A Feast for the Senses
/
Connecting, or reconnecting for some, with nature is such a boon to our health and wellbeing. In these altered times when mental and physical heath are at the forefront of our minds, nature’s role in playing a major role cannot be underestimated.
I have found, as many I have spoken to have, that this lockdown has been harder; perhaps because of the winter weather, the frustration of not knowing how long it would go on for, or perhaps just a year of negative news, who knows, but walking locally every day has really helped clear my head when it felt fuzzy and woolly from being indoors too much and has in turn helped with my physical fitness too.
I have always loved being outside and in nature, but perhaps because I’ve had more time to walk; dawdle even, walking the same few local routes over and over again whilst trying to make them all a little different and really take notice of what’s around me, has meant a real appreciation of nature, its benefits, the memories it evokes and the comfort you can derive from those memories. A feast for the senses if you like.
SIGHT
The spring flowers are now everywhere in full force. Delicate pink and white blossom, lovely cheery daffodils, sweet little grape hyacinths, tiny wood violets, celandines and a few early tulips. Buds, shoots, berries and new green leaves are appearing everywhere. We have a west facing garden and have had some stunning sunsets this year and I spend a lot of time looking at the clouds which are really beautiful. We’ve found a field that has a proper old hedgerow running along the length of it, and it’s full of goldfinches, and I mean clouds of them. It’s lovely to sit and watch them flitting about like little embers on the breeze. Watching the birds on the feeders in the garden has been lovely and a flock of Redwings one Sunday was a real treat. We also have four resident Red Kites that glide overhead most of the time and they really are such beautiful birds.
SMELL
There’s a path we walk daily, across which the most gorgeous soft flowery scent wafts and I can never tell where it’s coming from but I love it. We stop and say hello to horses in the local fields and their comforting smell takes me back to my pony mad teens, working at the local riding stables. I love the smell of woodsmoke, pine woods (I have a pine scented candle on my desk that takes me straight to Christmas Day), the smell of a bluebell wood and the pungent and mouth watering wild garlic.
SOUND
I have really, genuinely found pleasure in birdsong this last year, perhaps because I’ve really listened, or maybe there’s less traffic so I can hear more clearly. To wake up to the sound of a robin in the tree outside my bedroom window instead of the shrillness of an alarm has been wonderful. We have seagulls overhead (even though we’re an hour from the coast) but the sound is so reminiscent of childhood summer holidays. The soft call of the wood pigeon instantly transports me back to my Granny’s house, my favourite skylarks (a wonderful discovery in a local field) takes me back to summer days on the high hills in my beloved and much missed Lake District. Geese honking to each other as they fly always reminds me of the end of summer and crows cawing, of midwinter.
TASTE
I remember sucking on a dead nettle flower as a kid to get that tiny hit of sweetness on my tongue and chewing the end of sweet, new grass. I’ve made nettle tea, used wild garlic in cooking, made crabapple jelly and damson jam from the garden trees and grow any number of herbs that I use in meals and drinks. We collected bags of juicy blackberries and fallen apples from the woods in the autumn and had lots of lovely hot winter puddings.
TOUCH
I’m always poking and prodding things on walks and picking things up; gnarled bark, soft moss, new leaves, sheep’s wool caught on a wire fence, smooth stones, twigs, pine cones, acorns, conkers, sweet chestnuts - all manner of things that are so tactile I can’t leave them alone. In the same way, I can’t resist stroking every dog or horse I meet or every cat arching its back to me on a wall.
The next time you’re out, it’s really worth looking around you with all your senses and taking pleasure and comfort in those smaller things that get us through the bigger things.
