I normally rely on my bike for local trips to work or Durham but the truly freezing weather this last week or so has put me off – the risk of coming off the bike on a patch of ice in front of a car doesn’t seem a risk worth taking.  Because it was also too icy to contemplate much running, I decided walking to and from work was the obvious way to get some exercise – after all, plenty of people think nothing of an hour’s commute!  I don’t think of the bike as a mode of transport which particularly separates me from my environment but I was reminded this week of how much more I notice at walking pace.  The large group of birds in synchronous flight, which I first took to be a murmuration of starlings, turned out to be Fieldfare; when they landed on the field of winter cereals where I often see Lapwing, their distinctive black tails and chestnut backs were obvious. I usually see them in the hawthorn hedgerows up at Crowtrees Nature reserve, feasting on berries, but by this time of year the berries are past their best and seeds and soil invertebrates make up an important part of their diet.  I suppose their name is a bit of a giveway!

Another highlight of my walking week was walking along into town on a very sunny morning during the ‘golden hour’, when the sun was still low in the sky and the soft light made the trees on the riverbank glow.

This all reminded me how much I love moving through the landscape at walking pace and got me thinking about my nature challenge for the year.  Miles Richardson’s ‘Three good things in nature’ intervention (Richardson & Sheffield, 2017) is something I’ve used to justify encouraging my students’ participation the Botanical gardens volunteer group but, since work returned to ‘normal’ after the Covid pandemic, and seems busier than ever, I feel like my own good intentions have slipped; this seems a good time to reboot them.  The idea is that making time to find three things to bring joy every day is of huge benefit to mental health and that those benefits are even more apparent when those things are found outdoors, in nature.

With that in mind, I’m going to try and ensure that I do that for myself this year and will try and write a little about what I’ve found every week.  There will inevitably be lots of plants! This week’s surprise was the ‘pussy willow’ catkins already opening on the willow trees planted along the river to reduce erosion, seen on the same day as Knapweed heads coated in tiny ice crystals.  

Despite yesterday’s stormy weather I was able to venture out into the garden for a quick nature fix – it’s slowly coming back to life.  The first Snowdrops, Primroses, Hellebores and Lesser celandines have joined the Winter jasmine in flower now, in defiance of the unusually cold weather. Truly harbingers of spring and bringers of joy!

I’ve just finished reading Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien, a novel which explores the complexities of twentieth century Chinese history during and after the reign of Mao Zedong; the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, the Tiananmen Square protests and the subsequent crack-down by the Chinese Communist Party.  As the Canadian-Chinese narrator pieces together the history of her extended family, we get a fascinating insight into some of the history which has led to modern-day China.

We’re back to eating our more regular vegetarian fare, often prompted by recipes in the Guardian’s Saturday Feast magazine. Meera Sodha’s Burnt lime and black pepper tofu was particularly tasty, so will soon be repeated.

Richardson, M. & Sheffield, D. (2017). Three good things in nature: Noticing nearby nature brings sustained increases in connection with nature. Psyecology, 8(1), 1-32.