The Adventure of the Nature Re-Connection

It's been a few weeks since I last wrote and that's because life continues to roll monotonously on as lockdown continues. It's difficult to write about life when it's been put on hold.

Mentally, I'm finding lockdown something of a rollercoaster. I really thrived in the first month or so as all the everyday pressures of life were taken away and I could do whatever the hell I liked- well, within the confines of my own home. As the weeks rolled by I began to get a bit down and felt a bit useless. There's only so much time you can spend doing nothing before you start to feel like you really ought to be doing something. I keep imagining being asked by a grandchild one day what I did during the pandemic and the answer will be 'fuck all'. The feeling of uselessness is not a new one to me but it rarely seeps to the forefront quite so strongly as it has recently.

That phase seems to have been put behind me, for now at least. One thing which really helped was re-connecting with nature. I have spent hours at a time sat in the conservatory looking out at our small garden, watching the many birds that visit come and go. It's unusual that you get a change to do this and I've been able to recognise individuals. These include a pair of blackbirds- the young female's foraging skills are superb and she seems to be able to pick out worms from the lawn with ease whilst the male is one of the most aggressive birds I've ever seen and will chase away any other bird that comes vaguely near it. I was delighted when they appeared on day with a healthy-looking baby in tow. 



One day I spotted some droppings on the lawn and I concluded they might be from hedgehogs. So I sat out one evening and was soon treated to the huffing of hedgehogs in next door's garden. They were just about visible in the dying light and I sat hoping they would make their way across to our garden. Whilst I waited I fired up my bat detector and watched and listening to the bats flitting their way along the stretch of gardens, at times flying very close to my head. Then there came a noise from the fence and a hedgehog tumbled into the garden, much to my delight.

Spring is here and so the local wildlife is really busy. Birds are zooming around collecting nesting material and food for their chicks. The local gosling 'nursery' has opened up once more and they are around fifty adorable goslings waddling around a nearby field. Insects are starting to emerge and you can stare at the right bush and see all sorts of weird and wonderful tiny creatures. 


The lockdown rules have been relaxed a little meaning I could drive a short distance to go for a walk. Most of the local nature reserves have not yet opened their car parks yet but I know secret but legal places to park nearby and so have had the opportunity to have a change of scenery. These places have been far quieter than my usual local walks so social distancing has been much easier.

The benefits of spending time in nature have only recently begun to be recognised by the medical world but some places are beginning to prescribe time spent in nature. I don't really know why walking around natural places calms me so much but I know it does. I like to think it's something primitive. Human beings didn't evolve to sit in unnatural shelters spending our time staring at screens. We evolved to run and walk through the world outside and it feels right to be outside. There's also benefits to be had from clean air and sunlight, nature's easy to obtain medicine. Just don't say that to Donald Trump or he'll suggest we should start injecting air from national parks or something. 

That's all for today but I'm hoping to be back next week with the first of a new series of blogposts. See you soon!

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