Preserving - a new future
The damaged tree lives on....
I got a message to say that there were two Eucalyptus trees on the island damaged becuase of the storm. I could have wept. I jumped in the car off to see the damage for myself which was worse than I thought it would be - the autumn winds have arrived on the island and made their presence known. I gathered some of the damaged branches to take home in an attempt to preserve some of their beauty. Strpping the leaves made me reflect on just how much storm damage this small Scottish island has witnessed over the years. Pans boiling and the smell of Eucalyptus in the air and I started to feel a wee bit better. Hopefully, the trees can be saved and, meantime, I am making the most of the situation. A few hours later and I had eco printed some leaves onto paper for book making, dyed some fabric for an Arist book I am working on and made some ink. The dye bath used some of the bark that I found lying on the path as I approached the damaged tree.
I am lucky to have had this opportunity to give this tree a small future using skills that go back hundreds of years. Modern life has shifted away from this ‘closeness’ to the natural world and I think we are poorer for it. Making my own ink is one of my favourite things to do and is relatively easy and quick to achieve. Many pages in my sketchbook have been created with my own inks and a dried Iris stem that I use as a quill. I feel that these sorts of ‘immediate’ and ‘lasting’ connections with the natural world teach me so much about my place in it. It is the connectivity that is so important.
With my Patreon community we are keeping a commonplace book which is a place to record snippets of knowledge gained from others. I realised this week how little I knew about the very humble slug. Not a sexy species by any stretch of the imagination but, nevertheless, part of our world. This new found knowledge has led to a page in my nature journal called Slugs and Starlings and I will share that soon. I hope you find ways to ‘connect’ with the natural world that is meaningful and lasting. I would be so interested in what ways others ‘connect’ with the natural world in their daily lives. x
