Local patches, precious spaces and passing it on

A local wildlife blog is a celebration of the ways that nature touches us. In small and everyday details we are woven into our landscape and we have fitter hearts and minds and souls because of it. We forget at our peril.  Everyone has a local patch: garden, footpath, common ground, nature reserve or park. These are precious spaces to be treasured, linked-up and defended. We must explore them with our children, sharing with them a sense of wonder and nurturing inquiring minds. Use language and science and art. Feel grounded, stop and look, breathe deeply.

As soon as our children could stand, we encouraged them to hike. In waterproof suits and proper boots they toddled with us, splashing in puddles, falling in the mud, developing their nature vocabulary. They learned early the etiquette of the bird hide: approach respectfully, sit quietly, don't bang the doors and windows! Once they had grown up, it took me a long time to break the habit of collecting things, feathers and conkers and pebbles, when walking. But now the next generation has arrived and my pockets can be full of treasures to share again. 

Our son and daughter-in-law are both keen birdwatchers and so their baby boy has been brought up looking and listening and wondering. For now, they live thousands of miles away - where the Arabian Desert meets the Persian Gulf. Baby Arthur's early birding experiences are of Flamingos on the creek and Hoopoes in the parks. On weekly trips to the oasis he crawls and slides in the desert dunes. They hide in the shade of the bright thorn trees and look for Shrike, Bee-eater and Roller. He is learning a broad and rich nature vocabulary, and he already knows how to behave in a bird hide!

They will be home in the summer to escape the desert heat and I am looking forward to showing Arthur our cool, damp land. He needs a whole new vocabulary for green. There may even be an opportunity to introduce him our local, local patch - where the Great tits always nest in the tall ivy, there are newts in the pond, hedgehogs on the lawn, and bats hunting in the soft mothy night.

Happy first birthday Arthur: I wish you a blackbird's song from the garden at dusk; and the scent of a bluebell wood after the rain!