyes or paints. Instead, these colors originate from the internal material structure and their interactions with light. This Harvard Museum of Natural History workshop on February 1 from 2 – 3:30 pm will dive into the world of “structural color,” zooming in on fascinating structurally-colored materials in nature with microscopes and zooming out to applications of structural color for next-generation materials. As the finale, workshop attendees will craft holographic rainbow chocolate to take home. No prior science background is required to participate in this class. All attendees must be 18 or older. $30 Harvard Museum members, $35 nonmembers. Register at https://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/event/holographic-chocolate-secrets-structural-color
The Massachusetts Pollinator Network hosts monthly presentations by experts in a wide range of topics related to pollinators and how to support them. These are recorded. We welcome everyone, whether you are a seasoned community organizer, a home gardener, researcher, teacher, work in the field already, or are new to pollinator protection concerns. Please join us! On January 28 at 7 pm meet Dr. Avalon Owens, who will speak on the Impacts of Artificial Light on Insects. The Zoom program link will be sent upon registration HERE
With improvements in literacy, and the end of taxes on newspapers, the nineteenth-century garden press emerged with a willing press corps of garden writers, many of whom were private gardeners, florists or nurserymen, who wielded immense power. From the monthly periodical, the Gardeners’ Magazine, launched by J C Loudon to weekly newspapers such as Glenny’s Gardeners’ Gazette and Lindley’s Gardeners’ Chronicle these publications significantly contributed to the professionalization of the horticultural trade. Editors of gardening newspapers needed interesting copy to entertain their readership and advertising to grow their profits. New horticultural institutions needed nationwide coverage to promote their organizational aims to recruit new members and obtain subscriptions. Dialogues of working voices (at the editor’s discretion) can be seen in the gardening newspapers and reveal what was going on in gardeners’ lives and their concerns. JC Loudon pioneered this method of correspondence and knowledge exchange between professional and amateur gardeners. We shall explore his legacy and how it improved the field of horticultural education for all, in this Gardens Trust online lecture on January 21.
After working in the design industry, Francesca Murray studied horticulture and garden design at Berkshire College of Agriculture before running her own garden design business. She has an MA in Garden History and is currently in her fourth year of a PhD at Queen Mary’s University of London, researching nineteenth-century gardeners, nurserymen, and the associations that came to their aid. She is a trustee of the Gardens Trust and a life member of Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust and London Parks and Gardens Trust as well as Archivist and guest speaker for Perennial (formerly known as the Gardeners Royal Benevolent Institution). She leads walks around London on the nineteenth-century horticultural press and is a regular speaker on garden history to horticultural societies around the country. The ticket for this individual talk costs £8. Click HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 2 weeks .
Nurture a sunshiny feeling and boost your immune system with foods and herbal remedies for your daily routine to support your health throughout the winter. Recipes and demonstrations are included.
This Chicago Botanic Garden class on January 25 will be taught online via Zoom. All registrations must be submitted online two days before your class starts. Registered students will receive login instructions one day in advance. $32 for CBG members, $40 for nonmembers. Register at www.chicagobotanic.org
Dawn Petter, herbalist, Petalune Herbals is the instructor.
So you think you have a black thumb? Think again! Learn the most important basics of houseplant care from lighting to watering, repotting, and fertilizing. Discover what plants might do best in your home, and how to troubleshoot pests and diseases.
This Chicago Botanic Garden class will be taught online via Zoom. All registrations must be submitted online two days before your class starts. Registered students will receive login instructions one day in advance. The class will take place Monday, January 27 from 7:30 – 9:00 Eastern. $24 for CBG members, $30 for nonmembers. Register at www.chicagobotanic.org
Julia Zoltwosky, horticulture educator is the instructor.
Thanks to whaling merchant James Arnold who left a portion of his estate to Harvard College about 150 years ago, today we have the Arnold Arboretum as one of the gems of the city’s park systems. The voluminous collection of plants, trees, gardens, flora and fauna, concepted by Frederick Law Olmsted, quickly grew to 7 miles of gardens, pathways and views, now known as part of the famous “Emerald Necklace.”
Students of the Harvard Agricultural school have the resource for valuable research, but photographers have unending photo ops in soothing water scenes, landscaping, macro photography and if willing, a view of the Boston skyline from the top of the hill of the Arboretum. Every season offers new images to add to a photo portfolio, with exercises in photo compositions of every sort, from Leading Lines of the winding lanes to Rule of Thirds layout and colorful studies to convey a cool quiet or a vibrant wake-up call.
The class will take place Saturday, February 1, from 11:30 – 2:30. 125 Arborway, Boston, MA 02130 $125. Register on Eventbrite HERE.
Due to weather or other circumstances beyond our control we will be happy to work with you to reschedule or provide a refund. However, if you should need to cancel or require a new class date, contact us. A $25 transfer fee will be imposed without a 3 day notice before the scheduled class. Call Digital Photo Academy at 1 877 372 2231 or a field agent at 917 597 7053. Lots of people seem to hang up if our welcome recording comes on instead of a live voice, but we promise to return your message within a day or two if you leave one with your name and number. It would be even better if you included your email address as well as the date and city of the class you are considering. If leaving a voice mail message is not your thing, please email us at DPAbooking@digitalphotoacademy.com and include the date and city of the class you are considering, as well as your phone number.
