I absolutely love Spring when it really starts to kick in. A symbol of new growth when everything is fresh and bursting with life. I have loved it since I was a child. I didn’t know anything about nature or the tilting of the earth on it’s axis as it orbited the sun. I did notice that when the light of day got longer, the weather warmed up, plants started to grow and there was lot’s more birdsong. It meant playing out longer at night with my mates. New colours, smells and sounds that had been missing for months and bees and other insects were present again. It filled me with a quiet sense of excitement. My little world came more alive somehow and I knew there was lots more to come for the next few months. Even as a small child I took a keen interest in these things. Not in a way that I do now where I like to identify the species but in that innocent way that a child looks at life – to simply watch, observe and marvel.
When I visit my woods, I can regain that feeling. I put food out for the birds and just sit and watch their antics and enjoy the beauty of these tiny feathered creatures who have mastered the facility of flight. No less amazing are the trees and plants that withdraw their energies from the outside world when the days shorten and the temperatures drop, then re-emerge with new growth transforming the landscape. I spend time just walking slowly, standing, sitting, looking, listening, smelling. Taking it all in with that sense of wonder and joy. This time of year, I treasure as the best time.
Yesterday the weather was weird. I passed through a sleet storm then back out into sunshine. Mid morning came a short but intense fall of small round snow balls, like hail but softer and gentle. I had lot’s to do, collecting logs to take home, chopping some of the newly felled ones and repairing my composting toilet enclosure that had rotted and collapsed under the winter snow. Chopping logs is hard work, especially on your back. Chopping a single log into four or six pieces and stacking them involves bending and picking at least the same number of times. Multiply that action by the number of logs you chop in one session and you have a lot of bending to do. Still it’s very satisfying when you see the results.
As you know I am interested in bushcraft – the skills of utilising what nature provides to enable us to survive in the wild. Foraging and cooking wild plants is one of the main aspects and a favourite amongst bushcrafters is making teas with them. Nettle tea is a popular one. The plant is easy to identify properly (essential) and it has various health benefits. It’s supposed to help reduce inflammation and is a mild diuretic to flush out toxins. I have been meaning to try it for a few years but keep missing the opportunity. It is best when the nettles are young and tender, you pick just the tops then boil them up for a few minutes. I had no idea what they tasted of and I decided now is a good time to try it. I imagined it might be quite bitter. No it’s not. The aroma and flavour is very mild and vaguely reminds me of something but not any plant based drink I could think of. All I can say (and this is a bit weird) is it reminded me of the smell of freshly ironed cotton. The smell I remembered from childhood when Mum did her ironing before we used fabric conditioners. It was pleasant to drink and somewhat comforting. I’ll drink it again for sure.
The birdsong in the morning was amazing. I am also interested in making experimental music and one of the things I like to play with are field recordings. That is sounds that we hear around us that are not created specifically for listening to but sounds that occur either naturally (as in birdsong) or by machinery for example. I took my little recorder and plugged in my earphones to monitor the sounds. It worked like a super sensitive amplifier and the amount and volume of different bird calls was stunning. I could identify robin, wren, chiffchaff, song thrush, nuthatch, bluetit, great tit just for starters. It was an avian orchestra. Here’s a snippet. I couldn’t add just the sound file here so uploaded it to my music website, hence the odd and unrelated picture.
What a great day, hope you can catch even a small flavour of spring in the woods and am glad I can share it. Go out if you can and find some woodland and switch on your senses, this is the best time of year to do it.
