The 100 Day Project (2026)

Page 1 – Constance’s Spring Parsley

March 18, 2026

Project Introduction

For the last few years my “someday” goal has been to create a nature field guide, of sorts, highlighting my many years of observations in the East Mountains of central New Mexico.   Well, my “Someday” is officially here! Coinciding with the February 22, 2026 kick-off of the 100 Day Project¹ (Project), I began by committing an hour/day to developing that field guide as my project and immediately penciled out an outline and a few thumbnail sketches of a sample page. But, after retrieving my iNaturalist lists of East Mountains sightings I’ve made from home and during countless hikes, eliminating redundancies, and totaling up the individual species, my reported observations still numbered in the many hundreds. I would be working on this Project for the next five to six years!

Interlude

When we moved to the East Mountains in the summer of 2017, we quickly fell in love with the beauty of the wide open landscapes, the grasslands and woodlands habitats, the diverse populations of wildflowers and mammals, resident and migratory birds, and the insects and reptiles. So yes, nature is plentiful; species are many. 

Now Back to the Project

Not to be overwhelmed (or defeated) by the potential magnitude of my Project, I decided to:

1. “Divide and Conquer” by focusing on a single location …. our current subdivision and surrounding area and trails; and
2. Prioritize quality over quantity by creating one page over two days, keeping each work session to one hour; and 
3. Keep the Project motivating and interesting, by adding fun facts or other research tidbit about each species.

“These guidelines seemed more realistic,” I thought, with a cautiously optimistic chance of achieving my goal of creating a nature field guide. 

So with that as an introduction to my Project, here’s Page 1 to “An Illustrated Guide to the Nature of Las Leyendas Subdivision & Environs, Tijeras, East Mountains, New Mexico” — with many more pages to follow. 🤞

Constance’s Spring Parsley (Vesper constancei)

¹ “The 100 Day Project is a free global art project that takes place online (https://www.the100dayproject.org/).  Every year, thousands of people all around the world commit to 100 days of creating, and anyone can participate. The idea is simple: choose a creative project, do it every single day for 100 days, and document and share your process online. The most recent round of the Project began February 22, 2026, but any day is a great day to begin.”