I have a very dear friend called Simon who turned 80 last year and I wanted to write about here as his friendship has always encouraged in me the quiet observation of nature around us - both in the majestic and in the tiniest of places.
I have a vivid memory of tales he told me of slugs probably twenty years ago that he made into the most epic of wildlife adventures. He is living with the cruelty of motor neurone disease and as time passes and he declines further into his illness I think more about his joy of the natural world and the enjoyment of the simplest of moments that mark changes around us and that I want to observe and share with him as he increasingly can't see them for himself.
His friendship has always made me want to stop and take a few extra minutes to just watch and listen and I think we all need a friend like that. Who inspires a quiet enjoyment and a true noticing of the intricacies and wonder of our magnificent planet. Just a bit of encouragement from the right person can really pull your attention into something you might never otherwise have noticed or appreciated.
Simon has popped into my mind often on our journey to school this year which has taken us past a large pool of rainwater that often collects when the water tables are high but has been a more permanent fixture in this very wettest of winters. Temporary pools like this often seem somehow stiller and with cleaner lines and I always feel compelled by their momentary beauty.
Despite the knowledge that flooding can often wreak havoc for wildlife (and humans of course) that can't escape floodwater, a new (smallish) pool of water in the landscape always creates a new kind of beauty that we often can't help but admire and some of these ephemeral pools of water are also of great value to wildlife too.
The pool we see on our journey to school is often there with excessive rain but has become a daily fixture since Christmas and we have started to look out for the wildlife that has begun to flock to its edges. We have had to pull over to watch buzzards and crows feeding (and then fighting over their territory) - it truly feels like a treat to see a bird of prey down on the ground drinking, we've seen beautiful gangly herons standing in the beautiful still water and then awkwardly taking flight and flying over us as we drive past, pairs of swans being their ever elegant selves and on particularly wet and windy days seagulls bobbing on the pool in great numbers - casting our minds out to the watery edges of our island nation and as the lores of received wisdom tell us, imagining there is indeed bad weather at sea.
Alongside looking for birdlife on new pools of water, as the water tables continue to be abundantly full, I have been transported back to my childhood by taking the children on spring hunting adventures everywhere we go as they are that much easier to find. I am not sure there is anything that feels more deeply connecting to our earth than to find the source of water bubbling out of the ground and put your hand in (carefully) as far as you can to feel the water rising up.
Knowing that we are experiencing the beginnings of our warming world as we see record breaking wet winters is unsettling and worrying but I hope that carefully observing the natural world around us can give us comfort and reconnect and galvanise us to take action.
