We are having some unusually hot weather, entirely opposite to just a week ago. I arrived yesterday and reversed my car down to my parking spot and sat for a few minutes. A robin arrived first landing on a nearby branch, then surprisingly a wren, clinging to a hawthorn trunk and looking through the windscreen at me. The connection with nature had begun already. I had no major jobs to do other than take my seasonal Woodland Trust fixed point photographs. This is absolutely the best time of year to see and be in the woods in my opinion. Woodland life in all it’s forms is starting to emerge and it’s fresh and vibrant but not overpowering. Birds are most vocal and busy finding mates, building nests and laying eggs. Trees are blossoming and it’s light and airy but in just a few weeks, it will darken as the canopy leafs over. Insects will start munching the leaves and diseases will start making inroads into healthy new tissues. So we have to savour this time, it will be another year before it’s repeated again but woodland time seems to move so fast in Spring. So it was to be a day of taking as much in as possible, being observant and leisurely and grateful for the opportunity to witness this amazing annual resurgence of life in the woods.
I fed the birds, checked the trail camera and took a slow walk around. The blackbird nest at the back of my logshed now has three eggs. The bird was off the nest and I gently touched the eggs with the back of my hand. Another connection with nature. Three developing lives inside those thin eggshells, warm from the bird that was nurturing them. I took some of the W.T. photos, chatted to my good neighbours (more connections) then headed off down a ride for more photography. A startled hare nearby legged it, disappearing into the woods. Another connection and I wanted to say to it “Don’t be frightened of me, I will never harm you” but why should it see me as any different than a predator?
The day was warming up and I checked the feral bees in the owl box. They were all over the entrance hole, in and out, some fanning to circulate fresh cooling air. The colony looks quite big now. I placed a dish full of stones and water nearby for them. Bees maintain a constant temperature in the hive and they need water to help cool it. The stones allow them to land safely without risk of drowning. It’s rewarding to know you can help a little.
Butterflies were abundant in the sunny glade, I spotted Peacocks, Brimstones, Speckled Browns and Orange Tip species. Hoverflies and other flying things were abundant but as yet, not many mosquitoes. A pair of ladybirds were frantically mating and a small flock of long tailed tits were drinking from an old car tyre that had been cut in half to form a hollow doughnut which I top up with spare water. They reminded me that it needed cleaning and refilling. Other creatures will gain refreshment from it too. More connections.
Lunch was an experiment. Tagliatelle, in mushroom cuppa soup with fresh mushrooms, onion, wild garlic leaves and nettle tips. Yes you read that right – nettles. I cooked it all up on my vintage Russian camp stove. It was good, the garlic leaves and nettles didn’t add much flavour but they are rich with trace elements and vitamins I guess. I nearly dropped the whole plate on the ground when I tried to relight the stove a few minutes later without re-priming. I thought it would still be hot enough to vapourise the fuel but no, it sort of exploded in flames. What an idiot but lesson learnt!
I hope you can at least partly understand what I am trying to convey. I know some people who read this will need no explanation because they are lucky enough to be switched on to nature and totally “get it”. Our busy, overdeveloped world has driven a barrier between us and our fellow lifeforms who live alongside us and rely on the natural resources this planet has to offer. It’s easy to forget that we too are a link in the chain that allows us all to live and thrive and that all these lifeforms – trees, plants, insects, fungi, animals, etc are equally important and have equal rights to be here. We seem to be at the top of the food chain and in many ways have the most influence on shaping this planet. I don’t need to remind you how much of a mess we have made here too. Just watch the news and the documentaries about wildlife and man’s impact on it.
To me and many others, it is depressing. So when I spend a day in the woods, I escape from all those worries. I am ensconced in as much natural, non-artificial life as is possible in the developed world today. I enter the woods as an equal to everything that lives there. No, in fact I place them above me. My respect and love for them is hard to convey but it’s not a “head” thing, it’s a heart thing and it’s a deep feeling that, if you can “get it”, is one of the best. To start to get it, just sit or walk slowly in the woods, or anywhere else where nature is abundant and there is little human presence. Turn up the volume on your senses. Take an interest in the lives that are all around you sharing the same space and time as you. Listen to the birds, notice the different calls and if you can see them, try to identify which is making a particular sound. Try to memorize it. In future, when you hear that sound you will know without seeing it. It’s heartwarming and like recognising a friend across the street by the way they walk or dress. Look at the plants and flowers. What do they smell like? Notice the shape of the leaves. Carefully lift a stone or log and see what tiny creatures have it as a home, then carefully replace it. Do these things and you will make that connection I speak of. You will start to realise that we are part of nature and not apart from it. You will develop an empathy and appreciation for it and your own life will be enriched. For a while your mind will clear of all the rubbish that normally churns around and you will plug into that energy and it will lift and inspire you.
