Needless to say, after the glorious weather that we have been enjoying this last couple of weeks or so, everything on the land is surging ahead! The ground is finally beginning to dry out; the herbage to sprout rapidly; the established trees to break out in velvety pussy willow and the first tender pale green leaves. The picture here was taken before
the leaves had begun to emerge and only the little blobs of soft down are visible. We have seen the first bumble bees haphazardly navigating their way around the field… last summer we noticed that there are a lot of little wild colonies buried in the long grasses. And last Saturday, as we were sitting enjoying our very first barbeque in celebration of Dafydd’s birthday, we watched, spellbound, as a hare slowly lollopped across the neighbouring field and then sat watching us for a few moments before continuing on its unhurried way. I suspect that it had been down to the stream to drink. We have a couple of ducks who are quite taken with our island and its surrounding channel, although they do not enjoy the dogs wild cavorting and tend to take off over the hedge in a flurry of feathers and noisy quacking whenever golden fur is even vaguely scented! All this firmly draws my attention to the fact that this land is already the home of so many wild animals, birds and insects and that we must really do our best to cause the least disruption… not easy when out of necessity one has to dig things up and chop things down to establish a viable environment for us all to enjoy. It never ceases to amaze me how accommodating and forgiving nature is when it comes to coping with the selfish thoughtless actions and blundering crass behaviour of humankind. Even in my joy at creating something new with the earth, it grieves me to realise just what a traumatic occurrence our coming must have been. This applies to all of us, wherever we go and whatever we do. We tread upon tiny lives, breaking and bruising plants – even the grass generously accepts our thoughtless abuse. I also realise that we are what we are and cannot help a lot of it… we have to walk, sit, lie, eat… but perhaps if we become more aware, and teach our children to be more aware too, then we can mitigate some of the damage we cause with loving attention, care and above all gratitude.