Are my journals being archived alongside Charles Darwin??

What does nature mean to you? Where in nature means something to you?

That is what I have been pondering this morning at The Land of Oak and Iron Heritage Centre in Gateshead. Nature's Cure in Time of Need is a project being ran by The Natural History Society of Northumbria (NHSN) and if you are a nature-nerd or history lover in particular, you should check it out.

Through workshops like the one I attended this morning, NHSN are asking people from North East communities to pin point places in nature that mean a lot to them - cue trying to find tiny locations on huge laminated maps! 

The session was super informal, and involved lots of enthusiastic chatting and sharing of favourite walks and nature reserves. I shared some lesser-known local spots that became important to me through Lockdowns and got some great recommendations for future days out.

Although we over-ran with the chatting, part of the session was intended to focus on writing our own 'nature stories' and binding a mini nature journal using embroidery thread. Despite running out of time, we were given all of our materials to take home and I look forward to showing you the finished product at some point in the near future! There is also the option to post or hand-deliver any contributions to the project at a later date.

What exactly is the point of all this? WELL, this is the cool part. The written accounts of peoples connection to nature and journals are going into the Hancock Museum archives in Newcastle (with the consent of the creators of course!) so that in years or even centuries to come, there will be a record of how communities in the area related to and engaged with nature. Amazing, amiright?? 

So I guess you could say we're in good company with the likes of Charles Darwin and John Hancock's work being in those same archives!

If you'd like to know more or are in the North East and want to get involved you can visit www.nhsn.org.uk The project appears to be ongoing and the outreach sessions fairly new, so there's likely to be more opportunities available