I’ve come to the end of my year of trying to consciously notice three good things in nature every day and have found it a rewarding experience, although trying to write a weekly blog about it has been challenging at times. As always, there is a tension between making time to be outdoors in nature and finding time to write, especially when work or family life is busy. 

Finding new things to notice is easy in spring, when signs of renewed life seem to appear every day, but harder in winter when nothing much seems to change for long periods. That’s when looking carefully becomes important, though. I had a timely reminder of this, completing the BSBI’s New Year Plant Hunt.  The weather over the three days allocated for the hunt this year has been pretty dire, meaning I’ve not had a chance to go anywhere botanically interesting, but I took the chance of a fine spell of weather to go for a short walk from home, sure I’d find little in flower as I’ve not noticed anything much on recent walks or runs.  But I was wrong – an hour or so of walking purposefully and I had eight species in flower to add to the national data set:  Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna), Dandelion (Taraxacum agg.), Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris), Hogweed (Heracleum spondylium), White Dead-nettle (Lamium album), Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens), Common Daisy (Bellis perennis) and Hazel catkins (Corylus avellana). The last were the biggest surprise!

Last week I was back in Kirkcudbright for Christmas and didn’t notice much in flower there on my morning runs, but now suspect I would have, if I’d been looking more closely – a lesson to remember on my next trip.  I did enjoy the bare shoots of Willow and Dogwood by the roadside glowing red in even the weakest of sunshine and the sound of Curlew and Oystercatchers as I ran along the river. 

On our ‘fake Boxing Day’ we had a lovely walk along the beach at South Shields, enjoying little groups of iridescent starlings, fabulous blue skies and watching brave surfers and on Saturday I had a cold but beautiful row, with pockets of mist hanging over the river.  So I have manged to get some valuable time in nature, despite the Christmas and New Year festivities! My resolution for 2025 is to do better at making time when I’m busy, especially when the weather is poor.

What have I learned this year? First of all, how fortunate I am to have access to such amazing natural environments around my home and workplace.  There is really excuse for not getting my nature fix every day! Some of my observations this year can’t really be called ‘good things in nature, though; I found a worrying dearth of moths both in my garden and in Silverdale, compared to the previous couple of years, matching the year-by-year declines recorded in all pollinating insects.  Also, lovely as it is to see plants in flower at any time of the year, the unseasonable blooming of some this winter has worrying implications for the insects and other animals with which they interact.  

On a more positive note, though, students told me loudly and clearly about the benefits of being part of the Student Friends of the Botanic Gardens volunteer group and I’m hoping to be heading up a new field trip for our third year students from next year, with a focus on rewilding.  I can’t wait to get back to Switzerland this summer for some more alpine botanising!

In the garden the first snowdrops are close to flowering and the buds on the Willow at the end of the garden are visibly swelling, so there is lots to look forward to.

I’ve been reading, and listening to on my travels, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa; a gentle tale about the power of love and books to heal the broken-hearted. I’ve also read The Serviceberry, by indigenous American author Robin Wall Kimmerer, a short but deeply moving and thought-provoking book, which I’m going to need to come back to.  It asks the question, “What if we operated an economy where we regarded what Earth provides us with as a gift, rather than something we are entitled just to take?” Would this affect our attitude to natural resources and how they should be shared to encourage mutual flourishing of both our neighbours and the environment, in a way long practised by indigenous peoples?  Is there any way we can scale up some of those ideas to help us mitigate biodiversity loss and the worst ravages of climate change?  So much to think about!

The culinary highlight of the week for me, as a vegetarian, was the Cauliflower wellington we ate on New Year’s eve, rather than Christmas dinner.  A little bit of a fiddle but delicious, and definitely worth repeating!  So was the tart of marzipan and plums on puff pastry, glazed with a clementine syrup….