Breathing in the Green on my Daily Walk
Where I greeting the plants, flowers and trees like friends
Dear fellow nature lovers,
How have you all been? Have you been out, soaking up the green before autumn paints everything a different colour? This week, after a summer of disruption, I have finally resumed my daily walk, and it feels great. I wonder how many of you take a regular walk or try and carve out some time in green spaces some other way? And I wonder how many of you try and visit the same place when you do this?
For me it has become a ritual. I set off with the intention of walking quickly and initially my pace is informed by the weather. Outward, I am facing east and the morning sun can be strong. This speeds me up, but as soon as I hit the green tunnel leading to the pond I find I begin to meander. On an overcast day I am very slow, bumbling along I find myself wondering why I take such great pleasure in all this greenery? And why I like to see the same plants and trees every day?
Over the summer, I found I was missing my green friends. I do wonder sometimes about the fairies and little grey men in stories I read as a child. Were the writers doing what I do and anthropomorphising? I find it hard not to attribute human characteristics to plants and trees. I speak to them, I am happy to see them in the mornings, they have character and personality. Reading Cecily Mary Barker’s Flower Fairy series, it’s clear that she has created her characters based on the nature and attributes of the plants they represent, and her poems are clearly love letters to the flowers she portrays so beautifully. Me - I like to see how they grow, I check to see which plants still flower and which are slowly withering their way back into the soil. Invariably I spot gems which inspire me, take many pictures and come back with little found and foraged bits and pieces - only collecting tiny elements and only plants which are plentiful.
So I was glad to be back! Forced (by my own hand) to pick just one flower as a favourite at this time of year, it would have to be convolvulus arvensis, Hedge Bindweed. Contentious, perhaps, but irresistible in its elegant simplicity and so voracious in its appetites. Bindweed is busily winding itself (always anti clockwise) around everything in its path. It threads its way through hawthorn hedges and clambers up the trees, cloaking them in rich green leaves and wonderful white trumpets. On a mission, whether travelling upwards to reach the sky or taking a circuitous route downwards, through the undergrowth to plumb the depths, bindweed wants to hit the outer limits whichever way it travels. Draping curtains of deep verdure dotted with luminous flowers it is my belief that every plant has its place and its time, and bindweed is here to blanket the plants of summer, their time is over, they must return to the earth.
Also catching my eye this week - the Common Mallow, a relation of the far more showy Hibiscus and cottage garden favourite Hollyhock - all of the Malvaceae family. The leaves catch my eye more than the flowers, I imagine recreating them using origami folds. I am also drawn to the Spear Thistle, stately and strong. The leaves are a botanical marvel, recreating them using paper and wire requires skills which I’m not even sure how to name - architectural? technical? engineering? As with most thistles, the heavily protected flower heads are surprisingly fragrant - if you an get close enough - and a magnet for insects. Spear thistles are individuals, and I know where they grow on the path that I walk. Earlier this year, the waysides were mown and a particularly impressive individual was hacked down. It sounds violent because it was!
The downside of an emotional connection to nature is dealing with these losses - a talking point this week with the criminal destruction of the iconic tree at Sycamore Gap, by Hadrian’s Wall. Understanding what drives a child to do such a thing is difficult and complex, but then again I also struggle to understand why local councils make bad decisions such as agreeing to felling neighbourhood trees as happened in March 2023 in both Plymouth and Sheffield. Perhaps the national outcry and the unnecessary loss of the Sycamore will facilitate a better understanding of the importance and relevance of neighbourhood trees - our local icons - to our collective mental health.
Looking closely always helps me. I did a flower count this week and comparing my findings to this time last year was interesting1. More than ten additional flowers were spotted this year, but despite the increase some of last years flowers were absent. Meadowsweet (which I was very surprised to find in flower last September) and Goatbeard - again, a very late flower for this plant. This year, I spotted a hemlock in flower - and a cow parsley - identifying these late bloomers can be tricky but as I have watched the hemlock so closely this year and it has been so abundant, I knew who was growing where.
What do you do, then, to connect with nature, and does it help you? What friends have you made amongst the plants and trees you visit? Because I am sure it’s not just me!
Until next time, and thanks for reading. Ling x
Discover the art of paper flower making for yourself and join my evening class group! Classes start on Thursday 5th October at my studio in Hoylake and run for 8 weeks (with a break for half term on 26th October). Each class runs from 7pm - 9pm and all tools - and a goody box of materials - are provided. We’ll explore all the key techniques for creating these fascinating paper botanicals and you’ll have access to all my knowledge and experience and my library of paper craft books and botanical inspiration! A deposit of £60 secures your space and materials and the just £13 per class thereafter.
If you want to know: 27th September 2023: dandelion, white clover, groundsel, ragwort, hedge bindweed, yarrow, hogweed, bistort, spear thistle, creeping thistle, mugwort, greater willow herb, yorkshire fog, red champion, nettle, herb robert, ribwort plantain, common mallow corn mint, nipplewort, white bramble, herb bennet, green alkanet, pink bramble, black horehound, hemlock, ground elder, ivy, wild carrot, honeysuckle, doves foot cranesbill, buddleia, buttercup, creeping tormentil, melancholy thistle, all seed, red clover, hawkweed, wild rocket, cocksfoot, crested dogstail, cow parsley
23rd September 2022 - all italicised above plus: meadowsweet, false oat grass, greater plaintain, chamomile, goatsbeard, red dead nettle, white campion, sowthistle