I’d like to begin this post by saying thank you so much to everyone who read my last bit of writing about The Nature of Grief. I’m so pleased that it struck a chord with so many of you, thank you for all of your kind comments.
Often I forget that I’m allowed to grieve for the loss of my dad, and I try to push through it all so that I can get things done, but nature always reminds me of him and it reminds me that I can slow down and just appreciate the calmness and slowness of the world around me. The fact that I’m surrounded by wildlife all the time really helps to ground me and bring me into the present.
Although sometimes being so immersed in so much wildlife
can be a bit extreme. For example, the other night there was a frog sitting by
the bathroom door when I got out of the shower! (I think it was waiting it’s
turn.) And the alarming thing was that I didn’t even question why there was a
frog in my house! I just scooped him up in a jug and had a chat with him whilst
we walked back to the pond. This is what happens when you have grown up with
Dylan as your dad!
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| The frog who was waiting outside the bathroom for me! |
Now, onto the main reason for this post, the night time happenings in the garden…
I can often be found in my garden at night time, watching the bats circling the house, listening to the tawny owls and foxes that I’m lucky enough to have in and around the garden, and looking up at the moon and stars.
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| Full moon in Aquarius 29.07.26 |
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| Hummingbird hawk-moth |
There is something about the night time in nature that brings me a huge sense of
comfort. Lots of people I know are scared of the dark, but myself and my
children revel in it. I have a lot of fond memories of being out in the wild at
night with my dad, watching badgers, camping by fishing lakes, or maybe just
walking back from the pub! And my own children love to go out for walks at
night, even in the winter.
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| Our resident garden hedgehog |
Over the last few very hot summer days, I’ve been outside at night a lot, and I’ve managed to encounter all sorts of creatures. My most favourite of all is definitely our resident garden hedgehog, who wanders around seemingly unbothered by my presence or my smartphone camera.
This hedgehog has been in my garden for a good few months and is doing an excellent job of keeping the slugs from eating my vegetables. It likes to wander between my garden and my neighbours’ garden, snuffling through the plants, looking for food, and it has been known to wander right up to my feet.
I know that I am extremely lucky to have such a special creature sharing my space and I try to do as much as I can to keep it happy and safe. I have a hedgehog house in the garden that my dad built, but so far it has remained empty apart from the hay that I have filled it with. I need to find a good location for it, and hopefully it will be put to good use in the winter.
I don’t really know much about hedgehogs, so if anyone
out there would like to give me any advice, please feel free to do that. We
have hedges running the full length of our garden, both sides, and access to
water in a pond with shallow, sloping sides. The garden is full of slugs and
insects and plenty of hiding places. If there is anything else I could do to
keep this hedgehog happy, please do let me know.
There’s not much else to report at the moment, we are all recovering from a
busy end to the academic year, and also my sons are playing so many gigs, we
are a bit run off our feet. Thankfully the garden always provides us with space
to relax and unwind day and night.
So for now I will leave you with the news that this blog has now had over 2
million hits. 2140240 to be precise. That’s over half a million since dad’s
final post on Christmas Eve last year.
Benno and I are so proud of all his hard work on this blog, and we are aware of
the huge responsibility that writing this blog puts on us. I hope we can do him
justice; we will certainly do our best.
