Garden Nature Blog - Virtual vs Real Living

Garden Nature Blog - Virtual vs Real Living

Whilst working at home, in between video conferencing, Zoom, Skype and Teams meetings across the virtual airwaves, I immerse myself in my little wild acre of garden. I describe it as ‘my wild corner’, rewilded by neglect, set aside for a bit of wildlife for over 20 years now. And it’s become the main story at the moment given the Government advice to stay at home.

I’m lucky enough to have big mature ash and sycamore at the top of a tiered south facing slope and there are old orchard trees and self-seeded gages and bullace. It looks a bit of a mess but to me it is my own personal wildwood. And it is stuffed with wild things. Over the years and even now we get everything and more you might expect in a semi -suburban garden.

We have been surprised in the past to see a weasel or a stoat now and then, hedgehogs and a fox, tawny and barn owls, woodpeckers and even a hawfinch. We also see the occasional lizard, several bat types and impressive insect life, different bumble bees and dragonflies, frogs and toads. 

Daily highlights include a nesting grey wagtail in the culvert out front who feeds on our   house roof; a small rookery with three nests so far, and in summer, usually from May 10th to August the 10th or there about, swifts dive bombing the street and nesting under the tiles.

In between these rather odd and unreal virtual chats, I nip outside and have an elongated hour here and there just to rewild myself and take in what is happening in the real, natural world.

Now I’m sat watching the black cat explore and hunt everything from butterflies to blackbirds not thankfully getting near any of them. She is adept at vole and mouse hunting but always brings them in for me to re-catch in the front room or kitchen, testing my hunting and gathering skills. She reminds me of a pine marten, in her habits of tree climbing and shadow-stealth ambush work. Like them, she becomes nature, experiencing the world as a completely 3D framework of branches and vegetation.

It is stunning today. I’ve just seen my first butterflies of the year. It’s warm, sunny and two peacocks and three tortoiseshells are twirling and suckling on dandelions and other flowers, all amongst the bright green of cow parsley and white froth of greengage.

There is a complete bird orchestra of song and sound. There’s the clacking and crowing of rooks nest building in our tallest ash. Across the road, there are blue tit, goldfinch, dunnock and noisy wren. Then there’s the bubbling and mimicking starling, the alarm calling blackbird, all outplayed by an enthusiastic newly arrived chiffchaff living up to its  onomatopoeic name. They’re joined on percussion by the triangle-like metallic ‘ching’ of grey wagtail and a robin on flute. A blackcap then tunnels out of the blossom to add a few lyrics. The rooks make a whole range of linguistic additions, an ongoing conversation of spring-tide busyness. You can see I’m not getting any work done any time soon with all this lot going on!

I got close to that chiffchaff yesterday as I sat still on stone steps leading up to the old pigsty; he came well within 2 metres, totally ignoring all social distancing rules. I wasn’t bothered and to see up close such a delicate flit of a bird, twisting and turning amongst tiny twigs, calling as it went, was a heart opening experience.

That is how it is at the moment, we might all be virtually connected as never before and living out electronic work place lives, but we are also able, at any time, to step out and take in natures’ wonder.

However frustrating it gets when the tech lets us down, when we can’t get through, or when we can’t quite make the links we need to in our distance working, nature can help us. As we try to do our best in challenging circumstances, even without a big wild garden, you can step outside and look at the sky and listen for birds and instantly get a work-life balance.  IT makes you focus on the nature that is all around us more than usual in our microcosmic isolation. More episodes of Garden Nature Blog to come...