How lovely to see some sunshine starting to warm things up and it is beginning to feel more like Summer is really on the way at last! The stormy weekend, and the showers created some interesting diversions around my way, with the odd tree down across the road, and some very bedraggled birds and animals around. I felt very sorry for another baby donkey, just wobbling to its feet, earlier this week, trying to keep warm in the pouring rain – probably wondering why he didn’t wait to be born for a few days more!
I am more than ever encouraged by what Nature shows us – that leaves return to trees, blossom flourishes, grass grows, calves, lambs and piglets are born, not to mention the sound of nestlings chirruping in hedgerows and trees, the activity of birds either still building nests or feeding their young. There are rhythms and heartbeats in Nature that tell us that, however badly we treat her, she will keep pushing through, and that feels like a good lesson to take on board if we can.
I am sure that many of us have become more connected to the seasons and the changes in our surroundings over the last year or so, and perhaps that makes us view our world with more concern for the impact we have on it. If we are to keep it going for our children and grandchildren and those who come after, we know we need to behave more carefully now, to live in harmony and not to simply take what we feel we are entitled to from the natural world.
I have become so much more aware of how I use plastic, and cut that back. I recycle more, use up leftovers in the kitchen more than I did (some delicious soups and salads have resulted, but I probably will never be able to reproduce the same combinations because they really have resulted from whatever was left in the fridge!) I am buying more thoughtfully, and only when really necessary.
My garden is about to become more productive too – 10 years after seeing the house I now live in, some work is going to be done to help create a level bit of ground where I can sit out and eat, and some raised beds where I can, as soon as possible, get back to growing more fruit, vegetables and herbs, which have been confined to just growing in pots over recent years!
Happy Bank Holiday – stay safe and enjoy what the forecasters say is going to be a sunny weekend!
