Deep Connection with Nature Throughout the Year

A year-long wilderness education series for adults: In ten progressively building sessions from February to December 2027, we will develop a deep, lived connection with nature at Landlmühle using the 13 core routines.

How does our relationship with nature change when we spend time outdoors regularly, observe closely, and become familiar with a place?

In this series, we will explore the 13 core routines of wilderness education throughout the course of the year. They are not individual techniques to be learned in isolation, but interconnected practices of perception and mindfulness. At the heart of the series is Coyote Teaching: We learn through our own experience, curiosity, stories, games, observation, and asking questions together.

The core routines help sharpen the senses, better understand relationships in nature, and build a lasting connection with our surroundings. Over the course of the year, we practice different ways of engaging attentively with nature:

• We regularly spend time at a personal spot in nature and observe what changes. This helps us develop a familiar relationship with a place and learn to sit with silence.

• We share what we encountered that day: an observation, a surprise, an emotion, or a discovery. This allows experiences to be heard, understood, and shared.

• We consciously open all our senses: listening, smelling, feeling, looking, and sensing. This makes our perception more refined and our surroundings more vivid.

• We read tracks, feeding sites, droppings, feathers, and other signs of animals—and come up with our own questions: Who was here? What happened? Why? In this way, the landscape becomes a story that can be read.

• We physically embody the movements and behaviors of animals. In this way, we learn through our bodies, train our attentiveness, and develop empathy for other living beings.

• We set off without a fixed destination and let curiosity, sounds, tracks, and the landscape guide us. This helps us practice walking through nature attentively and with an open mind.

• We draw and organize our observations in external and internal maps. This helps us develop a sense of direction, memory, and a deeper understanding of connections.

• We use field guides to take a closer look at plants, animals, tracks, and natural phenomena. They expand our knowledge, sharpen our eye, and inspire new questions.

• We observe, draw, write, and document. A nature journal helps us look closely, anchor our experiences, and capture our own curiosity.

• We explore basic needs such as warmth, water, food, shelter, and tools. This fosters respect for nature and a sense of our own abilities.

• We remember, imagine, and bring nature experiences to life within ourselves. Inner images help anchor what we have seen and connect it with meaning and significance.

• We learn not only to recognize birds, but also to interpret their calls and behaviors as clues to what is happening in nature. This makes the forest easier to read.

• We consciously notice what we can be grateful for—food, water, light, animals, plants, and encounters. Gratitude opens our eyes to connection and abundance.

The accompanying zine gives you an overview and helps you integrate these experiences into your everyday life. Between meetings, a private group forum is available to you here. You can share observations, questions, and discoveries there and stay in touch throughout the year.

• Saturdays, 10 a.m.–1 p.m. (3 hours)

• maximum 12 participants

• takes place in almost all weather (extreme weather excluded)

• missed topics can be made up the following year

• No prior knowledge required

• In individual cases, participation is possible from age 14 by prior arrangement

• Please leave pets at home

• sitting mat

• weather- and terrain-appropriate clothing and shoes

• Please bring small snacks and a drink to share at the break buffet.

• There are public toilets at the Landlmühle (Finsterwalderstr. 8.4).

• 10 meetings at €55 each, for a total participation fee of €550

• Members of Solawi Landlmühle receive a discount and pay €500

• Materials included