Nature Notes
-
Nature Notes
Alleluias and Storms. Turning the key in the lock before work, the notes of a bird dropped faintly through the cloud and stopped me in my tracks, the way a much-loved song suddenly connects above the noisy hubbub of a café, when you hadn’t been aware of any music playing. I froze, head cocked to […]
-
Nature Notes
Weather. Station. Strange and unsettling to wait so late into Winter before the first hard frost occurs. And in this mild, wet year, it comes as a relief; beautiful and normal in abnormal times. Because, everywhere is sinking into mud: fenceposts rotting, flints rising to the surface to lacerate boot soles and dog paws. The […]
-
Nature Notes
Black Bryony and the Jaggy Creel. Dawn, and a mist rises from the lake by the big house, and a small cloud inversion hovers over the source of the River Enborne. It lifts and mingles with a plume of smoke from the biomass wood boiler, and all is caught in the most ethereal, golden light […]
-
Nature Notes
Helvella crispa and the White Fog. There are a few surprises down the old holloway. The fog came down this morning after a brief, warming sunrise, thickened and settled. I cannot see the hill. On these barely-gets-light days the earth is a painting. The ground I walk on is a chaotic mandala of leaves in […]
-
Nature Notes.
Old Gods & Raven Calls. These winter days, we become crepuscular. Sometimes it feels that, outside, only the glow from big round hazel leaves, or the gold flare from a little quince tree in the hedge, with its hard, yellow-green fruits, provides the only natural light. Like a stored memory; a facsimile of sunshine, a […]
-
Nature Notes
Owls & Flowers. These last five weeks, I have been seeking solace in the countryside around me. The golden light & air of September so soft, I could wrap it around myself. The rain of October falling relentlessly, like some sort of empathy. Noticing small things and wild things has been a great comfort: a […]
-
Nature Notes
The Sense of an Ending. The dew-filled tubes of stubble straws have their own silly surprises. They can hold a lot of water. This is apparent, when walking across harvested fields in bare legs & a favourite old dress. I love harvest time. We plan a family walk, high on the Pewsey Downs and by […]
-
Nature Notes
The Sea & The Gold Drop Roads. All week, the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path had taken us right, or further North; down to the Havens and the beaches. But after a careful night walk across the clifftops, our curiosity had been piqued by a small boat, lit and anchored under the steep, wooded cliffs of the […]
-
Nature Notes
A Wilder Birdfair. This year’s ‘Glastonbury for birders’ lived up to that image with a Friday deluge. But the Birdfair community are no strangers to mud and staff & volunteers worked incredibly hard to keep it open. I’ve only managed a trip to Rutland Water’s Birdfair once before, when the children were much younger – […]